Scaffolding adult learners of English in learning target form in a Hong Kong EFL university classroom

Scaffolding adult learners of English in learning target form in a Hong Kong EFL university classroom

• Li, Danli English Dept., Wuhan University, China

Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching, 6(2), 127-144, 2012

Routledge

2012

• G Curriculum, Teaching & Learning: Specific Disciplines
  • GB English Language
• F Learning & Teaching
  • FH Classroom Communication

Language Usage Teacher Student Relationship Hong Kong Adult Students Classroom Communication Higher Education Second Language Learning English (Second Language)

• Hong Kong

• 1997.7 onwards

• Post-Secondary Education

This paper reports on a study that explored how teachers interacted with groups of university students in learning the target form in a second language. Adopting a sociocultural approach, the data were based on microgenetic analysis of teacher and student discourse in a English as a foreign language (EFL) classroom at a university in Hong Kong, in which undergraduate students were given a rewriting task in teacher–student interaction. The analysis shows that scaffolding is supportive for language learning as appropriate assistance by both the teacher and peers at the right time with the proper focus can mediate learning. The teacher is reported to maintain student involvement in the task by trying to reinforce the comprehension of task demands, contextual meaning, and linguistic features in texts. The study addresses the teacher's and learners' indispensable roles in leading students to focus on the appropriate form and ensure correctness in linguistic production. The combination of appropriate expert and peer involvement in the discourse seems to provide the optimum form of interaction and, therefore, ensure the high quality of mediation in second language classroom.
[Copyright of Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17501229.2011.626858]

• English

Journal Articles

• 17501229

• 10.1080/17501229.2011.626858

https://bibliography.lib.eduhk.hk/en/bibs/56e80fd1

2014-01-18