A Research On The Application Of Scaffolding Instruction To English Reading Teaching In Junior High School

Reading, as one of the four English skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing, has been attracting much attention of scholars. Meanwhile, the English Curriculum Standard issued by China Education Ministry in 2011 pays more attention to junior high school students’ reading ability with higher standard. However, the traditional reading teaching which is teacher-centered and text-centered makes students more passive in their studying, and neglects the cultivation of their learning ability. In contrast with traditional teaching approach, Scaffolding Instruction emphasizes the dominative position of students and focuses on cultivation of learner’s learning autonomy as well as awareness of cooperative learning. For these reasons, Scaffolding Instruction will take place of traditional model and become a trend in English reading teaching.Scaffolding Instruction, a teaching model of Constructivism, promotes students to re-construct their prior knowledge and new knowledge with the assistance of scaffold which teacher sets up depending on student’ ZPD(Zone of Proximal Development). There are five steps of Scaffolding Instruction: setting scaffold, getting into content, independent exploration, cooperative learning and evaluation. Although Scaffolding Instruction has become one of pedagogical reforms in recent years, few researchers do studies on application of Scaffolding Instruction to English reading in junior high school. In order to cover this shortage and prove that this new teaching method is more effective in English reading teaching, there are three questions in the thesis to be investigated:1. Can Scaffolding Instruction cultivate students’ learning autonomy in reading process?2. Can Scaffolding Instruction cultivate students’ awareness of cooperative learning in reading?3. Can Scaffolding Instruction improve the junior high school students’ reading score?80 students who come from Grade 8 in Taiyuan No.59 Junior High School took part in the experiment from September, 1st to December, 15 th. Both of CC and EC have 40 students. The traditional teaching method is still used in the control class, while Scaffolding Instruction method is introduced in the experimental class. The research applies quantitative and qualitative methods to analyze the data from questionnaires, tests and interview.It can be found that it is meaningful and feasible to apply Scaffolding Instruction to English reading class in junior high school. Under the guidance of Scaffolding Instruction, students’ learning autonomy and their awareness of cooperative learning have been cultivated and improved. Moreover, students can not only master the knowledge, but promote capability of communication. Obviously, the reading scores of most students have been increased.