A Study On The Application Of Scaffolding Instruction To English Writing In Secondary Vocational Schools

As one of indicators of language proficiency,English writing becomes an important skill for modern people.It is a comprehensive output and has a high demand on students' language level.Senior high school students are commonly poor in English writing not to mention vocational school students.So it is urgent to improve the vocational school students' writing ability efficiently and make them meet the needs of the profession world.Guided by the scaffolding instruction,teachers will take students' needs into consideration and help students with activities of different-levels so that they are able to learn by doing,which applies to the learning features of most vocational school students.But there is little research on its application in the English writing class at vocational schools.So it is very reasonable and necessary to apply the scaffolding instruction to the English writing teaching at vocational schools.The English text books of vocational schools are designed on the concept of learning by doing that corresponds with the philosophy of scaffolding instruction,which makes it easier to apply it to the classroom teaching of vocational schools.This thesis intends to evaluate the feasibility of applying scaffolding instruction to vocational school students' English writing through answering the following questions: 1.Can scaffolding instruction help improve vocational school students' English writing ability? If it can,what aspect of writing ability can it improve? 2.Does scaffolding instruction enhance vocational school students' interest in English writing? Therefore,the author conducted the research on the first-year students' English writing for one term in two classes at a secondary training schools in southern part of china.Both classes were taught by the same researcher and almost at the same level of English proficiency.Class3 was selected as the controlled class,and class1 was selected as the experimental class.In experimental class,many activities were adopted to construct scaffolds for students in the writing process,while in the controlled class,the traditional teaching method was used.The experimental methods include pre-test and post-test on the students in both class,pre-questionnaire,pre-interview,post-questionnaire and post-interview on students in experimental class.Through analysis of results of the tests,interviews and questionnaires,a conclusion is drawn that scaffolding instruction is not only effective and efficient in arousing learners' writing interest,but also improving learners' writing ability,especially on aspects of content,organization,and mechanics.Some implications can also be got that the scaffolding instruction is not only effective but also gives prominence to students,which is good for the cultivation of learners' autonomy and cooperation.But it needs higher professional qualities of teachers and is hard to operate in the class especially as to the types and the offer or withdrawal of the scaffolds at appropriate points.More research must be made in terms of these problems in the future.