An Investigation Of Teachers' Mediation In College English Reading Class

Feuerstein thought that teacher's mediation can help students make progress in the development, learn to learn, deal with problems and adapt to a variety of cultural scene and social changes. Teachers' mediation activities have become a hot issue at home and abroad. At present, the study of English teachers' mediation is mainly conducted in the way of questionnaire survey. There is little research on the mediation in the college intensive reading by combining classroom observation with questionnaire and interview. Therefore, this paper did a research on teachers' mediation in college intensive reading by classroom observation, questionnaire survey and interviews to students.This paper answered the following two questions:1) How do teachers mediate students' learning in reading class?2) What are students' perceptions of teacher mediation in reading class?Aimed at answering the above questions, the present study observed 12 lessons by three teachers, 4 lessons by each one of them. A total of one hundred and twenty-five students participated the questionnaire survey, and three students were randomly selected from each class, totally nine students, were interviewed on their perception of teacher mediation. According to the content of the classroom observation, three teachers were interviewed in terms of their opinions about intensive reading class.Major findings were reached as follows: As to the width of mediation, three teachers all attached importance to the aspects of comprehension and information structure of the text in intensive reading class. In relation to the features of mediation, three teachers all knew the significance of their teaching activities and could provide students with shared intention. There were some differences in their mediation: teachers A attached strategy importance to the students; teacher B and C paid more emphases on vocabulary teaching. The statistical result of questionnaire revealed that students did not think the teacher's mediation help them develop the following learning in reading class, i.e. awareness of changes, a recognition of their own individuality, a sense of belonging and a belief in positive outcomes. It revealed that the interconnection between teachers' conceptions of the intensive reading and their mediating practices.