An Investigation Of Peer Scaffolding In Group Interaction In Senior English Classes

In modern education,foreign language learning has been attracting more and more attention,but the interaction between students and teachers in the classroom is not frequent.When students encounter various difficulties in their studies,they will choose to ask their classmates for help.They will discuss and study with each other,and at the same time,they can enhance mutual friendship and improve the level of foreign language learning.Richard,J.et al.(2002)proposed that peer scaffolding is a target language structure based on the exchange of many languages.The peers communicate with each other and use various oral languages to help other peers master the target language.This is what we call peer scaffolding.The existing research on the role of “scaffold” is mainly focused on the teacher's support,and few studies will explore the type and role of peer scaffolding.Therefore,this thesis aims to study peer scaffolding in group interaction in senior English classes and tries to explore the frequency and types of peer scaffolding in senior school English classes and explore the reasons why students use different types of peer scaffolding.In this study,the author selected 5 English teachers and 511 students from 10 classes in QinZhou Middle School in Qin County,Changzhi City.The author observed a 12-week English classes(10 classes,100 lessons,8 lessons per week,6 groups per class,8 students per group,the interaction time of each group was about 6 minutes)and made recordings.The researcher will transcribe the recorded data according to the collected recording materials.After the recording is completed,the researcher will send questionnaires to the senior students,and finally the teachers and students in this school will be interviewed respectively.This study puts forward three research questions:Do students use peer scaffolding in senior English classes? What are the types of peer scaffolding in group interaction in senior English classes? What are the peer scaffolding that students mostly like to use in senior English classes? Why are some peer scaffolding not used?After analyzing three research questions above,the author draws the following corresponding conclusions:Firstly,in the learning process of English classes,students usually ask their peers forhelp when they don't understand the problem,so they will get corresponding answers.This shows that peer scaffolding is ubiquitous in the learning process of group interaction in senior English classes.By analyzing the frequency of peer scaffolding,the authors found in the study that the categories of peer scaffolding used in senior English classes mainly include feedback,demonstration,recruitment,marking critical feature,simplifying the task,direction maintaining and frustration control.The students mainly establish the scaffolding through feedback,demonstration,and recruitment.Secondly,through questionnaire,among these seven types,students mostly like to use these three types: feedback,recruitment,and demonstration.Most students choose feedback because it provides evaluation or comments on the performance.Recruitment can draw the students' attention to the task.Once their interest was stimulated,they will take part in the task actively.Demonstration can make the students take the initiative to construct the knowledge reserves and complete the task.Thirdly,through interviewing with teachers and students,the author knew the reasons why students do not choose some peer scaffolding in group interaction in senior English classes.Some types of peer scaffolding that some students do not use are Marking Critical Features(MCF),Frustration Control(FC),and Simplifying the Task(ST).MCF is the first type of peer scaffolding that some students do not use.Some students say that when their peers make mistakes,they often don't know how to express these mistakes.Some students also say that pointing out the mistakes directly may hurt some students' self-esteem.FC is the second type of peer scaffolding that some students do not use.Students admit that when their peers encourage them to continue,they feel more nervous,so that they are difficult to answer questions.ST is the third type of peer scaffolding that some students do not use.Students admit that due to the lack of words and phrases,most students encounter difficulties in expressing their thinking.Therefore,students believe that this kind of peer scaffolding will hinder the long-term development of their language communication.This study provides a reference for the study of group interaction in senior English classes and students' second language acquisition.This thesis is also based on previous research and the current teaching form in senior English classroom.It also organizes and analyzes the research objects and research data.I hope to provide some inspiration for the teachers in teaching in senior English classes.