1
SCAFFOLDING FOR SKILL IMPROVEMENT EFL
BEGINNER-STUDENTS
THESIS
submitted in partial fullfilment
of the requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Bella Frisma Ningrum
112010061
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
THE FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
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SCAFFOLDING FOR SKILL IMPROVEMENT EFL
BEGINNER-STUDENTS
THESIS
submitted in partial fullfilment
of the requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Bella Frisma Ningrum
112010061
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
THE FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
3
SCAFFOLDING FOR SKILL IMPROVEMENT EFL
BEGINNER-STUDENTS
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Bella Frisma Ningrum 112010061
Approved by:
Victoria Usadya Palupi, MA-ELT Dian Toar S.
--- ---
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COPYRIGHT STATEMENT
This thesis contains no such material as has been submitted for examination in any course or accepted for the fulfillment of any degree or diploma in any university. To the best of my knowledge and my belief, this contains no material previously published or written by any other person except where due reference is made in the text.
Copyright@ 2014. Bella Frisma Ningrum and Victoria Usadya Palupi, MA-ELT.
All rights reserved. No part of this thesis may be reproduced by any means without the permission of at least one of the copyright owners or the English Teacher Education Program, Faculty of Language and Literature, Satya Wacana University, Salatiga.
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PUBLICATION AGREEMENT DECLARATION
As a member of the (SWCU) Satya Wacana Christian University academic community, I verify that:
Name : Bella Frisma Ningrum Student ID Number : 112010061
Study program : English Teacher Education Faculty : Language and Literature Kind of Work : Undergraduate Thesis
In developing my knowledge, I agree to provide SWCU with a non-exclusive royalty free right for my intellectual property and the contents therein entitled:
Scaffolding for Skill Improvement EFL Beginner-Students
along with any pertinent equipment.
With this non-exclusive royalty free right, SWCU maintains the right to copy, reproduce, print, publish, post, display, incorporate, store in or scan into a retrieval system or database, transmit, broadcast, barter or sell my intellectual property, in whole or in part without my express written permission, as long as my name is still included as the writer.
This declaration is made according to the best of my knowledge.
Made in : Salatiga Date :January 26, 2015 Verified by signee,
(Bella Frisma Ningrum)
Approved by
Thesis Supervisor Thesis Examiner
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TABLE OF CONTENT
Cover page...2
Approval Page...3
Copyright Statements...4
Publication Agreement Declarations...5
Table of content...6
Abstract...7
Introduction...7
Theoretical Framework...11
- Scaffolding...11
- Types of scaffolding...12
- Goals of scaffolding...14
- Instruments of scaffolding...15
The study...16
- Contextof the study...16
- Participant...17
- Instrument of data collection...18
- Data collection procedure...20
- Data analysis procedure...22
Findings and Discussion...23
- Scaffolding types and instruments used by the teachers...23
- Scaffolding goals applied by the teachers...32
- How scaffolding is important...35
- Displayed chart...38
Conclusion...39
Acknowledgement...42
The References...43
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SCAFFOLDING FOR SKILL IMPROVEMENT EFL
BEGINNER-STUDENTS
Bella Frisma Ningrum
Abstract
To help students achieve their optimum learning, teachers should guide the students to improve their skills. One of the teaching-techniques applied by teachers is scaffolding. Through scaffolding, teachers give the opportunity to students to perform and practice in class. However, teacher in one of the junior high schools in Banyubiru reported that seventh grade students required learning from the basic level because most of them still have low command of English. This study aims to explore what scaffolding goals, scaffolding types and scaffolding instruments applied by seventh grade teachers in one of junior high school in Banyubiru. In this study, observation and interview were used to collect the data. The data were teachers’ scaffolding which were classifed into three components : scaffolding goal, scaffolding type and scaffolding instrument based
on Vygotsky’s theory. The result of this study shows that teachers used various scaffolding instruments, applied soft scaffolding type and had several scaffolding goals as their scaffolding referential in teaching learning process. This study can be useful for teachers to improve their ability about teaching especially when they teach from the basic level and apply scaffolding in the classroom in order to help students to optimize their learning.
Key words : scaffolding, soft scaffolding type, scaffolding goal, scaffolding instruments
Introduction
Seventh grade teachers reported that they mostly have problems in teaching which arose the demand of prompt action to handle the situation where the problems were existed. Basically, the problems came from students who could
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maximally in teaching especially when they teach students from the basic level because the students need appropriate and direct assistance or guidance. One of
teaching-technique that teachers applied in classroom is the practice of scaffolding.
