Teacher’s and Students’ Scaffolding in an EFL Classroom

Abstract

Scaffolding is a teaching strategy which originates from Lev Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory. He proposed the concept of the zone of proximal development, illustrating the distance between what individuals can achieve by themselves and what they can achieve with assistance from others. Scaffolding is a temporary support which individuals receive from more knowledgeable others during their development. In a classroom, the scaffolding can come from the teacher of the classroom as well as students. This study investigated the scaffolding from a teacher and from classmates while students were doing tasks in the classroom setting. As the participants of the research were EFL students with low English proficiency, the research compared the scaffolding strategies used by the teacher to by the classmates. Also, it focused on the task achievement after the students received the social supports and students’ attitudes towards the scaffolding providers. The research provided recommendation on using scaffolding as a teaching strategy in an EFL classroom.

DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2013.v2n8p338