An Application Research Of Scaffolding In English Vocabulary Teaching In Primary School

Vocabulary belongs to one vital part of English language and it is the basis of forming students’ comprehensive language ability.Primary school is a vital stage for students’ English foundation,thus vocabulary learning in primary school is particularly important.Although the reform of English teaching in primary schools has made a series of progress,problems still exist.In order to improve the current situation and effect of vocabulary teaching,the author tries to combine vocabulary teaching with scaffolding theory and apply teaching scaffolds to English vocabulary teaching.Scaffolding teaching in vocabulary is based on proximal development area.Teachers use a variety of ways to establish various means or ways to help students to complete learning activities that are difficult to complete alone.With the developing of the activities,learners gradually grasp the knowledge,then teachers can remove the scaffolds step by step,the task of learning and exploration relegate to the students themselves.Finally,students can solve questions independently,implementing meaning construction.In order to testify the feasibility of using scaffolding in teaching English vocabulary at primary school,the author conducted a three-month comparative study on the students of Class 1 and Class 2(Grade 3)in Xian Tao No.11 Primary School,which is based on Constructivism theory and "Proximal Development Area",aiming to answer the following three questions:1.Scaffolds are used in primary school English vocabulary teaching,whether the attitude of students’ English vocabulary learning can be improved?2.Scaffolds are used in primary school English vocabulary teaching,whether the ability of students’ English vocabulary learning can be improved?3.Scaffolds are used in primary school English vocabulary teaching,whether the strategies of students’ English vocabulary learning can be promoted?The research tools include pre-test,post-test,pre-questionnaire,post-questionnaire and interview.In the experiment,Class 2 adopted the Scaffolding method in teaching vocabulary,while Class 1 adopted the traditional vocabulary teaching method.By comparing the pre-test and pre-questionnaire data,it was found that the English proficiency and learning attitude of the experimental class and the control class were roughly the same,so were the understanding of vocabulary learning strategies.After about 11 weeks,post-test,post-questionnaires and interviews were implemented,the data before and after were compared,then it was found that:1.Scaffolding teaching can improve the students’ interest in learning English vocabulary compared with the traditional teaching method.2.After the Scaffolding teaching,the students’ vocabulary level in experimental class is obviously higher than that of the control class,besides,through the Paired Sample T-test,the overall vocabulary learning ability of the experimental class is greater than that of the control class.3.After the experiment,students in the experimental class have a clearer understanding of vocabulary learning strategies and they can use those strategies more flexibly than before,which shows that Scaffolding teaching in vocabulary can help to improve students’ vocabulary learning strategies.Finally,through thinking about the problems encountered in the various links and steps of Scaffolding teaching in vocabulary,the author gets the following enlightenments:1.Create a positive atmosphere for learning English and understand students’ differences before Scaffolding teaching;2.Grasp the student’s Zone of Proximal Development is the basis of offering scaffolds;3.When build,use and undo the scaffolds,think carefully;4.Scaffolding teaching steps in vocabulary should be closely linked;5.Scaffolding teaching in vocabulary should be combined with the traditional vocabulary teaching.Last but not least,the author also puts forward the weaknesses and restrictions of this paper.Hopefully,the results of the research can provide useful reference for the application of scaffoldings in teaching English vocabulary in primary school.