A Research On Scaffolding Instruction In English Writing Teaching In Junior High School

People in different countries communicate with each other frequently with the development of the society, and English becomes a common language for their communication. So English learning at school draws attention of language researchers and teachers. Writing, as one of the integrated skills in English learning, embodies the learners’ language proficiency, and it is considered as an important aspect of language teaching.Scaffolding instruction is based on constructivism and the zone of proximal development. In scaffolding instruction, learners can gradually understand the question by dissolving the complex task with the help of teachers or peers. Students can master the knowledge and achieve the goals by themselves after the temporary support removed. The thesis is to study the impact of scaffolding instruction in English writing teaching in junior high school. It attempts to testify the following hypotheses:1. Scaffolding instruction can promote the students’ writing strategies;2. Scaffolding instruction can enhance the students’ cooperative learning;3. Scaffolding instruction can improve the students’ writing proficiency.Two classes take part in the experiment in the Hongqi Junior High School of Yingkou, Liaoning Province. Class One Grade Eight is randomly chosen as the Experimental Class with 30 students, Class Two Grade Eight as the Control Class with 30 students. The Experimental Class uses scaffolding instruction and the Control Class applies the traditional teaching method. Pre-test, post-test, SPSS13.0, questionnaire and an interview are used as research instruments. The data analysis of the questionnaire and interview shows that scaffolding instruction promotes students’ writing strategy and students’ cooperative learning; Through comparing the statistics between pre-test and post-test in the Experimental Class, it can be seen that the mean score of pre-test and post-test are respectively 8.37 and 10.37, the value of Sig.(2-tailed) is 0.000 which is smaller than 0.05, which indicates that there is a significant difference between pre-test and post-test. It implies scaffolding instruction improves students’ English writing proficiency. The results of the research show that scaffolding instruction can improve students’ writing strategy, cooperative learning and writing proficiency. Finally some implications, limitations and suggestions of this research are proposed for further research.