Applictaion Of Scaffolding In EFL Classrooms Of Young Learners-improving Elementary School Pupils’ English Proficiency

Over the past few decades, second language acquisition researchers have beenstudying how language learners learn. They have approached it from differentteaching methodologies and have proposed various learning hypotheses—input,interactive, cognitive, processing and output. As China’s English education hasadopted traditional teaching methods for a long time which focus on grammar andvocabulary teaching or are test score centered, various shortcomings have beenidentified, such as "dumb English” among English learners who can only read Englishbut cannot speak fluently. Thus, English language teachers in China have begun toexplore ways in which English can be learnt effectively in the classroom context.This thesis addresses both theoretical and pedagogical concerns. The studyinvestigates how to apply the scaffolding theory in the EFL classrooms of younglearners with the purpose of improving elementary school pupils’ English proficiency.It is found that the teaching methods designed under the theory of scaffolding canpromote language learning and the zone of proximal development (ZPD) in particular.The thesis also presents several ways to design scaffolding teaching methods for EFLclassrooms in elementary schools. More importantly, from the research results, theyoung learners can grasp language points more easily and accurately by using theappropriate scaffolding strategies. Thus, it can be concluded that scaffolding teachingmethods can facilitate and improve pupils’ English proficiency when compared to thetraditional Chinese teaching methods.Finally, it is hoped that the thesis will make some contribution to the promotionof effective English teaching methods in elementary schools.