A Study Of The Scaffolding Function Properties Of Classroom Feedback From Prominent Middle School English Teachers

I-R-F,a widely accepted classroom discourse structure,includes teacher initiation,student response and teacher feedback.In this conversational structure,teacher feedback accounts for a considerable proportion.High-qualified classroom feedback plays an effective role in guiding teacher-student communication and promoting language development.Whereas,current research shows that English teachers from middle schools may focus more on providing classroom feedback about form of language.Besides,such classroom feedback is not helpful to inspire profound reflection and further communication,and is not conducive to cultivate students’positive learning psychology.Additionally,many novice teachers are at a loss as to how to use classroom feedback as scaffolding to facilitate language learning.Therefore,exploring the overall use of prominent teachers’feedback and the relevant scaffolding for language teaching would deepen teachers’understanding of classroom feedback and improve the quality of classroom feedback.Judging from that,based on Scaffolding Theory and combined with previous empirical studies of teacher feedback and scaffolding function,this study aims at summarizing the distribution of different types of prominent English teachers’classroom feedback.Also,it would describe and conclude the properties of using different types of prominent English teachers’classroom feedback to construct and provide scaffolding functions.All in all,it may provide a useful reference for the majority of first-line English teachers.The research questions are as follows:（1）What is the distribution of different types of teacher feedback from prominent junior high school English teachers?（2）What are the properties of the scaffolding functions of different types of teacher feedback from prominent junior high school English teachers?（3）How do prominent junior high school English teachers perform the scaffolding functions of different types of classroom feedback?To answer the above research questions,twenty demonstration English lessons selected from the 13^th national junior high school English lessons demonstration were observed and recorded using classroom observation.All of the initiation-response-feedback episodes were transcribed.All of the evaluative feedback,discoursal feedback and the relevant scaffolding functions were coded and analyzed.Encoded data were analyzed and concluded by discourse analysis and a qualitative data analysis software called Nvivo11.The main findings are as follows.（1）Prominent junior high school English teachers used evaluative feedback（56%）and discoursal feedback（44%）more equally.Discoursal feedback focusing on the content of students’response was more frequently used,which implied the highly communicative efficiency.（2）There was a slightly higher proportion of cognitive function in evaluative and discoursal feedback,accounting for 51%and 55%respectively,than emotional function,making up 49%and 45%severally.Thus,it was clear that evaluative feedback and discoursal feedback do not explicitly partial to emotional function or cognitive function.（3）Referring to the distribution of Six Scaffolding Functions of Teacher Feedback,evaluative feedback qualitatively tended to perform the following three scaffolding functions:marking critical features（38%）,frustration control（32%）and demonstration（11%）while discoursal feedback was more likely to provide marking critical features（42%）,frustration control（28%）and recruitment（14%）.Thus,it was obvious that prominent English teachers attached much importance to consolidating important points and regulating students’emotions.In conclusion,high-qualified teacher feedback,which is closely related to effective language teaching and learning,positively promotes interactive communication between teachers and students.This study is not only of benefit in making a supplement in the field of classroom discourse,but also it gives enlightenment for front-line English teachers to adopt appropriate strategies of using classroom feedback.