Accoording to Roehler and Cantlon (1996) scaffolding was developed to assist learners internalize to communicate their thougts. Teachers are responsible to lead the learners to understand of the relevant task which was gotten from the
teacher, and teacher must help them develop their own conception of the task. Learners are given opportunities to act like they know how to complete a task
before they actually did. Through scaffolding, teachers give the opportunities for learners to perform and practice in class. More importantly, practice is
beneficial to help learners learn necessary information and gain new knowledge.
Scaffolding could be done in the term of performing the tasks. Teachers supply students with any properties they need in order to learn, and then slowly
withdraw assistance as students are able to do their tasks more independently. Jacobs (2001) stated scaffolding help students to understand the importance of recognizing their own knowledge and working confidently during the lesson. In
this case, scaffolding give the positive impact in learning.
The exercises which are given from the teacher and most of its activities and the practice also make the students to create interaction in the classroom. To build an effective interaction among the students, the teacher must “scaffold”
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the teacher use to attract the students is scaffolding . Scaffolding guide students to learn using social interaction. Daniels (2001) described teaching as strongly
influenced by interaction and teaching also embedded in its social interaction, this type of teaching assumes a specific paradigm of teacher-students interaction
where the role of the teacher is as the collaborator in learning.
There were some previous study on the implementation of scaffolding
conducted by some researchers such as Kochakornjarupong (2007) who analized metacognitive feedback scaffolding system for pedagogical
apprenticeship; Dewi (2013) who analized scaffolding provided by the tea cher in teaching writing news item text; Yu (2013) found the effects of procedural
scaffolding; Sutami (2013) analized the influence of scaffolding in writing; Jacobs (2001) which provided scaffolding as a model for primary teacher preparation
and Carol ( 2011) developed scaffolding in children’ talks and learning. All of the studies implemented the theories from Lev Vygotsky (1979) which were
developed in modern research by Daniel (2001), and Berk & Winsler (1995). The result of all studies showed that an effective process of teaching is making the
interaction among the students to make them active in class and more on their practice by giving them relevant tasks. Scaffolding could be the effective learning
model to attract the students to do more on practice. Therefore, teacher is the main subject as the collaborator, co-constructor, instructor, and also scaffolder.
The result of the studies was very similar to my experience. I learned
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instrument in the term of giving questions in a game such as Guessing Game. My English teacher used metacognitive scaffolding. He had already explained the
various of colours as our learning materials. Then, he asked “what is the colour of
ambulance car ?” (Scaffolding instrument in the term of giving question based on our social situation to stimulate our thinking), it was make us remembered the colour of ambulance-car in our social context and also determined its colour as the information by our English teacher given. Some of us said “white”, and
others said “grey”. It showed that most of us were active in class.
Because scaffolding is one of teaching-techniques which could attract the
students, I conducted a research on scaffolding students in speaking and reading skill improvement. Speaking and reading are the main point when we learn a
language to make interaction and be active in class. I wanted to find out what teachers’ scaffolding goals which underlied their method and scaffolding type and its instruments applied in the seventh grade of junior high school in
Banyubiru. I choose the school because during my teaching practicum in this school, I had to observe the seventh grade English teachers and I saw the
teachers always perform scaffolding in the various ways to stimulate students’ thinking. Teachers also said that most of the students had low command of English, it made teachers perform maximally in class as the scaffolder,
collaborator and co-constructor. But, to perform scaffolding, teachers are required to decide what scaffolding goals they will use. The applied instruments
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make them perform maximally in classroom by using scaffolding and applying it in teaching-learning process to give positive impact on students learning.
Hence, I was interested in analyzing what are the benefits, goals, type and instruments of scaffolding which seventh grade teachers applied in here.
Scaffolding type and the instruments gotten from the observation, whereas scaffolding goals and the benefits gotten from the interview. By this research, it could be known how the seventh grade teachers practiced scaffolding in
classroom and several benefits of using scaffolding for both teachers and students.
This research was conducted to answer the following question: What are the goals,types and instruments of scaffolding seventh grade teachers use during
their lesson ? And what are the teacher’s opinion about the benefits of scaffolding for both seventh grade teacher and students in one of junior high school in Banyubiru?
Theoretical Framework
Scaffolding
Scaffolding can be described as guided participant. Verenikina (2008)
mentioned in a wide sense, scaffolding has been interpreted as "a form of support for the development and learning of children and young people" (Rasmussen 2001,
pg570). The term can be used as an umbrella metaphor to describe the way that
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2001, pg125). Ali (2007) noted according to Yu (2002), individual can profit from
social interaction. He adopts Vygotzkian perspective that “under guidance or in
collaboration with more capable peers” children can step from one lower to higher
level. Vygotskian calls this process as “scaffolding”. In children experience
scaffolding occurs as the support from their friends when they can succeed with their task. Children of the higher level gives the support to lower level children by providing knowledge and as the guided participant (Rogoff, 1990)). Scaffolding
also gives children support of independent performance as their learning step, so they can be active in class (McGrath & noble, 2005).
