Scaffolding Instructions for English Language Learners

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Instructional scaffolding is a learning process designed to promote a deeper level of learning. Scaffolding is the support given during the learning process which is tailored to the needs of the student with the intention of helping the student achieve his/her learning goals (Sawyer, 2006).

      There are a number of ways in which teachers can assist students in developing language and subject matter knowledge from the interactive, sociocultural perspective sketched here. One such way, scaffolding, is particularly consonantwith sociocultural theory (SCT) and is well suited to English language learners.

A.    DISCUSSION

1.      Learning from a Sociocultural Perspective

The main tenets of vigotsky’s learning theory can be summarized as follow:

·         Leaning precedes development.

·         Language is the main vehicle (tool) of thought.

·         Mediation is central to learning.

·         Social interaction and internalization.

·         The Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD).

2.      Scaffolding

Creating contexts for linguistic and academic learning in the ZPD occurs in part through the scaffolding of social interaction. Scaffolding is closely related to the ZPD. In fact, it is only within the ZPD that scaffolding can occur. As we saw above, working in the ZPD means that the learner is assisted by others to be able to achieve more than he or she would be able to achieve alone. Scaffolding refers to the detailed circumstances of such work in the ZPD. According to David Wood, scaffolding is tutorial behavior that is contingent, collaborative and interactive (Wood, 1988: 96).

a.      Scaffolding as structure and process

The original idea of scaffolding comes from the work of Jerome Bruner, who defines scaffolding as a process of ‘setting up’ the situation to make the child’s entry easy and successful and then gradually pulling back and handing the role to the child as he becomes  skilled enough to manage it. (Bruner, 1983: 60)

b.      Features of pedagogical scaffolding

There are six features of pedagogical scaffolding, among others are:

·         Continuity

Tasks are repeated, with variations and connected to one another (e.g. as part of projects).

·         Contextual support

Exploration is encouraged in a safe, supportive environment; access to means and goals is promoted in a variety of ways.

·         Inter subjectivity

Mutual engagement and rapport are established; there is encouragement and nonthreatening participation in a shared community of practice.

·         Contingency

Task procedures are adjusted depending on actions of learners; contributions and utterances are oriented towards each other and may be constructed (or, see below, vertically constructed).

·         Handover/takeover

There is an increasing role for the learner as skills and confidence increase; the teacher watches carefully for the learner’s readiness to take over increasing parts of the action.

·         Flow

Skills and challenges are in balance; participants are focused on the task and are ‘in tune’ with each other.

c.       Scaffolded interaction differentiated from IRF

Often the scaffolding process arises in a context of spoken interaction, when the utterance of one participant is completed or taken further by the utterance of another participant. Bruner has called this kind of collaborative talk ‘ratchet-like’ (cited in Cazden, 1992: 103). In classroom settings, it is important to understand the difference between spoken interaction that scaffolds student learning and interaction that imposes a ‘recitation script’, as Tharp and Gallimore (1988) call it. Most teacher- student talk is of the scripted type (Wells, 1999) and is commonly known asScaffolding Instruction for English Learners 165 Initiation-Response-Feedback (IRF).

d.      Beyond the expert-novice context

So far we have discussed the ZPD and scaffolding from the perspective of a more knowledgeable person (a teacher or parent) interacting with a less knowledgeable person (a student or child). However, in the work of several researchers (Donato, 1994; Gibbons, 2002; Mercer, 1995; Rogoff, 1995), the idea of scaffolding has been expanded to include no only an expert-novice relationship, but also a relationship of equal knowledge, such as in a group of learners working on a shared task.

3.        Scaffolding instruction for English  Language learners in secondary Schools

Because scaffolds are by definition temporary, as the teacher observes that students are capable of handling more on their own, she gradually hands over responsibility to them. And the teacher carefully monitors the learners’ growing understanding and developing academic skills.

Types of instructional scaffolding to use with English learners

a.    Modelling

When introducing a new task or working format, it is indispensable that the learners be able to see or hear what a developing product looks like. The example;

In my chemistry class I can always do well because the teacher first demonstrates an experiment, and then we try a similar one.

b.      Bridging

-A common bridging approach is to activate students’ prior knowledge.

-Another important aspect of  bridging is establishing a personal link  between the students   and the subject matter.

-Other ways of  bridging include asking students to share personal experiences related to the theme. For example, as a way of preparing students to read Francisco Jimenez’s short story. 

c. Schema building

Schema, or clusters of meaning that are interconnected, are how we organise knowledge and understanding. If  building understanding is a matter of weaving new information into pre-existing structures of meaning, and it becomes indispensable for teachers to help English Language Learners see these connections, through a variety of activities.

d.      Re- presenting text

In terms of language use, this continuum starts  with asking students to say what is happening (as in drama or dialogue), then what has happened (narrative, reports), then what happens(generalisations in exposition ) and, finally, what may happen (tautologic transformations, theorising). Short stories or historical essa, for example, can be transformed into dramas or personal narratives.

The task is for students to re-present the article as a play. The teacher presents small groups each with a scenario that corresponds to a section, or moment, in the text.

 e. Developing metacognition

        It refers to the ways in which students manage their thinking, and it includes at least the following four aspects:

1)   Consciously appling learned strategies

2)   Knowledge and awareness of strategic

3)   Monitoring, evaluating, and adjusting performance during activity; and

4)   Planning for future performance based one evaluation of past performance.