A Study Of Peer Scaffolding On Cooperative Group Learning In High School English Classes

Such effective methods as heuristic,inquiry-based,discussion-oriented and participatory teaching are proposed in the Outline of Mid-Term and Long-Term National Educational Reform and Development Plan（2010-2020）to ―stimulate students‘ curiosity,cultivate their interests and hobbies,and create a good environment for independent thinking,free exploration and innovation‖.Group cooperative learning is an effective way to achieve the above goals.In group cooperation,students can learn to think about problems and seek ways to solve problems through building peer scaffolding with their partners.In addition,the Outline also pointed out that the burden of students should be effectively reduced,which coincides with the the ―double reduction‖ policy recently implemented by the ministry of education,and cooperative learning can better meet the needs of ―double reduction‖ policy.Peer scaffolding allows students to benefit from positive emotional support while participating in the process of learning and developing their language abilities.In view of the above reasons,based on constructivism theory,sociocultural theory and positive interdependence theory,the author conducted a questionnaire survey on 298 students in a senior high school in Guilin,among which two classes were selected for experimental research by means of audio recording and after-class interview.The questionnaire of peer scaffolding in cooperative group learning is slightly modified on the basis of the questionnaire by professor Xu Jifen（2016）and Li Ruiqin（2017）.The questionnaire has seven dimensions: increasing participation,providing words or expressions,providing opinions,correcting wrong usages,explaining to simplify tasks,task maintenance and frustration control.The purpose of the audio recording is to identify the segments containing the function of peer scaffolding and analyze the frequency of the occurrence of different types of peer scaffolding.The after-class interview aims to deeply analyze the factors of peer scaffolding in cooperative group learning.This study focuses on three questions: 1.What is the current situation of peer scaffolding in cooperative group learning? 2.What is the role of peer scaffolding on learners‘ language development and emotional support under different grouping patterns of cooperative learning? 3.What are the factors that facilitate or hinder the role of peer scaffolding in cooperative group learning? Upon analyzing the obtained data with the help of SPSS 26.0,the following conclusions can be drawn:1.Students often utilize various peer scaffolding when cooperating with peers.Firstly,the most popular peer scaffolding are explaining to simplify tasks and providing opinions.By contrast,the least used peer scaffolding are task maintenance as well as providing words and expressions.Secondly,female students perform better in utilizing peer scaffolding than male students in four dimensions including increasing participation,correcting wrong usages,explaining to simplify tasks and frustration control.At the same time,there are no significant differences between male and female students in providing words and expressions,providing opinions and task maintenance.Finally,there exists marginal participation and free-riding with low utilization of peer scaffolding in group cooperative learning.2.The results show that the top three peer scaffolding under both grouping patterns are providing opinions,providing words and increasing participation.By comparing each peer scaffolding between two grouping patterns,the author concluded that each kind of grouping pattern has its unique advantages.Heterogeneous grouping based on English competence seems more beneficial for student achievement and language development while homogeneous grouping can provide more emotional support.All in all,both grouping patterns make positive contributions to learners‘language development and emotional support.3.The author summarizes two categories that affect peer scaffolding.One is the internal factors and the other is the external factors.Internal factors include gender,language level or language competence,personality,mood and students‘ roles.External factors include instructor arrangement（topic choice,time allocation,group distribution and teachers‘ instruction）,group dynamics（acquaintance and commitment）and classroom environment.Based on the above research results,the author propose some feasible strategies to improve the use of peer scaffolding.As for students,students should divide the division of labor reasonably to ensure that everyone has something to say;Students should make good preparation in advance to improve the efficiency;Students should pay attention to the emotional state of partners and provide emotional support if necessary;Students should develop good cooperative learning habits,actively participate in the discussion,listen carefully and observe disciplines.As for teachers,teachers should play roles as supervisors and assessors;Teachers should arrange cooperative learning tasks reasonably and choose suitable topics for students.