Using Scaffolding Instruction To Optimize Junior High School English Grammar Teaching

Scaffolding instruction is one of the cores in the constructivism instruction. In western countries, it has been widely carried out, but in China most related studies focus on English writing, listening and speaking. However, very few researches have been conducted specifically to the junior high school English grammar teaching. Therefore, this study attempts to apply the model of scaffolding instruction in junior high school English grammar teaching and verify the effectiveness of the proposed model and its impact on the students’ English grammar learning through the teaching experiment.This study intends to find the most appropriate scaffold of grammar teaching, sort out and analyse it. And it will demonstrate the specific ways of scaffolding instruction in grammar teaching through case description. Based on the research background and purpose, the research questions are summarized as follows:1. What are the students’ attitudes towards grammar learning?2. Can the scaffolding instruction help students have a better understanding of learning English grammar?3. Is the scaffolding instruction more effective in arousing the students’ interest in learning grammar?In order to check the validity of scaffolding instruction, two classes in Grade seven of Shanghai Gezhi Junior High School are chosen as experiment subjects. The teaching experiment has been carried out for nearly one year. In the experimental class, the author teaches them grammar with scaffolding instruction while the traditional teaching methods are adopted to teach the same grammar in the controlled class. Questionnaires, pretest, post-test, interviews are employed to show whether the students’ grammar learning can be improved through scaffolding instruction. All the collected data are analyzed by SPSS 19.0.Comparing the results between the experimental class and the controlled class, the author has found that scaffolding grammar teaching approach does help students to learn English grammar well and it can effectively arouse students’ interest in learning grammar. Moreover, students’ initiative and enthusiasm are also boosted to discuss and cooperate with group members in the process of learning grammar. And most students hold positive attitudes to the scaffolding instruction in English grammar learning from the students’ comments in the interview.However, because of the time limit, students may not benefit more from scaffolding instruction in the term of exam performance. The questionnaire-based survey has its unavoidable drawbacks. The present research, which is only a tentative exploration of application of scaffolding instruction in English grammar teaching in junior high school, needs to be confirmed and complemented by more researches.