A Study Of Application Of Scaffolding Instruction Model To College English Teaching In Listening Based On WebQuest

It is generally acknowledged that listening to spoken language theoretically involves activeand complex processes which determine the level and content of comprehension. It has beenlong believed by Chinese teachers that listening learning has no shortcut. Students are required toimprove listening ability by practice. In a traditional ritual listening classroom, the teacherexplains difficult words before playing the tape recording. Typically students are expected tolisten to the recording once or twice to complete the listening comprehension. After checking theanswers, the recording is played one more time, and paused sometimes for the teacher to explain.During the lesson, students are only passive receivers rather than active learners. Neither thelistening competence is greatly enhanced, nor is their potential in listening comprehensioncultivated. Undoubtedly, students lose interest in listening and then negative consequencefollows in their listening achievements. In order to change the inferior condition of listeningcourse, researchers started exploring new approaches to listening instruction. Fan Ziniu et al.(2010) study autonomous learning on college English listening based computer-assistedinstruction (CAI). Zhou et al. research the application of schemata theory in EFL listening (ZhouXiangli,2002; E Yurong,2009; Liu Shaolong,1996). Wang Shouyuan and Miao Qiaowei (2003)discuss EFL listening from theory to practice. Kong Yanping and Liu H ailiang (2001) viewintegrative model as an effective approach college English listening teaching. An et al. discussedthe application of authentic materials in EFL listening (An Cuili,2010; Zheng Qiuyun&Ye Yu,2011; Long Qianhong,2003). The scaffolding applied in the research is one of the oft-citedteaching models.The thesis is a study of a pedagogical experiment applying scaffolding instruction onlistening comprehension in Shandong Jiaotong University. The12-week experiment is conductedby the researcher on non-English majors aged between17and20from two different classesclassified as experimental and control group at random. The participants are freshmen in theirsecond semester. Scaffolding model, together with the conventional teaching model, is adoptedin the experimental listening classroom while the control listening course remains the same asbefore. Questionnaires and listening comprehension tests are conducted to collect information ofparticipants’ listening comprehension competence and listening comprehension strategies both atthe beginning and the end of the experiment. The research of the experiment aims to investigatethe following questions: Q1. What is the general status of listening comprehension strategies application by collegenon-English majors to improve their English learning competence?Q2. What learning strategies are applied frequently by high and low proficiency learners toenhance their ability of listening comprehension?Q3. Is there any impact on students’ listening comprehension strategies under scaffoldinginstruction?Q4. What are the effects of scaffolding instruction on non-English majors’ listeningcomprehension?After the data analysis and discussion, the researcher comes to a conclusion that scaffoldinghas positive impact on students’ improvement of listening comprehension competence and theirexploration of listening comprehension strategies. Statistics of the questionnaires show that theexperimental students tend to apply listening strategies more frequently and more effectively inscaffolding listening classroom, while students from the control class make fewer changes inlearning habits. They are more likely to adopt cognitive strategies rather than metacognitivestrategies. Besides, the results of the tests indicate that a greater progress is made byexperimental group in their listening competence than by the control group after the experiment.From the classroom observation and the interviews, a conclusion can be made about theclassroom performance and attitudes of the sample students that students are more voluntary andactive to participate in the listening activities when they are allowed to learn autonomously andcollaboratively in a scaffolding classroom. With the assistance of the instructor, effective learnersin the experimental class are able to scaffold their ineffective classmates as well as scaffoldthemselves in the learning process. Therefore, most sample students gain new knowledge duringthe self-exploration section and finally make achievements autonomously, in a collaborative way.Despite the limitation, the research may provide helpful suggestions to English teachers onimproving the listening comprehension teaching and learning and colleges on the concept ofdesigning college English listening comprehension course. Scaffolding as an instruction iscontingent, collaborative and interactive. It is contingent because an action influences and isinfluenced by other actions. It is collaborative when the achievements are jointly made incooperation. And it is interactive as it includes activities in which two or more people aremutually engaged. Instructors in a scaffolding classroom need to be proficient in their subjectmatter which enables them to provide students with as many scaffolds as are needed to assisttheir learning. They also need to make professional progression in the field and formpartnerships to discuss peer-coach or peer scaffold, and promote understandings of their practice theoretically. In pedagogical scaffolding, teachers are required to clarify the task to students. Atthe same time, they should prepare learners by modeling and monitor their growingunderstanding by observation. Withdrawal of assistance is required in accordance with theprogression of students’ improvement in capability of completing the tasks. Teacher’s instructionceases when students are able to accomplish the given tasks. Thus, students’ learning competenceis enhanced.The present thesis consists of six parts. Chapter one introduces the general backgrounds andsignificance of the study, the organization of the thesis. In addition, some terms are also definedin this part. Chapter two provides a comprehensive review of the relevant literature. In this part,the researcher mainly reviews studies on listening comprehension and listening comprehensionstrategies conducted both by foreign and Chinese researchers. Chapter three provides thetheoretical foundation of scaffolding, a teaching approach applied in the experiment. Theory ofconstructivism and ZPD are introduced in this part. Chapter four details the researchmethodology, describing the research purpose, research design, the procedure of the study,research structure, participants, instruments, and data collection. Chapter five will analyze datacollected and discuss the research questions presented in previous chapter. Chapter six is theconclusion of the study, elaborating the major findings, theoretical and practical implications,limitations of the research and suggestions for the future research.