The Effects Of Scaffolding Instruction Model On English Listening Teaching In Rural Junior Middle School

Recently there has been an increasing focus on English listening ability because of its importance in language learning and teaching.But in the English listening teaching of Chinese rural junior middle school,there are still many problems,such as the time distributed in listening teaching is rather fewer,teaching methods being out-of-date,and it is not paid enough attention by the teachers and the students.As a result,the students lose their confidence and their listening abilities are rather weak.Therefore,in this context,English teachers need to explore an effective teaching method which can improve students' listening abilities and interests.Scaffolding Instruction Model is a new teaching way which is based on the theory of constructivism and the zone of proximal development.The purpose of Scaffolding Instruction Model is to realize the construction of knowledge by setting up the theoretical framework,using related teaching materials and various Scaffoldings to stimulate students' interests in learning,helping students solve existing problems,and cultivating students' self-learning ability.The main purpose of the present study is to examine the effects of junior middle school students' listening achievement and attitude in English through listening teaching based on the Scaffolding Instructional Model,So the research questions are put forward as follows:(1)Can listening teaching based on Scaffolding Instruction Model significantly help students improve listening achievements?(2)Can listening teaching based on Scaffolding Instruction Model significantly arouse students'interests in listening?(3)What are the attitudes of students towards Scaffolding Instruction Model?In order to verify the effectiveness of listening teaching in improving students' English listeningachievements and influences on students' listening interests and attitudes,a teaching experiment wascarried out.One hundred and two students,from two natural classes(control class and experimental class)in Grade Nine in Biyu Junior Middle School,participated in the experiment.The experimental period is half a semester.The instruments include two tests,a questionnaire and an interview,the interview was for experimental class only.Before the experiment,all students of two classes had a pre-test to know whether they had the same level of English listening achievement.Then the participants of experimental class were asked to finish a questionnaire in two different periods and teaching contexts to identify how listening teaching based on Scaffolding Instruction Model influences the students' learning interests and attitudes.Two different teaching instruction contexts are respectively traditional teaching context and Scaffolding Instruction context.The present study uses the quantitative and qualitative methods to examine the effects of listening teaching under Scaffolding Instruction Model on students' listening achievements and attitudes.Based on the experimental findings and discussions of the experimental results,it can be concluded:English listening teaching based on Scaffolding Instruction Model can be used effectively to support students in English learning in rural junior middle school,which have significant effects on students'listening achievements,interests and attitudes.Therefore,it is worth for rural English teachers applying this teaching model to the listening class to improve students' listening proficiency.