An Empirical Study Of The Effect Of Scaffolding Instruction Approach On Senior High School Students English Reading Proficiency

As an international language, English is the most widely used language in the world. China has become the world's second largest economic entity. It goes without saying that English has a great impact on Chinese development. Schools are the main places for learning. English is one of the compulsory courses. English reading seems especially important among the four basic skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing. The New National Standard of English Curriculum and the reform of college entrance examination also emphasize the development and improvement of English reading proficiency. However, the present situation of English reading teaching still remains stagnant and its teaching effect is rather dissatisfactory.Under the new situation, different from the traditional teaching approach during which teachers are always explaining and student are passively receiving, scaffolding instruction approach, based on constructivism theory, zone of proximal development theory and cognitive-developmental theory, is a new teaching approach. It takes students as the center and emphasize the interaction between students and teachers in class. In the practical English teaching, scaffolding instruction approach helps students complete the process of meaning-construction by means of setting up scaffolds and scenario simulation, guiding students to explore and cooperate. This teaching approach is gradually gaining its attention in the field of English language teaching. A number of researchers and scholars have already started to carry out applied studies in English language teaching with this teaching approach.In the way of an empirical study, the author conducts a two-month-long experiment in a senior high school in Dongguan. The subjects are students from two parallel classes of Grade 2. One is the experimental class and the other is the control class. The scaffolding instruction approach is applied in the experimental class while the traditional teaching approach is still used in the control class. In the process of the carrying out this experiment, the author collects the required data by means of test and questionnaires and then analyzes the data by SPSS. The research aims to find out whether there is effective impact of scaffolding instruction approach on senior high school students' English reading proficiency. There are two research questions in this study: 1) Can the application of scaffolding instruction approach raise senior high school students' English reading level? 2) Can the application of scaffoldinginstruction approach develop senior high school students' English reading strategies?The experimental results show that, in the paired samples t test of English reading scores in experimental class, Sig(2-tailed) equals 0.000, which is lower than0.05; but that in control class, Sig(2-tailed) equals 0.146, which is higher than 0.05. In the paired samples t test of English reading strategies in experimental class, Sig(2-tailed)(Glob) equals 0.000, Sig(2-tailed)(Prob) equals 0.000, Sig(2-tailed)(Sup) equals0.000, which are all lower than 0.05; but that in control class, Sig(2-tailed)(Glob)equals 0.390, Sig(2-tailed)(Prob) equals 0.715, Sig(2-tailed)(Sup) equals 0.648, which are all higher than 0.05. The research results indicate that, compared with the traditional grammar-translation approach, scaffolding instruction approach is more helpful to raise senior high school students' English reading level and develop senior high school students' English reading strategies. Finally, senior high school students' English reading proficiency has got improved. However, there are also some problems and difficulties in the process of carrying out the experiment. In view of this, the author puts forward some suggestions, hoping to offer some ideas to senior high English reading teaching.