The Impact of Personal Learning Environments on Chinese Junior High School Students' Spoken English Narrative Competence

Abstract

This study designed and implemented a personal learning environment platform for spoken English teaching in a junior high school in China to improve students' spoken English narrative competence. Altogether, 83 junior high school year one students took part in this study. The participants were divided into experimental and control classes for the two-month-long experiment. The personal learning environment-based spoken English platform was implemented in the experimental class, while the control class used traditional face-to-face instruction. Pre- and post-spoken English tests and semistructured interviews were used in the study. The data analysis revealed that PLEs has the potential to boost students' learning motivation and enthusiasm and improve their spoken English narrative performance as well. This study advanced practical research of PLEs in junior high school and enhanced the theoretical research in spoken English teaching.