A Study On The Impact Of Scaffolding Instruction On Vocational Institute EFL Learners’ English Receptive Skills

With the global development of the social economy, English is attracting moreand more attention as an international language. Hence, research on English teachingis becoming a heated topic. English skills can be simply classified into two parts,receptive skills and productive skills. Receptive skills include listening and readingwhile writing and speaking belong to productive skills. Qualified output requiresqualified input, which asks for an effective teaching method to improve learners’English receptive skills.The concept of “scaffolding” has its origin in constructivism theory,psychologist Vygotsky’s works and early language learning studies. Constructiviststake the concept of “scaffolding” metaphorically from the construction industry.Scaffolding instruction is a process of providing help in solving problems. Theteacher (or a more capable peer student) provides scaffolds within the students’ Zoneof Proximal Development so that students can solve the problems under the guidanceof the teacher (or a more capable peer student), construct their own knowledge indealing with similar problems and finally obtain the ability to manage them alone.Simultaneously, the scaffolds are withdrawn gradually. The main procedures aresetting up scaffolds, creating question situation, exploring independently, learningcollaboratively and evaluating the effect. In this study, a teaching experiment isconducted for two terms (36weeks). Scaffolding teaching method is adopted invocational institute’s English class to examine its effects on cultivating students’English receptive skills, so as to find a more suitable method to nurture and improvestudents’ English receptive skills and offer another choice of teaching method forEnglish teachers in vocational institute.First of all, the purpose and significance of this study is stated in this thesis. Besides, the related theoretical and practical research on scaffolding instruction andEnglish receptive skills home and abroad is illustrated. The subjects of the experimentare94students from two freshmen classes of non-English majors in a Chinesevocational institute. They are similar to each other in English learning periods, ageand education background, which does not result in significant difference in thepre-test. It means, prior to the experiment, the two classes are at the same level.During the experiment, through a random selection, one class serves as theexperimental one and the other as the control one. The scaffolding instruction methodis adopted in the experimental class whereas the traditional grammar-translationmethod is applied in the control class. After the teaching experiment, a post-test isconducted in both classes. The data collected in the two tests are analyzed with thesoftware SPSS19.0. Then questionnaires are released to all participants to gathertheir opinions on the current teaching method. Simultaneously, interviews are givento ten students from each class, namely, five high-achievers and five low-achievers inthe post-test.In this study, it is found that both classes have made some progress in theirEnglish receptive skills including listening skills and reading skills after two terms oflearning through the paired samples T tests, which indicates that both teachingmethods, namely scaffolding instruction method and traditional grammar-translationmethod, contribute to improving learners’ English receptive skills. In addition, theincrease of the experimental class is slightly more than that of the control class inEnglish listening skills, while it is much more in English reading skills.Simultaneously, as reflected in the results of the independent samples T tests, theexperimental class performs much better than the control one in English receptiveskills. According to data collected by questionnaires and interviews, students of theexperimental class accept the scaffolding instruction method and hold that it contributes to their improvement in English listening skills and reading skills, whichin turn ends in the improvement of their English receptive skills.In the process of English language learning, students’ receptive skills directlyrelated to their productive skills. It is of utmost importance to find an appropriateteaching method in order to improve students’ English receptive skills. On the onehand, the present research proves the efficacy of scaffolding instruction and helpsexplore new ways to improve students’ English receptive skills, hence, providesanother choice of teaching method in vocational institute English teaching. On theother hand, it indicates that each teaching method owns its merits if properly adoptedin real practice and the more appropriate the teaching method is, the better the resultwould be. In short, it can be concluded that scaffolding instruction is beneficial toenhance EFL learners’ English receptive skills in vocational institute.