The Application Of Scaffolding Instruction To Reading In English In Junior Middle Schools

Reading is an important way of learning a language.It is crucial to cultivate the students' reading ability in English teaching.The Compulsory English Curriculum Standards(2011 Edition)explicitly states that the students' reading ability should gradually reach the third,fourth and fifth levels in Junior Middle School.However,there are still many problems in the current English reading teaching in junior middle schools,such as the neglect of the subjectivity of students,the tendency of language knowledge transmission in reading teaching and the lack of motivation and interest of students.In the 1990 s,the scaffolding instruction model was introduced in China.Many scholars have studied it in English teaching since then.This model emphasizes that teachers should pay attention to the students' existing knowledge level and attaches importance to the students' active participation in class so as to continuously develop students' ability of constructing knowledge actively.Teachers should work as mentors and promoters in class.In order to explore the implementation effect of scaffolding teaching in English reading teaching in junior middle school,the author conducted a teaching experiment.In this experiment,70 students from two parallel classes of grade 8 in Y city were taken as the research objects.In the experimental class,the scaffolding teaching mode was applied.In the control class,the bottom-up reading teaching mode was adopted.Using questionnaires,reading tests,and interviews,the author mainly explores the following questions: First,what is the impact of the application of scaffolding on students' reading ability? Second,what is the impact of the application of scaffolding on students' reading interest? Third,what is the impact of the application of scaffolding on students' reading strategies?After the experiment,the author analyzed and discussed the collected data,and used SPSS to analyze the data of reading scores.The study found that: 1)Scaffolding teaching mode is conducive to improving students' reading ability.After the experiment,compared the scores of reading test of experimental class before and after experiment,the average score was improved by 4.8 points.Compared with the control class,the average score of the experimental class was about 3.5 points higher than the control class.And according to the independent sample test results of two classes,the sig value is 0.000(P< 0.05),indicating that there is a significant difference in reading levels between the two classes after the experiment.In addition,the results of the questionnaire showed that after the experiment,the self-assessment of reading ability of students in the experimental class was significantly improved.According to the interview results,all the six students in the experimental class believe that scaffolding teaching can improve their reading ability.2)The scaffolding teaching model is helpful to improve students' interest in reading.The results of the questionnaire showed that after the experiment,the survey of reading interest in the experimental class was significantly improved.Compared with the control class,the reading interest of the students was significantly improved.According to the interview results,the six students interviewed in the experimental class thought that the scaffolding teaching could improve their reading interest.3)Scaffolding teaching model is helpful for students to master reading strategies.The results of the questionnaire showed that after the experiment,the reading strategy of the experimental class improved significantly.Compared with the control class,the students in the experimental class clearly mastered more reading strategies.And according to the interview results,most of the students interviewed in the experimental class thought that Scaffolding teaching helped them develop reading strategies.The results show that scaffolding plays an important role in the cultivation of students' reading ability,reading interest and reading strategies,and has more advantages than the bottom-up reading teaching mode.Based on the implementation of this experiment,the author obtained some enlightenment.First of all,in reading teaching,teachers should determine the students' recent development zone through various channels,such as using questionnaires,interviews,and establishing student files.Secondly,teachers should make full use of the five processes of the scaffolding teaching to give full play to the subjectivity of the students.Thirdly,Teachers should use scaffolds reasonably and flexibly and teach students in accordance of their aptitude,so as to promote the development of students' English reading ability.