Scaffolded assistance provided by an EFL teacher during whole-class interaction

Abstract

Leena Hakamäki tutki, kuinka opettaja ja oppilaat laajentavat opetuskeskustelua vieraan kielen oppitunnilla ja millaisia strategioita opettajalla on käytössään hänen tukiessaan oppimista opettajajohtoisessa luokkaopetuksessa. Aineistona oli 11 videonauhoitettua peruskoulun englannin kielen oppituntia. Hakamäki tutki tilanteita, joissa opettaja ja oppilaat käsittelivät uusia kielioppiasioita tai kertasivat jo aiemmin opetettuja kielioppisääntöjä.

This study investigates scaffolded assistance provided by an EFL teacher during whole-class interaction from a Vygotskian sociocultural perspective. The process of scaffolding has previously been studied mostly in one-to-one interactions, but this study focuses on teacher-fronted interactions in a naturalistic whole-class setting. The present study also extends research on scaffolding by examining the process in the Finnish school context, which has received little consideration. Firstly, the study describes the general organisation of grammar instructional episodes in the whole-class context and explores how the teacher and learners exploit the Initiation-Response-Follow-up (IRF) -structure within these episodes. Secondly, the study investigates the strategies the teacher employs in providing learners with scaffolded assistance. In addition, the features of scaffolding shown to be effective by the data of the study are described. The data comprised 11 successive audio- and video-recorded English lessons. The lessons were recorded during teacher-led whole-class interaction in a secondary school in Finland. For the purposes of the present study 15 grammar instructional episodes were chosen for micro-analysis. The data are analysed at three levels: the general organisation of grammar instructional episodes, the sequential organisation of classroom discourse and the strategies employed by the teacher in providing scaffolding. The methodology builds on previous studies of classroom discourse and scaffolding. The analysis is based on Vygotskian sociocultural theory and the concepts of scaffolding and the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). The present study is a descriptive case study that focuses on one English course given by a single language teacher. The grammar instructional episodes turned out to be organised into phases by the participants: the opening, grammar instructional and closing phases. The analysis also showed that both the teacher and the learners exploit the basic IRF structure during the teaching-learning process. Furthermore, the teacher used several different strategies in providing the learners with scaffolded assistance. Finally, the scaffolding that turned out to be effective in the present study was found to be gradual, contingent and shared by all the participants involved.