Teachers' Use of Scaffolding Tools and Perceived Roles in Engish Classes

Abstract

This research is entitled as Teachers' Use of Scaffolding Tools and Perceived Roles in English Classes. The main objectives of this study were to find out the secondary level English language teachers' use of scaffolding tools while teaching English and their perceived roles of using scaffolding tools in teaching English to the students. The sample of the study included 2o Secondary level English teachers of twenty different schools of Kathmandu valley. They were selected through the use of purposive non-random sampling procedure. To fulfill the objectives of this study, questionnaire and observation checklist were used as the tools to obtain the data. The collected data were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively following simple statistical tools such as frequency count and percentage. The findings of the study showed that teachers' questioning, motivation, input modification, involving students in interaction, giving feedback and hints and translating the target language items into the students' native language were the most frequently used scaffolding tools in the ELT classroom. In the perception of teachers, they used scaffolding tools to create interest and engage students in learning English, to provide comprehensible input, to give hints and to make students more independent in learning. This study has been subsumed in five chapters. The first chapter consists of background of the study, statement of the problem, objectives of the study, research questions, significance of the study, delimitations of the study and operational definitions of key terms. The second chapter deals with the review of related theoretical literature, review of empirical literature, implications of the study and conceptual framework. The third chapter deals with design of the study, population, sample and sampling strategy, research tools, sources of data, data collection procedures and data analysis procedures. The fourth chapter consists of analysis of data and interpretation of results and the summary of findings. The fifth chapter consists of conclusion and recommendations. Recommendations have been presented in policy related, practice related and further research related. The final part of the study consists of references and appendices.