A Study On Grade Eight English Reading Teaching From The Perspective Of Scaffolding Theory

Reading is an important means to obtain information,and improving reading ability is an important content in junior middle school English reading teaching.However,the present situation of junior high school students’ English reading teaching is not optimistic.Under the traditional English teaching model,the junior middle school students’ reading interest is not great,and their reading ability is not obviously improved.Scaffolding Theory requires the teacher to find the students’ “Zone of Proximal Development” to build the learning scaffolds,and to lead the students to a higher level of development.Scaffolding Theory is of practical significance,as it can be applied in junior middle school English reading teaching to solve the main problems in teaching.Grade Eight is an important stage in junior middle school English teaching,and thus it is especially worthy of attention.For this reason,the present thesis takes Lushan Middle School of Sichuan Province as a case to study teaching English reading to Grade Eight under the guidance of Scaffolding Theory.The thesis attempts to answer the following two main questions:1.Can the application of Scaffolding Theory in English reading teaching to Grade Eight improve the students’ interest and reading ability?2.How to optimize teaching English reading to Grade Eight under the guidance of Scaffolding Theory?This thesis explains the purpose,significance and structure of this study.It talks about the definitions and historical development of Scaffolding Theory and the relationship between reading and scaffolding teaching.It introduces Scaffolding Theory.The thesis selects two parallel classes of Grade Eight at Lushan Middle School in Sichuan Province as Control Class and Experimental Class to conduct the contrastive experiment teaching.Control Class adopts the traditional reading teaching model,that is,“word,grammar,practice”,while Experimental Class employs Scaffolding Teaching Model.Questionnaire,Test and Interview are used to collect and process the data in the course of the experiment.Meanwhile,a case study is introduced to analyze and explain the process and result of the experiment.The thesis analyzes Questionnaire survey,Pre-test and Post-test data and Interview results.It is found that Scaffolding Theory in teaching can stimulate the students’ interest in English learning and thus improve their reading ability.The thesis puts forward “Seven Links & Five Fulcrums” which are suitable for grade eight English reading teaching.“Seven Links” refers to Pre-class Preparation,Building Scaffolds,Entering the Scene,Independent Exploration,Cooperative Learning,Review and Consolidation,and Effect Evaluation,and “Five Fulcrums” refers to Topic,Cultural Knowledge,Method Guidance,Text Content,and Students’ Performance.The thesis concludes with the findings,lists the implications and the limitations of this study,and provides suggestions for the future study.