Scaffolding enables students to solve a problem. Sari (2010) mentioned that scaffolding can be described as a process that enables a child to solve a problem, carry out a task or achieve a goal that would be beyond his unassisted
efforts (norbury, 2004). Therefore, the goal of the teacher when using the scaffolding teaching strategy is to help the students to become independent and
self-regulating learner and problem solver (Stuyf, 2002, p.2)
Types of Scaffolding
Saye and Brush (2002) note that scaffolding techniques consist of the soft and hard scaffolding. The soft scaffolding is dynamic and involves more
teacher’s actions when providing support to students with certain needs promptly.
Teacher provides support and guidance to students in advance during the teaching-learning activity. Students then are expected to do the given assignment
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there has been significant learning progress. One example of soft scaffolding is givng students some questions to check their comprehension about certain subject.
When this is done, teachers or peers can give them feedback. Procedura l
scaffolding and metacognitive scaffolding is included as soft scaffolding.
In contrast, hard scaffolding are static supports that can be developed in advance based on anticipated or typical learners difficulties through tasks, for
example teachers help students deliver a strong, evidence-based argument to support them at a specific stage of the process that is difficult for most learners.
Brush and Saye (2002) make the distinction between “hard” and “soft”
scaffolding. Hard scaffolding is the purposeful, planned use of materials that are designed to support learners. These materials can range from texts (e.g., books,
notes, etc.) to audio/video (e.g., lecture recordings, podcasts with a variety of content, etc.) to graphical/visual (e.g., animation, illustrations, models, etc.).
Conceptual scaffolding and strategic scaffolding is include as hard scaffolding.
Basically, scaffolding has four types, they are: Procedural scaffolding which helps students use appropriate tools effectively step by step after teachers
give them instruction. Metacognitive scaffolding which prompts students to think about what they are learning throughout the process and assists students reflecting on what they have learnt (self-assessment). Conceptual scaffolding which helps
students decide what to consider in learning and guide them to key concepts.
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Goals of scaffolding
Berk and Winsler (1995) noticed that teacher has several scaffolding goals as a
base of their teaching-strategies, the goals are:
1. Jointly Problem Solving: it makes the learners socially shared cognition. It
means two participants or more who begin to do a task with different understandings then they could have a same understanding by interaction
with the peers. Learning will built at shared and determined the best understanding.
2. Intersubjectivity: It creates two participants who begin a task with
different understandings arrive at a shared understanding. Learning takes place with shared understanding.
3. Warmth and Responsiveness: it is believed that emotional tone of guidance is important. Children learn more when they are supported and encouraged to do so. It is important for adult to be engaged in process.
4. Keeping the Child in the ZPD: It will make learners do structure task and surrounding environment. It adjust amount of adult intervention to child’s
needs (not too much or too little).
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Instrument of scaffolding
Arikunto (2009: 25) noted in education, teaching-instruments are applied
to find out students achievement in language learning; the cognate and influential factors on the results of learning process, the students’ learning progress, the
teaching progress, and other progress in certain program.
Basically, scaffolding instruments are given based on teachers’ initiatives.
The instruments can be the method chosen by teachers, provision of teaching
tools, and other learning activities such as games, reading aloud, role
play,
impromptu speech, etc.
Wood, Bruner and Ross (1976) developed the scaffolding. They improved the
scaffolding by providing the adult and teachers with instruments to enhance
motivation among students. Scaffolding has certain types, goals and instruments. The
instruments themselves are very much dependent upon teacher’s initiatives (the
scaffolder). It turn out that interaction and task giving really help beginners to
comprehend new things.
Nunan (1989) stated that task is a kind of scaffolding instrument. Task is a piece of classroom work which involves learners in comprehending,
manipulating, producing or interacting in the target language while their attention is principally focused on meaning rather than form. The task should also have a sense of completeness, being able to stand alone as a communicative act in its
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Long (1985a) defines tasks with reference to the real-world tasks that people usually do in everyday life outside the classroom. Task is used to elicit
interaction, produce output, or meaning negotiation that would enable learners’ acquisitional process to proceed (Bygate, Skehan, Swain, 2001:3).
The Study
Context Of The Study
The context of this study was one of Junior High School in Semarang Residence. In English class, teacher used multi-language, which were mixture of Indonesian, English and Javanese to teach the students in order to make them
understand easier.
The reason of choosing this school is because I had had my teaching
practicum there. Most of the students here have been reported to have difficulties in learning English and they require teachers’ guidance to improve their skill from the basic level. I got the information from the teachers. English as
their compulsory subject in the school.
