An Exploratory Study On The Construction Of Personal Learning Environment By Pre-College English Learners:a Connectivism Approach

For a long time, researches on personal learning environment (PLE) have attracted wide attention in the distant education field. However, PLE studies aiming at pre-college students in foreign language teaching field are relatively inadequate. The present research, with reference to Connectivism Learning Theory, adopting the qualitative method, studies pre-college students'PLE construction based on triangulated data:online observation notes, WeChat backstage data, and semi-structured interview notes.This study firstly conducts non-participant observation of 163 pre-college students who participate in WeChat mini-course, then interviews 6 students with different attendance rates and finally obtains 9 affecting factors of PLE construction and in light of the four elements (people, resource, instrument, service) of Connectivism Learning Theory with the support of information technology, classifies the factors into three categories:communication and collaboration, network environment factors (teacher's roles, online resources, online learning facilities) and individual learners factors (self-efficacy, motivation, volition, target-setting, capability of information process), and puts forward a PLE conceptual framework. This conceptual framework indicates that with the support of information technology, effective communication and collaboration is conducive to the improvement of dimensions in network environment factors and enhancement of dimensions in individual learners factors; the positive interaction between network environment factors and individual learners factors positively promotes effective communication and collaboration.This thesis is instructive for college students'PLE construction and provides inspirations for college English teachers to better guide and supervise students.