Scaffolding Content and Language Learning

Topic: Scaffolding Content and Language Learning

Date: 15.10.2014

Time: 11.00 a.m. – 12.30 p.m.

Trainer: Mr Chris

Report

Within the context of language teaching, the lecturer/teacher is faced with students of various proficiency levels and learning experiences. For students with strong language background, they have little problems with adjusting themselves in the language classroom. However, for students with mixed abilities, they may face difficulties in completing language tasks that are more challenging. This is where the scaffolding approach can come in to help students especially the weaker ones in the learning of the targeted language. Scaffolding is the steps teachers can take to support learners so that they can understand the lesson being taught especially in learning new content and developing new skills.

In today’s lesson, Mr Chris introduced us to several techniques on how we can scaffold tasks for receptive and productive skills. For example, learners can be supported by the lecturer/teacher or their peers through collaborative tasks based around questions, link to previous knowledge, constructive feedback and self-reflection. Our trainer also asked us the scaffolding techniques that we have used in our own teaching. The answers were varied as many of us came from different teaching background namely polytechnics, community colleges and vocational colleges. Hence, it was truly amazing for us to share and listen to our colleagues on their teaching experiences especially on scaffolding the contents of the lesson at hand.

Professor Jan Herrington did some research on how scaffolding can be beneficial to students in the learning process. She stated that the teacher’s role in an authentic learning environment is to be supportive and not didactic. In other words, the teacher is there to facilitate the learning process of the students and not be giving instructions on what to do all the time. For instance, the teacher can help learners to connect current learning with previous learning. The teacher can also suggest word list or glossary for students to expand their vocabulary in a communicative activity.

Through the video posted by Professor Jan on Youtube, we were amazed to find out that Twitter can be used as a scaffolding tool to help students in the learning process outside the classroom. Twitter is a micro-blogging site where users can update their status by posting the latest information. In terms of learning, students can post their questions online and the teacher can respond to those questions at anytime. The teacher can also post a topic to be discussed online and let the students give their opinions or debate on the matter. This will create an interactive discussion among the group, while the teacher acts as a facilitator to ensure that the discussion is on track.

In summary, scaffolding is useful in helping students especially the weaker ones in learning new content and developing new skills. As lecturers/teachers, we should be aware that students of various proficiency levels learn differently and therefore we should employ suitable scaffolding techniques to help them to improve their learning abilities in the language classroom.

Reflections

As lecturers/teachers, the quest to find effective ways to improve our students’ academic performance is a never ending job. The active discussions and various activities in our session with Mr Chris on “Scaffolding and Language Learning” made us realised that students benefit greatly from scaffolding techniques. We agree that using suitable and effective scaffolding techniques in the classroom will enable students to be more independent and responsible in their learning process. However, for scaffolding to take place and be productive, the main issue that we need to tackle is that, are we teachers/lecturers ready to move away from a teacher-centred classroom to one that is more learner-centred?

Generally, we think that as lecturers, we need to control the direction of the teaching and learning process for fear that the learners are not ready to take the responsibility of managing their own learning process. However, after our hands-on experience of interesting and challenging tasks, we realised that these tasks can be implemented in our classroom because they are specifically designed to promote interest and collaboration among the learners.

Recommendations

As interesting and challenging the tasks were, we also agree that many of them were not suitable for the level of the learners in the context of polytechnics, community colleges and vocational schools. By adapting similar tasks to suit the needs and different level of proficiency of the learners, we believe that lecturers/teachers can significantly assist learners to grasp and master the language skills outlined in each lesson.

 In addition, scaffolding requires us to break down tasks into smaller parts, and this means that we need to spend time generating activities suitable for learners; taking into consideration the relevance of the activities to their courses and proficiency level, that means more burden for lecturers/teachers to come up with sufficient activities. It will be very beneficial in the long run if lecturers/teachers, teaching the same course, can work together to develop high quality teaching and learning resources that can be shared with polytechnics, community colleges and technical schools all over Malaysia.

Finally, we believe that the teaching and learning culture in Malaysia need to change for scaffolding techniques to be really effective. Many of us are worried that learners are not ready for scaffolding because they are weak in the target language (English) and consequently, many are still using teacher-centred approach in their lessons. We believe as a lecturer/teacher, we need to be positive and do our best to adopt scaffolding techniques in our students. It can be introduced in the lessons in stages, and gradually over the time, we can see the advantages of incorporating these techniques in the class.

In conclusion, we are positive on the idea of incorporating scaffolding techniques in our lessons, and we also consider the various techniques to be fundamental to good, solid teaching for all students.