There were 6 classroom of seventh grade in here, VII A, VII B, VII C, VII
D, VII E, and VII F and two English teachers. They studied English 3x40 minutes every week. The school prepared both several English-Indonesian and
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I wanted to contribute into this school since I had learned and wanted to learn more to raise students’ motivation in class . During my observation to see
how the teacher teaches, I learned that most of their teaching employed collaborative learning and scaffolding as their learning models. Everything
begin from the basic, so I was interested to choose only seventh grade classes as my object observation. Teachers did the best to get students’ attention because students must be able to follow English to pass the curriculum.
I choosed seventh grade as my context study because seventh grade students were required to learn English from the basic level . Recently, English
was ommitted from main curiculum for elementary school. Some elementary school included English in their curiculum, but the others did not. English was
compulsory subject in Junior High School, although elementary school was not. It could be the reason that seventh grade students must learn English from the basic level. Therefore, great attention should be paid to the seventh grade students
regarding the fact that most of them did not get English in Elementary school.
Participants
The participants for this study were seventh grade English teachers. The two teachers who participate in this study graduated from English education
program. They had been teaching English for several years. Teacher A taught VII A, VII B, VII C, and VII D; then teacher B taught VII E and VII F. But, teacher B was both an English teacher and the headmaster. He was not always available for
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related events. When Teacher B was not available, teacher A could subtitute him
by joining teacher B’s students with teacher A’s students in his class.
They delivered English from the basic level. Both of them used teacher-centered in teaching English. Teachers were the instructor, who monitored the
progress, supported the learning process and managed the classroom. Therefore, teachers shared their opinions related to the situation in that school which covered the goals of using scaffolding, and the instruments they used for
teaching through task-activities that students had to do as their requirement in English class.
Instrument Of Data Collection
In this study, observation and interview were used as the instruments to collect the data. The observation were conducted ten times in different classes.
The focus of this observation were the teachers’ scaffolding of how to use the instruments and what the instruments applied in classroom. The interview was
about some additional information related teachers’ scaffolding goals and the
benefits of using scaffolding in class.
In this study, teachers’ scaffolding were noted down through the
19 Table 1
The observation protocol used in this study
20
The interview were done after all of the observation were completed. The
interviewee was teacher A . I did the interview two times which the interviewee of both were only teacher A because at that time, teacher B had seminar out of the town for several months. The first interview was discussed about ten questions
prepared and the second interview was about additional question for completed the information . The interview were done in 30 minutes for the first and 20
minutes for the second one. I used Bahasa Indonesia when interviewed teacher A to make him answer easier. I also used tape-recording to record the conversation then I made the transcript to help me finish this study more easily.
The interviewee answered freely according to their own experience. To collect the data, I used semi-structured interview. In this type of interview , the questions
can be changed depending on the direction from the interviewer. Corbetta (2003) stated an interview guide is also used, but additional questions can be asked.
Data Collection Procedure
There were several steps have been done in the data collection, first, observating the English class in seventh grade (class VII A, VII B, VII C VII D,
21 Table 2
The schedule of the observation of the study
Observation Date and
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After all of the observation were done, the next step were interviewing the teacher to complete the data. Resercher used tape-recorder to record the
conversation and avoid the missing parts. The interview was conducted after all of the observations. During interview, the researcher also showed edited-video to the
teacher related to scaffolding process. The last was transcribing the interview data.
Data Analysis Procedure
After the data was collected, the following steps were taken to analyze the data, first was classifying scaffolding type in classroom based on Saye and Brush (2002) which are Conceptual scaffolding and strategic scaffolding that were
included in hard scaffolding, and procedural scaffolding and metacognitive scaffolding that were included in soft scaffolding.
Then, describing the instruments used by the teacher based on Arikunto (2009: 25) that noted scaffolding instruments are given based on teachers’ initiatives.
Next, determining scaffolding goals based on the information which were gotten from the interview with the teacher.
After confirming scaffoding type, goals and instruments, the data was recapped in the form of table and displayed on a chart.
After that, I concluded the benefits of scaffolding for teacher and students
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Findings and Discussion
From ten observations in six different classes, there were many
instruments and one scaffolding type which were applied in teaching. The participants also shared the additional information related to the goals and benefits of scaffolding. Here, this part discussed about scaffolding types and instruments,
scaffolding goals and the importance of scaffolding for seventh grade teacher and also the students.
Scaffolding types and instruments
Below is the data of scaffolding instruments and type used by the teacher which
were gotten from the observation : Table 3
The used of scaffolding by the teacher
SOFT SCAFFOLDING
Making sentences using present continuous tense
Question-answers related to present continuous tense.
Class VII D
Teacher explained about how to make sentence using present continous tence, the let the students made it.
24 gave them oral feedback when they made mistakes. Teacher asked the students to translate another text as their task
Class VII A was about developing vocabulary. After the students finished, teacher asked them to raise their hands and said it
Class VII A students to make sentence using question-word.
