An Investigation Into Peer Scaffolding In Group Interaction In Science And Engineering College English Class

Nowadays,the college English class has various activities,so it is becoming more and more important to have research on these activities.The research on peer scaffolding in the group interaction is popular among these activities.Therefore,based on the previous studies,this study chooses science and engineering college students as research subjects,and investigates the current situation of peer scaffolding in group interaction in college English class.This study analyzes the types of the function of peer scaffolding and the influencing factors of providing peer scaffolding,in order to provide feasible suggestions for science and engineering college English class,and to promote learners' ability to apply language.This research is going to solve these three questions:(1)Does peer scaffolding have impact on students' study in science and engineering college English class?(2)What are the functions of peer scaffolding in promoting the students' learning ability?(3)What are the major influencing factors of providing peer scaffolding? Based on the social constructivism and the zone of proximal development,this study uses quantitative and qualitative research as the research methods.The research subjects are 80 students from Schools of Information and communication Engineering in grade two.They are divided into 10 groups and each group has 8 students.This study explores the peer scaffolding in group interactions through the results of recordings of group interaction,questionnaire,and interviews.Through the analysis of the results,it shows that:(1)Peer scaffolding in group interaction does exist in science and engineering college English class.(2)Peer scaffolding has the following seven functions on students learning: increasing participation,providing words and expressions,correcting wrong usage,frustration control,providing opinions,task maintenance,explaining to simplify tasks.The frequency of explaining to simplify tasks is low,which can show that science and engineering college students are not good at understanding the context.(3)Topic choice,group member and learner's attitude are the major influencing factors of the providingof peer scaffolding.As the peer scaffolding is helpful to promote their understanding ability,this teaching method can be applied into science and engineering college English class in order to promote learners' ability to apply language.The results of this study can provide some implication for college English teaching in science and engineering colleges.However,due to the limitations of the research itself,there are still some shortcomings and deficiencies.