Scaffolding and its impact on learning grammatical forms in tertiary Chinese EFL classrooms

Scaffolding and its impact on learning grammatical forms in tertiary Chinese EFL classrooms

• Li, Danli Language Centre, Hong Kong Baptist University

2008

• G Curriculum, Teaching & Learning: Specific Disciplines
  • GB English Language

Language Arts Linguistics Educational Psychology English Language -- Study and Teaching (Higher) -- Chinese Speakers Second Language Acquisition

• Hong Kong

• 1997.7 onwards

• Post-Secondary Education

This study investigates how expert-novice scaffolding and peer-peer scaffolding may facilitate the learning of grammatical forms in tertiary Chinese EFL classrooms and attempts to illustrate the features of different modes of interactions. It was a classroom research study with a quasi-experimental design, in which Chinese tertiary level students from two intact classes in Hong Kong and Wuhan were both given a task of revising a student's writing, focusing on the learning of the relative clause in three interactional scenarios: student-student (S-S), teacher-student (T-S), teacher-student + student-student (T-S + S-S).
On the basis of the microgenetic analysis of classroom discourse complemented with quantitative results, the study has found that scaffolding in T-S + S-S interaction generates the most effective impact on learning the target form in the three settings, followed by T-S interaction and S-S interaction. The learner's Zone of Proximal Development (hereafter ZPD) could be promoted most effectively in T-S + S-S interaction due to high quality of scaffolding functions, whereas there is little evidence of extension in the learner's ZPD in T-S and S-S interactions due to a lower quality of scaffolding functions. Moreover, the effective use of the seven scaffolding functions, i.e., Recruitment, Simplifying the task, Direction Maintenance, Marking Critical Features, Frustration Control, Demonstration, and Feedback, in T-S + S-S interaction, seems to stretch the tertiary Chinese students' grammatical competence to a greater extent than in the other two settings. More importantly, the findings have highlighted the importance of helping students notice the gap in their knowledge, promoting self-regulated learning of target forms, and encouraging independent learning when the teacher provides appropriate support.
The study has both theoretical and pedagogical significance. Theoretically, it has shown that grammar learning in EFL classrooms does not happen through collaboration or combination of expert scaffolding and peer scaffolding in interaction haphazardly; rather it is the good quality of interaction and opportunities for self-regulation as shown in T-S + S-S interaction that can guarantee learning. Good quality of interaction is constituted of appropriate and proper use of scaffolding functions, support and guidance which allow learners to build blocks through self-regulation and promote their ZPD ultimately. Inadequate or excessive control or management of scaffolding strategies as shown in S-S and T-S interactions only impede independent learning. In addition, the study has ascertained the condition under which a learner's ZPD can be promoted in the classroom context. It answers the concern of what might constitute effective learning in an interactional context in sociocultural theory.
Pedagogically, the study addresses the importance of teacher education and learner training on scaffolding strategies to enhance the quality of interaction in classroom language learning. In a word, learning effectiveness in whatever classroom settings relies on the nature of social interaction between the teacher and/or students. Interaction is good in the sense that the teacher and students know how to manage the talk and then the ZPD can develop.

PhD

Hong Kong Baptist University

Hong Kong

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-10, Section: A, page: 3928

• English

Dissertation Theses

• 9780549859505

https://bibliography.lib.eduhk.hk/en/bibs/0c2271c6

2010-12-16