Class VII E students to repeat it. After that, teacher gave relevant task for them. students to repeat it. After that, teacher gave relevant task for them
ST : Scaffolding Type P : Procedural Scaffolding
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Table 3 indicated that the teachers used scaffolding in classroom. Scaffolding process is one of the technique to help teacher supplied students’
interaction in classroom so the learning would be successfully done. From ten observation, the researcher found 320 scaffolding instruments used by the
teachers. The teachers provided 283 questions; 20 oral task such as making sentences and dialogue; 16 Repeating the conversation text by reading aloud; and a game. During ten observation, teachers developed soft scaffolding type which
were metacognitive scaffolding and procedural scaffolding for seventh graders. Each type had the following instruments that would be analized in table 4 :
Table 4
Scaffolding instruments used by the teacher
Questions Oral Tasks Reading Aloud Game
283 20 16 1
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Figure 1 Scaffolding instruments used by the teacher
Figure 1 showed that questions are the most common scaffolding instruments which were used by the teachers. Weimer (2011) stated that
questioning can provide feedback. When teacher ask questions, the students will think and are demanded to respond. When students try to respond, teachers can see how far the students understand the lesson and teacher can correct or help the
students to correct their mistakes or something they have not really understood (Weimer, 2011). Therefore, by asking questions, teachers can oversee students’
comprehension and stimulate students’ cognitive developments. The other scaffolding instruments used by the teachers were oral tasks, reading aloud and game.
During observation, scaffolding types and scaffolding instruments had been used. Teachers applied soft scaffolding in the classroom. The soft
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support to students with certain needs promptly. Teacher provides support and guidance to students in advance during the teaching-learning activity. Students
then are expected to do the given assignment using their own words and ideas. (Saye and Brush (2002)).
During soft scaffolding, teacher gave instruction or materials to students. Then, he provided a lot of questions to check their understanding. Teacher also gave feedback when students had mistakes. Next, teacher gave the opportunity for
students to develop their ideas by giving them relevant tasks. Through the tasks, students could perform independently.
They applied soft scaffolding which were metacognitive scaffolding and procedural scaffolding and the instruments used for seventh gaders in SMP
Negeri 1 Banyubiru would be explained.
1. Metacognitive scaffolding
Metacognitive scaffolding prompts students to think about what they are
learning throughout the process and assists students reflect on what they have learnt (self-assessment). In class VIID, for example, teachers gave the explanation
about “question word”. He explained about kinds of question-words and the
examples. For skill improving, teacher provided a lot of questions to the students. Students tried to answer that questions although they still used simple answers
such as “yes” or “no” and several words related to the questions. As shown in part
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Teacher A : students, we will continue our material about question-words, what is the example of question-words? (Scaffolding instrument in the form of question)
....
Teacher A : good ! what else? (Scaffolding instrument in the form of question)
...
Teacher A : “while” is not a question-word, okey? (Scaffolding instrument in the form of oral feedback)
...
Teacher A : now, let’s make a sentence using “what” ! , I will give one minute, just one sentence. (Scaffolding instrument in the form of oral-task)
(Observation 4, February 12, 2014, VII D class )
In the part of observation above, it could be seen that Teacher A had previously explained about question-word to students, so he said “we will continue our material about question-words..”, then, he provided questions related
to the materials. After that, teacher A gave relevant tasks for them. He asked students to make sentences using question-word. Teacher A let the students
develop their ideas, when they finished, they raised their hand and read their sentences or wrote the questions on the white-board.
Students tried to speak English through the task after they understood about question-words although some of them still had low- proficiency in speaking fluently. But at least, students already tried to learn English through
conversation and got oral feedback from the teacher. So, the interaction was succesfully made in classroom. In this case, scaffolding was the instrument that
the teacher used in giving students appropriate task such as question-answer and making sentences.
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continous and explained how to make sentence using present continuous tense. After that, teacher asked students to make sentence about present continuous tense
which that sentence was connected into their experiences. It showed that teacher applied metacognitive scaffolding by explaining the material first, then asking the
students to do the task in the term of making sentences. As shown in observation below:
Teacher A : Present continous tense is used to explain the condition that still in progress. Do you understand?
...
Teacher A : The formula of present continuous tense is Subject plus to be that consists of
is;am;are plus verb 1 and ing. For example Yordan.. what to be that you must use for subject Yordan?
...
Teacher A : Oke good! Yordan is playing football. Now let’s make sentences using
present continous based on your experiences, for example I am sleeping in class, etc. Then raise your hand and say it!
