A Study of Upper and Lower Secondary School Students’ Difficulties with Language in Using the Internet for Independent Learning

Abstract

This action research aims to examine how language influences secondary school learners’ Internet use. It also compares the findings between different levels of secondary school students in terms of linguistic difficulties, learners’ level of interest, and their process of learning. The subjects were five M.2 learners and four M.5 learners at Surasakmontree School. The two groups participated in a small-scale project using the Internet for retrieving information of their own interest. Follow-up questionnaires and semi-structured interviews were employed to collect data. The information obtained from the study indicated that lower level students had more difficulty concerning vocabulary and background knowledge. However, learners’ level of interest, needs of psychological and methodological preparation and their process of learning were not much different. The findings reveal that the learners can make use of information technology with proper support from the teacher to serve their individual learning purpose.