Research On Teacher's Scaffolding Talk In Junior High School

Teacher talk has long been a hot topic of foreign language teaching and research,and recent years,teacher's scaffolding talk(i.e.teacher's verbal assistance provided when students are unable to complete a learning task independently)has received increasing attention.Based on social cultural theory,input hypothesis,output hypothesis and interaction hypothesis,this thesis analyzes scaffolding talk of teachers in junior high school and is intended to answer the following three questions:1.How do teachers and students in junior high school perceive teacher's scaffolding talk?2.What scaffolding means are employed by teachers in junior high school?3.What are the effects of teacher's scaffolding talk on junior high school students?The author chose four teachers(all are experienced teachers)in a key junior high school in Wuhan as the participants and observed and audio-recorded their twelve classes.The audio-recordings were transcribed into written documents and teacher's scaffolding talk involved was analyzed(i.e.teacher's verbal assistance provided when students are unable to answer a question,have problem in language organization or produce wrong,obscure or incomplete answers).The four teachers were interviewed about their perceptions of teacher's scaffolding talk,and students being in the charge of the four teachers(a total of 178 students)were asked to take part in a questionnaire investigation.Through the qualitative and quantitative analyses of the audio-recording transcriptions,classroom observation,and the results of the teacher interview and student questionnaire,it suggests the following results:1.Teachers in the junior high school do not have a clear understanding of the definition of scaffolding talk,but in the actual process of teaching,teachers are sensitive to the contexts that students are in need of support and consciously adopt various means to scaffold students.Besides,multiple factors appear to influence teachers' choice of scaffolding means,including students,conditions(language proficiency,personality and learning characteristics),the difficulty of learning materials and the teacher-student relationship.It is confirmed that the positive effects of teacher's scaffolding talk are represented in multiple aspects by both teachers and students.In addition,students also acknowledge their teachers' flexible use of scaffolding means in different contexts,which is also highly expected.2.Eight means of teacher's scaffolding talk are distinguished in junior high school English classes,including modeling,repeating,reformulating,hinting,explaining,questioning,encouraging and telling,among which,questioning and hinting are used most frequently and encouraging the least.3.Teacher's scaffolding talk effects positively on students in four aspects,containing 1)supporting students' language development---at the lexical level:promoting vocabulary acquisition and reinforcing vocabulary comprehension;at the sentence level:facilitating correct semantic restructuring;2)supporting students'meta-cognitive development---keeping students on the learning target;3)supporting students' cognitive development---promoting students' exercising of learning strategies and expanding students' thinking;and 4)supporting students' affective development---lessening students' anxiety and controlling frustration.Based on the results,for the better performance of teacher's scaffolding talk,the author put forward the following suggestions for junior high school English teachers:first,promoting the process of role transition.To be a qualified scaffolder,it is necessary for teachers to go through a transition from the traditional knowledge transmitter to a facilitator,a guide and a partner;second,raising the awareness of applying scaffolding talk.Teachers are supposed to be good at discerning and utilizing students' problem contexts,supplying appropriate scaffolds,thus promoting students' classroom participation and development;third,individualizing teaching with flexible usage of different scaffolding means.