At the previous research, Sutami (2013) found the fact that metacognitive
scaffolding was appropriate for teaching recount in junior high school. Teacher gave the instruction about past tense, how to make essay using past tense, and explained about anything related to the recount then they let the students to do the
exercise to write recount text.Recount was related to the experience at the past, so the students would remembered about something in their experiences. As the
result, students could be done succesfully in writing recount text.
Observation 7 and Sutarmi’s showed that metacognitive scaffolding could
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It showed us the role of a teacher to use metacognitive scaffolding in the class. Teachers as the instructor and the models of learning. Teachers needed to
perform maximally in order to make students attract about the lesson. If the students understood, they would did the exercise succesfully.
2. Procedural Scaffolding
Procedural scaffolding helps students to use appropriate tools effectively
or step by step after teachers give them instruction.
In class VII E, teacher gave a model of how to read conversational English text then let the students to repeat after him. As shown in observation below:
Teacher B : students, now please repeat after me! I LOST MY WALLET YESTERDAY. . (Scaffolding instrument in the form of oral task by reading aloud)
Students : I – lost – my – wallet- yesterday ! (Students’ repeating from the teacher)
Teacher B : HOW DID IT HAPPEN ? . (Scaffolding instrument in the form of oral task by reading aloud)
Students : How – did – it – happen ? (Students’ repeating from the teacher) ...
Teacher B : If you want to make sentence about fact, you are not use “in my
opinion” or “according to...”. Fact is really happen. If you can make more sentences, you
are smart! Better if you make simple sentence. Before mentioning facts, make greeting first to begin your conversation. (procedures explanation). See? Let’s make it in group...then, perform it in front of the class.
Students : yes!!!
Teacher B : use dictionary if you have difficulties to find the words! (suggestion as the scaffolding instrument, the teacher as a tool-preparer)
(Scaffolding in obsevation 2,February 8, 2014, VII E class) By repeating, students were trying to read conversational English text.
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We could see from a part in observation 2, teacher B provided the
procedures of making conversation, then he asked students to make conversation. This was also the role of a teacher to do scaffolding. The
instruments are text-book & dictionaries as the tool and making conversation as the exercise.
In class VII A, teacher A provided game to improve students’ motivation. It was expected that through games, students will competed to do the best performance. Teacher A gave instruction or procedures about how to play a game.
Then students followed teacher’s explanation. As shown in observation 1:
Teacher A : let’s read this word !. (Scaffolding instrument in the form of giving oral task)
...
Teacher A : RICE-word contains of R,I,C, and E. Every alphabet must creates new word. For example , R can be ROOM, I can be IS, C can be CUP, etc. Do you understand? (Procedures esplanation and game as scaffolding instrument)
...
(Scaffolding in observation 1, February 7, 2014, VII A class)
From observation 1, students must be developed their ideas to find the words. This showed scaffolding in classroom. The instrument was from game.
It was the role of a teacher as “the scaffolder”. Teacher must have creative method
32 Scaffolding Goals
The goals of scaffolding was done by the teachers. It was to inspire
learners in learning and developing their knowledge and understanding. This part was discussed about the scaffolding goals applied by the teacher which gotten
from the interview.
Table 5
Scaffolding goals applied by the teachers
CONTEXT SCAFFOLDING
-The students and the teacher would socially share condition -Provided a lot of questions to make students develop their ideas
-Teacher delivered the personal experience with students.
Class VII E, F & C
Keeping Child in the ZPD
-Gave a lot of questions to the students
-Gave relevant tasks to the students.
-Distributed several dictionaries to the students as the property of learning.
-The teacher are not supposed to let students work without help.
Class VII A Promoting Self Regulation
-Let the students to do task in form of games
-Reduced the support to the students but distributed enough dictionaries to help students find out the meaning of the word that they still do not understand.
Class VII D Warmth and Responsiveness
-Suit his emotion with class situation tactfully
-Needed to speak in high tone to make students pay more attention to them.
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In class VII B and VII D, teacher A developed Jointly problem solving; as his scaffolding goals. He provided tasks to his students. In Join Problem Solving,
the students and the teacher would socially share condition for understanding the lesson. The teacher delivered the personal experience with students that the
students will easily get the knowledge. The teacher also provided a lot of questions to make students develop their ideas about the lesson by answering the questions . During my observation they were learnt about question-word. The
teacher asked to the students about the example of question-word, the example of the object and subject in form of questions, and also let the students make
question using the formula that has been taught. The students were able to do the tasks succesfully. They were active and encouraged to answer the questions. As shown in the result of interview below:
“....I have jointly problem solving as my scaffolding goals. Before I get the material to the students, better if we sha red understanding about the clue of our materials ba sed our social context to stimulate their thinking. So, the students would be know what are the materials that we a re going to lea rn, and they will
have the figure toward the lesson....”
