Action Research On The PBL English Writing Teaching In Senior High School Based On Scaffolding Theory

Writing is the output of students’ internal thinking,as well as the specific reflection of their thinking structure and knowledge building ability.Senior high school is a critical period for second language acquisition and basic language teaching.Effective writing instruction can not only improve students’ writing skills,but also consolidate their English knowledge and foster their abilities of independent information processing and language competence.However,the current English writing teaching situation of senior high school is not encouraging,as the students are so often reluctant to write,and it is challenging to considerably improve their writing ability and performance.With the innovation and development of classroom design concepts,it is of great practical value to use and integrate different teaching methods and instruction theory to create a new teaching model to solve the above problems and make up for the shortcomings of traditional classrooms.The Project-Based Learning(PBL)model can provide a practical framework for writing teaching and realize student-centered cooperative learning,but the role of teacher is not clear.On the other hand,research has shown that the PBL model cannot be applied in language teaching without scaffolding by the teacher.Thus,based on the Scaffolding Theory,this study takes 51 students from Class One,Grade Two of a senior high school in Hangzhou,Zhejiang as the research object,and uses the action research method to explore how to apply the PBL model based on Scaffolding Theory to the teaching of English writing,attempting to address the following questions:(1)How do we design a PBL writing class for senior high school students based on Scaffolding Theory?(2)What changes will take place in students’ writing motivation through PBL writing teaching based on Scaffolding Theory?(3)What are the effects of the PBL writing teaching based on Scaffolding Theory on senior high school students’ writing performance?This study used interviews to analyze the current situation of teachers’ English writing instruction and questionnaires to investigate changes in students’ motivation to write before and after the action research;the pre-test,the while-test,and the posttest were used to compare and analyze the effects of implementing the PBL writing instruction based on scaffolding theory.The following conclusions were drawn from this study.First,the specific implementation process of the PBL writing instruction in high school English based on Scaffolding Theory is the preparation cycle,the information gathering cycle,the information processing and self-writing cycle,the information display cycle,and the reflection cycle,meanwhile situation scaffolding,question scaffolding,suggestion scaffolding,resource scaffolding,language scaffolding,and evaluation scaffolding can be used to support project writing instruction throughout the process.Second,PBL English writing teaching based on Scaffolding Theory can improve students’ writing motivation.More specifically,students’ writing self-efficacy,intrinsic motivation of writing,and extrinsic motivation of writing are all improved to a certain extent,and their writing apprehension is greatly reduced.Third,the PBL English writing instruction based on Scaffolding Theory can improve students’ writing performance.The author also hopes that this study will contribute to the research and practice of English writing teaching in senior high school and can better improve students’ English writing performance.