An Application Of Scaffold Theory In High School English Writing Teaching

Scaffolding teaching is based upon constructivism, which depends upon "the Zone of Proximal Development" created by Vygotsky. In this concept, the learners can gradually deepen the understanding of the question through dissolving the complex study task under the guidance of adults or peers. On completing the study task, the learners’ ability can be improved and students can become more and more confident and independent. At last, when the temporary support is removed, students can solve the problems by themselves. This approach has been turned out effective in teaching and it has been widely used in western countries. Therefore, the essay makes an attempt to study how to teach high school English writing under the guidance of this approach.The author conducts an experiment to test the effect of Scaffolding Theory in English writing class. The present research was carried out in the following way. First, the subjects of this research were chosen from High School Affiliated to Nanjing Normal University, and they are randomly assigned into two classes. There were so significant differences in terms of their age, gender and educational background. Both classes were taught by the same teacher, using the same instruction curriculum in the same teaching periods. Secondly, during three-month experiment, the teacher adopted scaffolding instruction in the experimental class while traditional instruction in the control class. The raw data were collected and percentages were employed to reveal whether the subjects achieved significant improvement in writing performance. Thirdly, a questionnaire was delivered twice to investigate the differences that have taken place after the experiment. Finally, the findings were analyzed and discussed. The major findings are:(i) The scaffolding instruction can promote the students’ writing performance; (ii) The scaffolding instruction can stimulate the student’s writing interest.Although the present study has some limitations, to some extent, it can help English teachers have a better understanding of the Scaffolding Theory and its application in writing teaching in the context of individualized instruction. The author hopes the results of the present study can provide certain implications for further study.