A Study On The Application Of Multimodal Scaffolding Instruction To English Writing Teaching In Senior High School

English writing is not only an important skill to measure students’ comprehensive English ability,but also a difficult point for senior high school students.A considerable number of students will have somatic anxiety,cognitive anxiety and avoidance behavior when facing English writing.Therefore,this thesis tries to find effective teaching method to relieve high school students’ English writing anxiety and improve their English writing performance.Multimodal scaffolding instruction effectively integrates multimodal teaching and scaffolding teaching.This teaching method can take advantage of multimodal teaching resources to present teaching scaffoldings,stimulate students’ various senses,create a relaxed learning atmosphere,improve students’ interest in English writing,and then reduce their English writing anxiety.It can also take advantage of scaffolding teaching.For example,the teacher provides writing scaffoldings for students,sets up writing situations,and leads students to explore independently and learn cooperatively,which is conducive to improving their English writing performance.Based on the Zone of Proximal Development and Multimodal Discourse Analysis Theory,combined with multimodal teaching and scaffolding teaching,this thesis explores the following two research questions:(1)What are the effects of multimodal scaffolding instruction on students’ English writing anxiety?(2)What are the effects of multimodal scaffolding instruction on the writing performance of students with different levels of English writing anxiety?In this study,102 students from two parallel classes in Grade One of Zhudian Middle School were selected as the research subjects.Before the experiment,a pre-test and pre-questionnaire were conducted to test whether the English writing performance and writing anxiety of the students in the experimental class and the control class are at the same level.Then multimodal scaffolding instruction and traditional English writing teaching were employed in EC and CC respectively.After the experiment,a post-test,post-questionnaire and interview were carried out to measure whether the students’ English writing anxiety and writing performance in EC have changed.By analyzing the experimental data and interview results,the researcher draws the following conclusions:Firstly,on the whole,students’ English writing anxiety in the experimental class has reduced compared with the control class.To be specific,somatic anxiety and cognitive anxiety are apparently declined,while avoidance behavior has no significant difference between the two classes.Secondly,multimodal scaffolding instruction can improve students’ English writing performance,especially for students with moderate anxiety level,but it has no significant effect on students with high anxiety level and low anxiety level.In addition,although students in the moderate anxiety group have no significant improvement in contextual coherence compared with those in the high anxiety group and the low anxiety group,they perform better in writing content and language accuracy.Therefore,conclusion can be drawn that multimodal scaffolding instruction has positive impact on students’ English writing anxiety and writing performance.