The Application Of Scaffolding Instruction In Chinese Argumentative Essay Teaching As A Foreign Language

Scaffolding Instruction is a unique teaching method arising in Chinese teaching as a foreign languagein recent years. During the learning process, the teacher formulates certain knowledge structure for thestudents and then gradually reduces the support from his side with the accumulation of student’s knowledge,just like removing the scaffold when a building is completed. This teaching method aims to help thestudents build their own learning structure and cultivate an independent learning ability.Argumentative classroom teaching is one of the most important courses in TCSL. Especially thestudents of advanced Chinese level, they have in-depth exchanges of needs and desires, by learning andpracticing Chinese argumentative writing can help students improve their Chinese writing skills, enhancedlanguage awareness. But many students for Chinese argumentative expression there is a certain confusion,can not accurately grasp the Chinese argumentative presentation skills by combing the literature andsurveys found that foreign students. Viewed from the Scaffolding Instruction features, if the introduction ofargumentative scaffolding classroom teaching can be a good remedy this defect, to help students improvelearning outcomes.For foreign students, learning argumentive writing in Chinese is quite different with that in theirmother language due to different language environment, so they have to deeply rely on the the wellorganized teaching structure. As a result, an well-planned environment with clear focus and target is ofgreat significance. Scaffolding instruction, on the other hand, can fit this requirement very well since theteacher can help the students acquire full awareness of Chinese language by building scaffolds and thenlead them to get a general view of the cultural background of Chinese language.This paper is aimed to apply scaffolding instruction into argumentive writing teachings with teacherfirst inform the students with basic writing knowhow and then instruct the them with writing scaffold undera given topic. Once completed, students give comments to each other’s work and then get teacher’sremarks. After class, the students will independently complete the writing assignment which was given bythe teacher according to their writing status.This approach adopts a gradualistic interactive teaching methodfocusing on listening and speaking and completed by audio-visual method, communicative method and assignment method, with the teacher gradually hand overing the initiative to the students and adjusting theteaching strategy according to the needs of the students.In terms of teaching evaluation,“appreciative”comments are encouraged to use in order to boost the students’confidence and tap into their potentials.Case analysis, experimental study and documentary research are employed in this paper in seekingtheoretical guidance of scaffolding instruction, developing teaching procedure, spotting defects andpossible problems, as well as field practicing in real class. A Chinese argumentative essay writing classunder the guidance of scaffolding instruction can be divided into five steps: scaffold building, questionraising, problem analyzing, problem solving and result evaluating. Scaffolding instruction effectively helpsstudents command necessary writing skills while ignites their leaning zeal and enhance bettercommunications with Chinese speakers. Additionally, it also helps the foreign students be better aware ofthe preferred logic and expression approach of Chinese people, even the special ideology and culturalpsychology hidden behind. To sum up, scaffolding instruction is an effective teaching method that worthsdeeper research and wider practice in Chinese argumentative essay teaching as a foreign language.