A Study Of Application Of Scaffolding Theory To College English Writing Instruction

According to the basic requirements of College English CurriculumRequirements (2007), college students are supposed to be able to complete writingtasks for general purposes, e.g., describing personal experiences, impressions, feelings,or some events and to undertake other practical writings. Moreover, a shortcomposition on a general topic is required to be finished within30minutes in mosttests. Especially, the composition should be basically complete in good content, clearin main idea, appropriate in diction and coherent in discourse. However, writing hasalways been seen a headache for college English learners, especially for non-Englishmajors, who often find themselves anxious in writing class, reluctant to write whenfaced with their writing tasks. According to statistics, the average score of Englishwriting with a total score of15in CET4is just between5to7(Du Ai Hong,2004).Under such circumstances, it is urgent that effective ways be found to trigger collegeEnglish learners’ writing interest, alleviate their writing anxiety, build their writingconfidence as well as enhance their writing competence.This paper attempts to apply scaffolding theory to college English writinginstruction. On the basis of constructivism and ZPD, scaffolding was first introducedin the1970s by Jerome Bruner and Wood, in the role of tutoring in problem solving. Itrefers to the support parents or teachers provide to assist a child or a student inmastering a task or a concept that he or she is initially unable to grasp independently(Anghileri,2002). Since this theory was put forward, it has received much attentionfrom linguists and applied linguists both abroad and at home. Various studies onscaffolding theory have been made, while few empirical studies have been carried outon college English writing instruction. Some simply prove that scaffolding theory canbe used to improve learners’ writing performance, while few have done furtherexploration on other factors which also affect the learners’ writing proficiency such aswriting interest, writing confidence as well as learning anxiety.This thesis is an empirical study of the application of the scaffolding theory tocollege English writing instruction for non-English majors. In this study subjects are136freshmen in Chengdu University of Technology:75majoring in Resources Exploration and Prospecting Engineering and61majoring in Civil Engineering. Bothclasses will receive English writing instruction based on scaffolding theory.Instruments like questionnaires, writing tests as well as an interview will be employedin this study. Meanwhile, three main study questions will be explored in this study:Firstly, does scaffolding theory have some effects on the achievements of learners’writing? Secondly, can scaffolding theory improve learners’ writing interest, alleviatetheir writing anxiety, as well as build their writing confidence? Thirdly, how caneffective writing scaffolds be constructed? The findings of this study show thatlearners’ writing performance did be improved after receiving the scaffolding writingtraining, although it cannot definitely attribute the learners’ writing improvement tothe application of scaffolding theory because of the limitations of this empiricalmethodology. Moreover, it is confirmed that the application of scaffolding theory cantrigger learners’ writing interest, alleviate their writing anxiety as well as strengthentheir writing confidence. The findings also show that only when learners andinstructors make joint efforts, can more effective writing scaffolds be constructed.Teachers in writing instruction play indispensible roles as learning motivators,teaching procedures designers, independent and cooperative learning organizers,learning observers, listeners as well as persons to evaluate the learning process.Instructors’ capability of class organization, the design of teaching activities as well asthe provision of effective scaffolds also affect the efficiency of writing scaffoldsconstruction. Meanwhile, learners serve even more significant roles as explorers andcreators in the process. Their willingness, affective factors, attitudes andmeta-cognitive learning strategies have great impacts on the construction ofsuccessful writing scaffolds. What’s worth mentioning is that the task itself plays anessential role in the construction of effective writing scaffolds.