A Study On The Application Of Scaffolding Instruction And Its Teaching Effect On English Writing Teaching In Senior High School

Nowadays,the significance of writing ability has been accepted by SLA experts and teachers.Among the four basic skills in English learning,writing ability is usually considered the most complex and the most difficult one for students.Due to various reasons,the quality of teaching and learning in English writing is still not in accordance with the requirements of National College Entrance Examination.We hypothesize scaffolding instruction might be an effective approach that can improve the current English writing situation.Scaffolding instruction was applied abroad firstly and proved to be effective,while the study is comparatively limited in China.So we intend to do an in-depth research on the effect of scaffolding instruction on senior high English writing teaching.The thesis firstly reviews the related researches on scaffolding instruction to provide a theoretical foundation for the research and then analyzes how scaffolding instruction is developed and applied in senior high English writing teaching by combining theory with practice.In order to verify its effect on different genres of writing including description,narration,exposition and argumentation,and different aspects of composition concerning its structure,unity,cohesion and appropriateness,we conduct the one-semester research which aims at 30 students in Wuhan L High school.In English writing class with scaffolding instruction,the teacher applies various scaffolding types according to the characteristics of four genres of writing.Composition analysis and test analysis are the main research methods used to compare the scores of students’ writing.In addition,questionnaire survey and interview method are also used to explore the role of scaffolding instruction in students’ learning.The research indicates scaffolding instruction has an obvious effect on the improvement of students’ English writing scores in senior high school.Also,it has various effects on four basic genres of writing and four aspects of composition.According to the intensity of effect of scaffolding instruction,the four genres of writings can be ordered as: narration > description > exposition > argumentation.Four aspects of composition can be ordered as: structure > unity > cohesion >appropriateness.Based on the major findings of the research,the suggestions are put forward accordingly to help to improve the quality of English writing teaching in the hope that the research will give some enlightenment for English writing teaching in senior high school.