Effects Of Scaffolding Instruction On College English Writing

There exist many problems in the current college English writing teaching in China. How to help students improve their writing ability and how to update the current teaching approach have become very challenging tasks for the college English teachers. So it is necessary to try more teaching approaches and then find more efficient ones in college English writing teaching.Scaffolding instruction is one of the three popular instruction modes based on the constructivism theory. This instruction has been proved to be very effective in teaching and it has become very popular in western countries. But in China very few empirical studies have been carried out on the scaffolding instruction, especially in the field of college English writing teaching. Most of the related studies are just limited in the scope of the theory analysis; and they also lack deep analysis on the process of scaffolding instruction applied in writing teaching. Above all, they do not answer this question: In which aspects does the scaffolding instruction improve English writing effectively? Therefore, this study attempts to find the answers to the following questions:1. What are the effects of scaffolding instruction on the learners'English writing? In which aspects does it improve the learners'writing effectively?2. What are the learners'attitudes towards scaffolding instruction? Does scaffolding instruction motivate the learners'interest in English writing?This study mainly conducted an experiment to test the effects of scaffolding instruction on college English writing. In the experimental class the scaffolding instruction was applied and in the control class the product approach was adopted. Pre-test papers and post-test papers were used before the experiment and at the end of the experiment. At the end of the study a questionnaire and an interview were also adopted in the experimental class in order to get the information on the learners'attitudes towards scaffolding instruction and their interest in writing. The data from the pre-test and post-test were processed by software SPSS.13.0. Independent Samples Test and Paired Samples Test were used. The data from the questionnaire and interview were also analyzed.Results show that scaffolding instruction can effectively improve the learners writing in the aspects of"total score","content","wording"and"organization". However, in"grammar"and"coherence"aspects scaffolding instruction is less effective than the product approach; Most of the learners show very positive attitudes to the scaffolding instruction; the learners'interest in English writing is motivated to a great extent.Although the present study has some limitations, still it may help the college English teachers have a deeper and better understanding of the scaffolding instruction and its application in writing teaching from the empirical point of view. The author hopes the results of the present study can provide certain reference for further study on scaffolding instruction in China.