Almost the same case as Jointly Problem Solving, in class VII E, VII F
and VII C, the teacher developed scaffolding goal such as Keeping Child in the
ZPD, the teacher also gave a lot of questions to the students to help them understand about the lesson and as the effort to make interaction in class. Next, the teacher gave relevant tasks to the students. The teacher distributed several dictionaries to the students as the property of learning. The teacher are not
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keeping child in the ZPD is assumed to have been feasible to gain motivation among students. As shown in interview result below:
“.... Keeping child in the ZPD is also my scaffolding goals. By giving the task, I
can oversee how far my students develop their thinking for doing the task well.” Related to Keeping child in the ZPD, in class VII A, Promoting Self
Regulation was also be the scaffolding goal for the teacher. He let the students to do task in form of games individually. The teacher reduced his support to the
students but he distributed enough dictionaries to help students find out the meaning of the word that they still do not understand. As the result, the students could manage themselves in doing the task using their creativities, ideas and in
this way the seemed active during the language learning process. By finding new vocabulary, the students will automatically keep the words in their minds. If
students succesfully understand a lot of words, they will confidently speak in English. As shown in interview result below:
“....I always reach Promoting Self Regulation in the term of game to attract my
students. In game, I let the students to make a group. In group, they will have competition with other groups. Here, students will manage the ways to win a
game. This is promoting self regulation will be conducted.”
During observation , only in classVII D, the teacher developed Warmth
and responsiveness as his scaffolding goal. Wa rmth and responsiveness made the students pay attention to the teacher. During learning process teachers suit his emotion with class situation tactfully. When students appeared tired, teachers
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made in efforts to improve motivation among students. As shown in interview result below:
“... Warmth and responsiveness is also my scaffolding goal. I did it to make my students recognize and pay attention to the lesson. If they pay attention, I a m easier to transfer my knowledge into them.”
How scaffolding is important
Scaffolding improves teachers’ creativity
Scaffolding was very important for the beginner students . English was taught in most elementary school only as optional course. That was why seventh
grade students must learn English from the basic level . Scaffolding spontaneosly done by the teacher as the basic concept strategy to raise and attract students’
attention. Tachers must understood the concept and applied it in class to improve their teaching-teachnique. By scaffolding, teachers would think and decide which appropriate teaching technique they would applied in class. As shown in
interview result below:
“ ... Basically, scaffolding is the basic concept of teaching-strategy. It is spontaneously done by the teacher. So, scaffolding can creates skill-improvement to the students. For sure, I am demanded to developed language learning and scaffolding is very useful to train teachers to be creative.” (Teacher A)
Through interview, teachers mentioned that scaffolding made teachers
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because it could improve skill among the students and his creativity in teaching.
Scaffolding as guided participant among the students and problem solver
of the obstacles in teaching-learning process
In teaching and learning process, there were a lot of obstacles in delivering the lesson. English was not a mother tongue for Indonesian
students, so, it would be an obstacle for them. Teachers’ role was the most important thing in here. They must had the concept to guide their students. Scaffolding was the teaching-concept- strategy for teachers. Scaffolding
helped students to make interaction among their peers and teachers. Through interaction, learners would share ideas, understanding and get
feedback-correction.
According to Yu (2002), individual can also profit from social interaction.
He adopts Vygotzkian perspective that “under guidance or in collaborative
with more capable peers” children can step from one lower to higher level. The higher level gives the support to lower level of children by providing knowledge and guided participation explicilty (Rogoff, 1990)). Below is a
part of interview which the interviewer is the researcher and the interviewee is teacher A :
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From a part of the interview, it can be inferred that scaffolding was very useful for both teachers and students. In learning process, obstacles are usually
found. Teacher said that the obstacles came from the students. If the plan A could not be sucessfully done, teacher must prepare plan B or another teaching method.
It needed creativity.Teachers could ask the smarter students to help students of lower command to create interaction. Through interaction, students would share ideas, and finally they would be more motivated.
Scaffolding creates skill improvement in social context
By using scaffolding during the class students would automatically keep in
mind of what they were learning. The teacher hoped that students could practice language not only in class but also outside the class. It could bring good-image for the school. Teacher also hoped students can perform English in social context
because the teacher would be proud of them. It concludes that practice makes perfect. Below is a part of interview which the interviewer is the researcher and
the interviewee is teacher A :
“... Practice enables students understand the lyrics of foreign songs and the foreign movies easily.” (Teacher A)
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Figure 3 SCAFFOLDING FOR SEVENTH GRADE STUDENTS
The benefit of scaffolding:
2. Keeping child in the ZPD
3. Promoting self regulation
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Scaffolding is useful for beginner students
Scaffolding was initiated and developed firstly by Lev Vygotsky using
interaction as the base concept. He proved how effective the scaffolding was for
learners especially for beginners. He conducted experiment on Kindegarten students
who only had very slight knowledge about subject or lesson. This experiment
succeeded to aid them to learn better from the introductory stage to advanced
comprehension and finally problem solving.
