On The Arplication Of Scaffolding Literacy In Primary School EFL Reading Teaching

Scaffolding Literacy (SL) is pedagogy enabled many previously low-achieving students to make significant gains in their English reading and writing in English native speaking countries. However, the application and the adaptation of SL in the EFL context has been seldom observed and analyzed. The study aims to explore the effects of application of SL in the primary school reading teaching in the EFL context. 95 6th-graders from a public elementary school in Hangzhou participated in the research for 5 months. Data collected through pre-and post-test, pre-and post-questionnaire were analyzed by SPSS and descriptive statistical analysis.This thesis consists of five parts. The first chapter introduces the purpose and significance of teaching reading in English learning in primary schools and applying SL in primary school EFL reading teaching, as well as the framework of this thesis. The second chapter is the literature review on SL and the related theories on SL. It mainly introduces the study of SL teaching sequence and the projects of applying SL strategies in English reading teaching both abroad and at home. It also analyzes SL based on Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory and the theory on ZPD (the Zone of Proximal Development), as well as the three reading models of bottom-up, top-down, and interactive reading instruction. The third chapter focuses on the research methodology that adopted in the study. Before the experiment, a pre-test for the participants both in CG and EG, and a pre-questionnaire for the participants in EG was carried out. The different experimental instructions were then implemented in the EG and CG The adapted SL teaching pedagogy was applied in EG, and the traditional reading teaching method was carried out in CG so as to compare the effect of SL instruction and traditional one. By the application of SL, the study focus on the teaching sequence which aims to teaching students the vocabulary use, grammatical forms, cultural information, reading strategies, pronunciation explicitly to improve their reading comprehension and reading aloud proficiency. After the experimental instruction, a post-test for the participants in both EG and CG, and a post-questionnaire for the participants in EG were carried out. This section also discusses how to adapt and apply SL teaching sequence in EFL reading teaching in primary school. The fourth part presents and analyzes the collected data in the two tests and two questionnaires. SPSS was utilized to compare the result in pre-test and post-test of the participants in two groups. The result of pre-questionnaire and post-questionnaire was presented and was analyzed to investigate the participants’ personal information on reading. And the last section offers the conclusion of the research and some suggestions for further studies and related EFL instruction by applying SL. It demonstrates the advantage of application SL on EFL reading teaching in primary school students to improve their reading fluency and the motivation of English reading.The research results indicate that teaching primary school reading in the EFL context by applying adapted SL strategies has significant positive effects both on students’ English reading comprehension ability and reading aloud performance. It not only effectively promoted their English vocabulary ability, built their concepts of grammatical forms, but also raised their reading motivation and self-confidence.