An Application Of Scaffold Theory In High School English Writing Teaching

Writing is the important reflect of students’comprehensive skills in the study ofEnglish and writing teaching occupies an important position in English teaching.Nevertheless, in the English teaching of high schools English writing is always aweak link of students’English study and still there are lots of issues in English writingteaching. So combining the teaching steps of scaffolding instruction with Englishwriting teaching practice of high schools, the main approaches and steps of Englishwriting teaching based on scaffold theory are explored in this paper. In the teachingprocess, the teacher motivates students and helps them improve their writing abilitiesby creating different scaffolds to students. This paper emphasizes that writingteaching should be step by step and highlights the dominant position of students,which have positive significance towards new research on English writing teaching ofhigh school.This paper is divided into five chapters. The first chapter is literature review. Itmainly summarizes the study status of English writing teaching at home and abroadand the research situation of the scaffold theory. Different writing teaching approachesare introduced including product approach process approach genre approachcontent-based approach and task-based approach. The research methods researchcontent and specific teaching methods in English writing teaching of these years arereviewed with regard to the domestic research of writing teaching.The second chapter is about theoretical foundation. It chiefly presents the originof scaffold theory the definition of scaffolding theory and the connotation ofscaffolding theory. The guidelines and basic steps of scaffolding instruction are alsointroduced.The third chapter is the teaching experiment of English writing based on scaffoldtheory. Combining the teaching practice with basic steps of scaffolding instruction,the author firstly introduces the general procedures and methods of English writingteaching based on scaffold theory which include dividing groups, providing supportabout skills and strategies of English writing, creating context, educing writing theme, exchanging and collaborating with the way of brainstorming, presenting requirementsof writing exercise, instructing students to write an outline, students starting writingfirst drafts by themselves and teacher providing scaffolding of assessment. Meanwhilethe author presents a teaching case of English writing.Chapter four relates to the collection and analysis of experimental data includingdata collection and analysis of pre-test and post-test and data collection and analysisof questionnaires. According to the analysis results of pre-test and post-test, it isinferred that experimental class’s writing scores have been improved obviously whilethe comparative class’s writing scores have no distinct change. All the results showthat English writing teaching approach of high schools based on scaffold theory ismore favorable to improve students’writing level than traditional English writingteaching approach. According to the questionnaires, the author also finds this teachingmodel can promote students’writing motivation and improve their interests andconfidence. So students can accept this teaching method.The last chapter is conclusion and revelation. Benefits and limitations ofscaffolding instruction are summed up. The research shows that the English writingteaching approach based on scaffold theory are advantageous to improve students’writing ability and writing level. Compared with traditional model, this model canprompt students’writing motivation, increase their writing interests, develop theirpotential and improve teaching effect more. No teaching model is perfect so theshortage and inspiration of this research are also shown in the last chapter.In conclusion, adopting the scaffold theory to instruct high school students’English writing can help students understand writing learn writing and solve writingproblems. Consequently, students can reduce the confusion and ignorance towardsEnglish writing. The author hopes that this research can be useful towards Englishwriting teaching of high schools. Because of the limited knowledge of the author andother factors’influence, the research still has many defects and the scaffolding theoryapplied to English writing teaching of high schools needs to be explored further.