A Study On Multimedia Scaffolding Instruction In Vocational College English Reading Teaching

The teaching of English reading is an important part in vocational English teaching. One objective of English teaching is to improve students’ reading proficiency. However, the situation of English reading teaching is not so satisfying in most vocational colleges. Therefore, it is essential for vocational college teachers to find some efficient teaching methods to improve students’ reading proficiency.The scaffolding instructional model is to help students probe into knowledge learning independently, and achieve the construction of knowledge and information finally by constructing a series of appropriate conceptual frameworks and concrete teaching circumstances. Moreover, many studies show that multimedia computers, considered as a tool, holds great potential for language education. However, in China very few empirical researches have been employed on multimedia scaffold instruction in the field of English reading teaching in vocational schools. Therefore, this paper mostly tries to apply the scaffolding instruction and multimedia computers to the reading teaching in vocational colleges, aiming to discuss the following focuses of the study:1. Multimedia scaffolding instructioncontributes to vocational school students’better performance in their English reading.2. Multimedia scaffolding instruction can improve students’ cooperative attitudes to English reading learning.This study mainly adopts the combination of the quantitative and the qualitative methods. The experiment lasted for one semester (16weeks),64students were chosen randomly in Grade One of Jinzhou Teachers’ Training School, Liaoning Province and the students were divided into experimental class, which adopted scaffolding instruction and the control class, which employed the traditional method.A pre-test and a post-test papers were given in both the experimental class and the control class at the beginning of the experiment and at the end of the experiment. Besides, a questionnaire was carried out in the control class and the experimental class to inquire into the students’ cooperative attitudes to English reading learning before the experiment. At the end of the research, learners in the experimental class were survey by using a questionnaire and an interview so as to obtain the learners’ cooperative attitudes to English reading learning after the implementation of scaffolding instruction. Software SPSS17.0was used to test the date from the experiment. Independent Samples Test and Paired Samples Test were adopted.The results of data analysis from pre-test and post-test indicate that multimedia scaffolding instruction can cultivate the learners’ reading capabilities, which is better than traditional reading teaching method. Meanwhile, the results of analysis from questionnaire and interview demonstrate that scaffolding instruction can enhance students’cooperative attitudes to English reading learning.