The Application Of Scaffolding Instruction To Senior English Reading Teaching

English is an important subject in senior high school. Among the four skills of languagelearning, reading is the most important. There are specific requirements of class reading andextra-curricular reading in the new National Standard of English Curriculum. Senior highschool students are requested to reach a higher level in English reading, but in reality, highschool English teaching is faced with many difficulties and problems and the situation ofstudents’ reading is not satisfactory, which affects students’ English learning and their intereststo a large extent. One of the contributing factors for this phenomenon is traditional teachingmode, which is dominated by teachers’ explanations. Students accept knowledge passively andtheir enthusiasm can’t be inspired effectively and their learning potential can’t be fully tapped.In order to improve the current situation, it is necessary for us to change the traditionalteaching mode, making students the main body of learning. And scaffolding instruction, basedon constructive learning concept, is an important teaching method, which takes place withinstudents’ zone of proximal development. It takes students as the main learning body, and is aninnovation to the interaction between teaching and students’ English reading learning.Considering all the above, a one-term experiment on the application of scaffolding instructionto senior English reading teaching was conducted aiming to survey its feasibility andeffectiveness.Based on the current English reading teaching conditions in senior high schools, the writeradopted the way of the empirical study. The experiment was conducted in No.2High School ofJinan for a semester. The subjects are two classes in Grade One which were taught by the writer.One was the experimental class and the other the control class. Scaffolding instruction wasapplied in the experimental class that took the students as the main learning body. Learnerswere provided a conceptual framework to gain knowledge first helped by teachers and thenindependently. Individuals were involved in the learning activities actively to constructknowledge. The traditional teaching mode was adopted in the control class, which is dominatedby teachers’ explanation. The study was intended to find out whether the application of scaffolding instruction tosenior English reading teaching can promote the students’ English reading proficiency and theirinterest in English learning.In the process of the experiment, the writer used questionnaires, tests and observation asinstruments to get the required data. The data gathered from the experiment were analyzedscientifically by SPSS and Excel.After a semester’s empirical study, the students in the experimental class that adoptedscaffolding instruction made great progress in English reading and their interest in Englishlearning was stimulated effectively, while the students in the control class that was taught bytraditional teaching mode made indistinctive improvement. The experiment proves that theapplication of scaffolding instruction to senior English reading teaching can improve Englishreading teaching feasibly and effectively.This research offers some implications to senior English reading teaching, hoping thescaffolding instruction can be better employed to improve students’ reading proficiency.However, some difficulties and limitations still exist in the specific implementation process,which remain to be adjusted and improved in combination with the practice of teaching.