2.1.1 The Definition of Teachers’ Questioning
As a means for communication between students and teachers, questioning occupies an indispensable place in English teaching. In general, teachers’ questioning is considered to be a kind of teaching activity that stimulates students curiosity, and conducts constant exchanges and interactions between teachers and students. Besides, there are some different scholars defining the teachers’ questioning variously.
Cotton (1988) then defined teachers’ questioning as an activity that requires students to respond under the guidance of the teacher. Then Lynch (1991) defined teachers’ questioning as an instructive prompt or stimuli for to communicate with learners what to learn and to instruct learners what to do and how to do it. They all emphasize the guiding role of teachers in students’ participation and interaction in teachers’ questioning. Besides, Scholars Richards et al. (1994) believed that teachers’ questioning is to ask students to state their views and opinions on a fact, and scholar Ur (2000) defined classroom questioning as a purposeful teaching method that can arouse students’ oral answers.
2.2 Scaffolding Functions
The term scaffolding is based on the theory of proximal development proposed by the famous Soviet psychologist Vygotsky. In recent years, the research on scaffolding in education has received attention.
2.2.1 The Definition of Scaffolding
The term “scaffolding” originally meant a tool used by construction workers for external construction and dismantled after the house was completed. As the first to introduce the term “scaffolding” into the field of psychology, Vygotsky developed a concept known as the “zone of proximal development (ZPD)”, which refers to the learners’ basic cognitive level and underlying cognition area between levels. The term “scaffolding” appears in his psychological writings, but he does not apply it to language teaching. Based on Vygotsky’s theory, scholars Wood, Bruner, and Ross (1976) further studied the term “scaffolding” in their study. They found that it was difficult for children to progress from their current cognitive level to their potential level, and children need more help from adults. Therefore, they defined scaffolding as the process of enabling a child or novice to solve problems, perform tasks, or achieve goals beyond their independent efforts, which stressed the function of scaffolding to learners’ development. Additionally, Maybin et al. (1992) gave a definition of scaffolding and they believed that scaffolding is the appropriate assistance used by teachers to guide students. Then Ellis (2003) gave a similar definition for scaffolding from the view of applied linguistic and education, and he held the view that scaffolding is a discourse process that one speaker who cannot finish the task independently need another speaker’ help. Furthermore, Gibbons (2003) defined scaffolding as an intentional, temporary, responsible support that aids students to move new skills, concept of understanding. Based on the definition of scaffolding by scholars in previous literature, scaffolding in the thesis means that teachers provide students with a variety of appropriate and progressive aids based on students’ ZPD to promote students’ development in the classroom.
Chapter Three Methodology ............................... 22
3.1 Research Questions ................................ 22
3.2 Research Participants ................................ 23
3.3 Research Instruments .................................... 24
Chapter Four Findings and Discussion ..............
