Research On Excellent Teachers’ Use Of Scaffolding In Reading Classroom Interaction In Senior High School

Reading teaching is indispensable in foreign language teaching,and scaffolding in reading classroom interaction is essential.For example,it can promote reading ability and create a good atmosphere.However,some problems need to be solved in reading classroom interaction,for example,teachers do not construct effective scaffolding for students’ in-depth reading,or they tell students knowledge directly.Therefore,it is necessary and important to explore how teachers(especially excellent teachers)construct effective scaffolding in reading classroom interaction and effects of scaffolding on students.This study integrates Van de Pol et al(2010)’s research on types and functions of scaffolding and Ge(2015)’s research on reading dimensions and then establishes analytical frameworks for teachers’ scaffolding in reading classroom interaction.Based on these frameworks,this study analyzes how excellent teachers use scaffolding and how scaffolding effects students by answering the following three questions:1)What are conversational features of scaffolding in excellent teachers’ classroom interaction in reading instruction?2)How do excellent teachers use scaffolding in reading instruction?3)What are the effects of scaffolding on students in excellent teachers’ reading instruction?This study firstly conducted a questionnaire survey on the use of scaffolding among middle school English teachers in Hangzhou.Based on this,four English teachers who competed in Teaching Competition of Senior High English Class in Zhejiang Province were chosen as research subjects.Methods of questionnaire,interview,classroom observation are employed,and conversation analysis is used to analyze the data of scaffolding in reading classroom interaction.The research results show the new findings that,from the perspective of CA,scaffolding in excellent teachers’ classroom interaction has obvious conversational features.That is,“hint” mainly appears in the turn-taking,“recast” mainly appears in the sequencing and “expand and recast” mainly appear in the repair.After observing teaching clips,it would be easy to find that some use preferences of 7 means of scaffolding(feedback,expand,recast,hint,explain,demonstrate,and instruct)in four different scales of reading teaching.Moreover,unlike the stereotype that help in scaffolding is from the most level to least level,the levels of help are always from the least level to most level.Finally,the scaffolding excellent teachers provide in the reading classroom would support students’ language development,meta-cognitive development,cognitive development,and affective development.Based on these,this research provides implications for teachers in reading class in senior high school.Teachers should enrich types of scaffolding such as “expand” and“hint” in the language and strategy teaching,change the way they control the conversation and give more chances to students,and consider the suitable order of using the scaffolding in classroom interaction carefully.