A Study On The Effects Of Scaffolding Theory In The Teaching Of English Writing In Junior High School

English writing plays an important role in English teaching in junior high school.But because of the traditional ways of teaching,the students have learnt English writing passively,so that the writing has become boring for them.Therefore,improving students' writing level and arousing their interest in writing have become the urgent problems for teachers to solve.This study applied the scaffolding theory to the English writing teaching in attempt to explore a kind of teaching mode which was suitable for junior high school English writing.Scaffolding teaching is based on Vygotsky's the zone of proximal development and the learning theory of constructivism.It emphasizes that the teacher offers the necessary scaffolds to the students in order to simplify complicated learning tasks.And then students can successfully finish them.However,the function of scaffolding provided by the teachers and adults will be removed when the students are capable to complete tasks on their own.And then the learners will prepare for the next learning step.The author selects 64 students of two classes in Grade 8 of a junior middle school in Anshan as the research subjects for 16-week teaching experiment.This study used SPSS 20 to analyze the data collected by the author.Meanwhile,the instruments in this study included questionnaires,writing tests and interviews.Through the experience,the findings are presented:1)In the process of scaffolding teaching,the teacher builds scaffolds for the students,provides writing materials which are related to the normal life for the students and encourages them when they make any improvements.Through these ways,the students in experimental class have improved their writing interest and writing self-confidence.2)Through the cooperation and discussion in groups,the students have developed their writing level.3)In the process of scaffolding teaching,the evaluation provided by the teachers and partners can make students correct the mistakes timely and present the consummate writings at last.In this way,the efficiency of students' English writing can be improved.What's more,the results of the questionnaire showed that the students in these two classes were not willing to accept the traditional writing teaching after the experiment.But the students in the experimental class accepted the scaffolding teaching.