The Influence Of Scaffolding-based Lexical Teaching(SBLT) Upon Senior High School Students’ Vocabulary Learning

In middle schools’ English classes,teachers usually adopt behaviorist vocabulary teaching methodology to help students memorize words,which simply presents and explains target words one by one through vocabulary lists.Yet it has been found that this approach is not efficient enough for improving learners’ vocabulary learning efficiency.A new approach is developing fast,which is referred to scaffolding-based lexical teaching(SBLT).It is advocated that this approach can greatly facilitate EFL vocabulary teaching and learning.The purpose of the present study is to examine the efficiency of scaffolding-based lexical teaching in facilitating senior high school students’ vocabulary learning.To achieve this purpose,the following research questions are to be answered: 1)Whether the SBLT approach influence senior high school students’ English vocabulary achievements? 2)How does the SBLT approach influence their English vocabulary achievements? 3)Whether the SBLT approach influence their vocabulary learning strategies? 4)How does the SBLT approach influence their vocabulary learning strategies?To answer the four questions,an experiment was conducted.Specifically,in the experiment,the lexical teaching procedures was designed based on He Kekang’s scaffolding-based teaching model and lasted for 17 weeks.And 62 senior high school students from Chang’an No.9 middle school were chosen as subjects.Pre & post tests on English vocabulary achievements and learning strategies were conducted to collect data before and after the pedagogical treatment.Using SPSS 19.0,paired samples tests were applied to examine the results of the tests.Findings of the present study can be summarized as: 1)Scaffolding-based lexical teaching can enhance senior high school students’ English vocabulary achievements;2)The specific changes in students’ English vocabulary achievements is mainly reflected in improving students’ ability of guessing the meaning of vocabulary fromcontext,using vocabulary flexibly in specific context,as well as matching words forms and meanings accurately;3)Scaffolding-based lexical teaching can help them master effective vocabulary learning strategies;4)The specific changes in students’ vocabulary learning strategies is mainly reflected in increasing the frequency of the application of metacognitive,cognitive,compensation,emotional and social vocabulary learning strategies.However,the influence on memory and determination strategies is not significant.Implications for lexical pedagogy are: 1)teachers should construct lexical scaffolding in accordance with students’ background knowledge and cultivate students’ autonomous learning competence;2)teachers ought to encourage students to cooperate with others in the process of vocabulary learning;3)regular self-evaluations should be conducted by students to optimize their vocabulary learning processes.