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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal – Vol. 9, No. 3

Publication Date: March 25, 2022

DOI:10.14738/assrj.93.12061. Ma, X., Jiang, X., Jia, Y., Wu, T., & Nie, Z. (2022). Research on Scaffolding Instruction Strategies for English Writing Teaching of Rural

Junior Middle School Students in China. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 9(3). 320-339.

Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom

Research on Scaffolding Instruction Strategies for English Writing

Teaching of Rural Junior Middle School Students in China

Xiulin Ma

Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875

Xue Jiang

Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875

Yujuan Jia

Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875

Tong Wu

Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875

Zhinie Nie

Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875

ABSTRACT

In the teaching process of English composition writing of rural junior middle school

students, there are some common cases that students "don't know how to start, the

composition structure is not clear, the vocabulary sentence pattern is scanty and

improper ". In view of these problems in teaching, this paper introduces scaffolding

teaching strategy, designs the vocabulary sentence structure, writing frame, online

interactive frame and other strategies to assist students in English writing based on

the practice of English writing teaching. Through scaffolding teaching practice, the

strategy and process of applying teaching scaffold to specific learning situation are

explored. The results show that :(1) Scaffolding teaching ability can improve the

English writing level of rural junior high school students, but also improve the

learning interest of English writing in the process of learning;(2) Scaffolding

teaching should not only pay attention to the process of knowledge construction,

but also pay attention to the cultivation of students' interest in English learning to

promote the development of learners' English writing ability.

Keyword: Scaffolding teaching strategy; Junior Middle School English writing teaching;

English writing teaching model.

INTRODUCTION

Research Background

In 2020, the author participated in the English teaching reform of a county-level public junior

middle school, and the research object was mainly junior middle school students in rural China.

From the perspective of teaching and research, most students have not been exposed to the

English language environment since childhood, and their understanding of English depends on

teachers, English textbooks and the accompanying tapes. They have almost no chance to use

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Ma, X., Jiang, X., Jia, Y., Wu, T., & Nie, Z. (2022). Research on Scaffolding Instruction Strategies for English Writing Teaching of Rural Junior Middle

School Students in China. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 9(3). 320-339.

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.93.12061

and practice English in life, so they are generally not interested in English[i]

. At the beginning of

the study, the English writing teaching for these students was even more difficult.

Junior middle school English writing teaching is difficult to match the needs of English

education

(1) English education and its teaching reform are getting more and more attention

In language teaching, writing, listening, speaking and reading constitute the basic language

skills, which are the expression of learners' comprehensive language ability and one of the

important ways to evaluate the effectiveness of language learning[ ii ]

. English Curriculum

Standards for Middle Schools points out that the cultivation of writing ability is an important

goal of English curriculum learning. As an important way of language output, English writing

helps to improve students' ability to use language in practice, especially their language

communication and expression skills which play an important role in English teaching and they

cannot be ignored.

(2) The reform of English writing teaching is slow and the teaching method is single

Although the English ability and test scores of middle school students have improved

significantly in recent years, but the English writing ability and score have not improved

synchronously, and the score rate of writing part is generally low.

However, the teachers' attention and understanding of writing class degree is insufficient in the

traditional middle school English writing teaching, they put the writing as to impart knowledge,

pay attention to more about writing skills and methods, such as the choice of words, the correct

of sentences and grammar, the selection of complex sentence and so on, often through the

analysis of the standard of presentation model essay to students present writing, which

emphasis more on formal imitation[iii]

. Under the teacher's long-term "one word" teaching

mode, students have low interest in writing, lack of motivation in writing, and regard writing

tasks as “tigers”. Therefore, they do not write even if they can write, and the more they do not

write, the less they can, and more easily lose confidence and don’t want to write again, thus

forming a vicious circle.

Problems existing in junior middle school English writing teaching

After the author's investigation and analysis, combined with the problems found in teaching,

the author found that: junior middle school students’ English writing problems are mainly

concentrated in:

(1) Fear of difficulties is serious, the phenomenon of students not knowing how to start is

common. Low interest and lack of motivation due to writing difficulties;

(2) Lack of effective writing guidance and training; the basic knowledge of English language is

weak, such as vocabulary, grammar and syntax, cohesion between sentences and so on.

(3) The influence of the difference between Chinese and Western ways of thinking.

Because most students are afraid of difficulties in writing, their sense of self-efficacy is very

poor, and they are not confident in their writing ability, leading to a lack of interest in English

writing. They always finish writing tasks perfunctorily under the pressure of teachers' tough

requirements and exams. Almost no students can actively explore the learning methods of

English writing, overcome writing barriers, and will not consciously accumulate writing

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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal (ASSRJ) Vol. 9, Issue 3, March-2022

Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom

materials for the future writing foundation. Over time, the writing level is getting lower and

lower. Until completely losing interest and confidence, they can only give up writing.

Due to the interference of mother tongue thinking and expression, coupled with the insufficient

input of students' English language, most junior middle school students are influenced by

Chinese in word order, word selection and sentence making in English expression, resulting in

a large number of "Chinglish", which leads to unclear logic and unclear views when

understanding the whole article from the perspective of English language, and it is difficult for

students to find it by themselves, harder to correct[iv]

.

Application and value of scaffolding teaching strategy in auxiliary teaching

In the 1950s, based on Piaget's constructivism theory and Vygotsky's “Zone of Proximal

Development” theory Wood and Jerome Bruner first put forward the word "scaffolding" in their

article "The Role of Teaching in Problem Solving", which refers to a way for learners to acquire

new language structures[v]

.

The high standard of English writing requirement and the actual poor writing ability of students

are the main contradiction that should be solved in English writing teaching. Therefore, the

teacher must reform teaching concept, improve teaching methods and explore new and

effective writing teaching mode in the writing teaching, to help students set up the framework

of writing concept, encourage them through independent exploration, co-operative learning

and other ways to reduce the loss and confusion in writing, learning and understanding writing,

solving the problem of writing in the process[vi]

, mastering good writing skills, improving

writing interest and confidence, which can gradually meet the requirements of the new

curriculum standard for the comprehensive application ability of English language. Therefore,

compared with traditional writing teaching, scaffolding teaching can build scaffolding for

students and relieve students’ fear of English writing from the starting point. With the help of

brackets, students can gradually form standardized English essays, and then improve their self- efficacy of writing in English class, so as to stimulate their interest in English writing.

Research Question

Based on the above research background, the author chose scaffolding teaching strategy to

support and guide the English writing teaching activities in my teaching class, and carried out

theoretical research and teaching practice, mainly focusing on the following three key issues.

(1) Based on the problems in English writing of rural junior students, this study discusses the

specific steps of applying scaffolding teaching theory to English writing teaching in junior high

school, and gives a specific case analysis.

(2) Using the scaffolding theory to guide English writing teaching, the author builds a "scaffold"

for students to write English, according to the experimental results to verify the effectiveness

of scaffolding teaching in improving the English writing level of junior middle school students,

that is, whether this way can solve the situation of students who have no way to write English.

(3) Using the questionnaire survey to explore whether scaffolding teaching can improve the

interest of junior middle school students in learning English.