The seventh grade teachers who are the target of my observation seemed to
have use scaffolding during class to help students to understand English better. Most
of the seventh grade students did not study English in Elementary School. Whereas
English is the compulsory subject in Junior High School. Considering the facts,
English is supposed to be conducted at a basic level. As a result, they were able to
learn and understand English better with the assistance of instruments, types and
goals of scaffolding that their teachers applied in class. They enjoyed learning
English and could manage themselves in team working to help the peers with lower
command of English. This proved that scaffolding is a good strategy in giving support
to seventh grade students.
Conclusion
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both seventh grade teacher and students in one of junior high school in Banyubiru?” from the ten observations in six different classes of seventh grade
in a junior high school in Banyubiru, it could be concluded that the teachers used scaffolding in classroom.
As the beginner, seventh grade students needed scaffolding. In other words, scaffolding was very important for seventh grade students when some elementary school were ommited English as their compulsory subject. English
just like extracurricular for students in elementary school. It made seventh grade teachers make efforts for raising students motivation and finding the way for
improving their speech in English.
This study showed that teachers only used soft scaffolding for beginner
students such as seventh grade students. Beginners needed instruction at the beginning of their learning. After setting got instruction, they would develop their knowledge for doing the tasks. In soft scaffolding, teachers used procedural which
help the students use tools to do the task step by step and metacognitive scaffolding which prompt students to think about what they were learning
throughout the process and assists students reflecting on what they had learnt. Both procedural and metacognitive scaffolding had tasks as its instruments.
During teaching and learning process of doing scaffolding, teacher also had scaffolding goals as a base of his types and instruments of scaffolding. The goals were : promoting self regulation, joint problem solving, keeping child in the
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By using scaffolding, the opportunity for learners to work out meaning in negotiation should be created because it was important for acquisition the foreign
language. The following benefits of scaffolding are :
1. Scaffolding improves teacher’s creatives
2. Scaffolding as guided participant and problem solver 3. Scaffolding creates skill-improvement in social context.
This study was useful for improving teachers’ ability about teaching,
especially when the teachers faced beginner students. They could apply scaffolding as their teaching teachnique. Therefore, students would be more
actively in class.
This study focused on what scaffolding instruments and type used also the scaffolding goals applied by the teachers. In addition, this study also added more
information about the benefits of scaffolding for both teachers and students. Perfectly, by using observation and edited-videos, this study can provide how the
teachers practice scaffolding in the lesson. Fortunately, by interview, this study can also provide the real reasons of employing scaffolding that were done by the teachers in classroom. Therefore, it will be interesting if a further research could
assess the information of using scaffolding by both observation and interview.
From this study it can be learnt that teachers can use scaffolding as their
teaching-techniques to help students achieve their optimum learning. In addition, it also can be explored to know the benefits of using scaffolding for teaching
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Acknowledgement
For Allah SWT, thanks for everything, Your helps are always be my guidance for doing everything. You make me patient, never give up, keep my spirit, and also positive thinking.
Foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Mrs. Victoria Usadya Palupi, for the continuous support of my study and research, for her patience, feedback, enthusiasm, free time for consultation and immense knowledge. Her guidance helped me in all the time of research and writing of this thesis.
Besides my supervisor, I would like to thank the rest of my thesis examiner, Mr. Dian Toar Sumakul, for their suggestion to avoid plagiarism, encouragement, insightful comments, and hard questions.
My sincere thanks also goes to the seventh grade teachers who teach English as my observation target, for giving me the opportunities in completing my projects.
I thank my fellow mates in “Banyubiru” group : Desi Ariani, Atik
Ernawati, my “Big mom” Wahyu Ambarwati and Nur Kurnia Rahman for the stimulating discussions. I also thank to my beloved friends ,Ihsan Purwantoro, Jimmy, Tyara Haningratu Mutia, Aninda Mawar Intanuari, Ika Ratna and Ekky Hessia for your supports when I felt desperate to do this thesis and for all the fun we have had.
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APPENDIX
Ten questions are already prepared for the interviewee:
1. How long have you been teaching English for seventh grader students in SMP Negeri 1 Banyubiru?
2. Please, tell me about the English learning performance of the seventh grade students?
3. Is classroom interaction useful for students’ learning process?
4. What kind of exercises you will give to your students for compeling the tasks?
5. Do you have any difficulties or find any obstacles during class when you ive tasks? Mention them.
6. What scaffolding goals do you usually use to teach your students?
7. What is your proffesional opinion about the scaffolding applied during your class?
8. Do you intend to use scaffolding in your class?
9. Do you think scaffolding is useful and suitable for language learning?
