NEGOTIATED PEDAGOGIC SPACE VIA TEACHER CONCEPTUAL SCAFFOLDING IN STRATEGIES-BASED READING INSTRUCTION

Abstract

The main objective of this study was to examine the extent to which teacher conceptual scaffolding of strategy use helps facilitate the learners’ effort at comprehending academic texts. Its main focus was to determine the impact of teacher conceptual scaffolding on the learners’. By conceptual scaffolding, the teacher informed the learners not only features but also rationales (why, how & when) of applying each strategy deemed appropriate for the reading tasks; equipping the learners with conditional knowledge of strategy use. The study adopted a quasi-experimental approach involving two groups of Malaysian ESL tertiary learners: control and experimental groups. The experimental group attended ten (10) hours or five reading sessions, intensive with teacher conceptual scaffolding, while the control group only attended conventional reading sessions. Scaffolding process in the experimental group was measured by means of structured observations which were scored using descriptive statistics for mean average. Both groups were pre-tested and post-tested on recall and comprehension of propositions from selected academic texts. The results obtained were analysed using Wilcoxon Matched-Pairs Signed-Rank Test (WMPSRT) for changes in level of significance, established at p < 0.05. The results indicate that there was significant increase in terms of scores between the pre-test and post-test for the experimental group. The findings suggest clearly that teacher conceptual scaffolding provides positive impact on the learners’ reading performance.

Keywords: reading; strategy; scaffolding; intersubjectivity; collaboration