Research into practice: Scaffolding learning processes to improve speaking performance

Goh, C. M. (2017). Research into practice: Scaffolding learning processes to improve speaking performance. Language Teaching, 50(2), 247-260. doi:10.1017/S0261444816000483

Background

The author highlights three areas of research that she believes are pertinent to developing second language speaking skills in the classroom: task repetition, pre-task planning and communication strategies.

Aims

The author aimed to investigate the extent to which the research in task repetition, pre-task planning and communication strategies was applied by English language teachers in Singapore and China.

Sample

The sample consisted of pre-service English teachers of bilingual students in Singapore schools, in-service teachers attending professional development courses and college EFL teachers from China that the author had contact with in her 20-year experience as a teacher educator in Singapore.

Method

The author surveyed the literature in the field which supports the importance of task repetition, pre-task planning and communication strategies and based her findings on her interactions with pre- and in-service teachers in Singapore and college teachers from China studying in the university context.

Findings

The author found that task repetition was an area of research that had not been well applied. One of the reasons the author identified this lack of application was that teachers typically used speaking activities as input for reading or writing. As speaking activities are positioned as practice rather than learning activities, feedback on performance is given but scaffolding skills for oral interaction activities such as role-play and information gap tasks is limited and very seldom repeated. The author contends that if students were given opportunities to repeat a task with different content focus, they would stand a greater chance of consistently developing their confidence and speaking skills.

Classroom research affirmed the usefulness of pre-task planning especially with monologic tasks and the author recommends guided pre-task planning guides to scaffold student learning. She concludes that communication strategies are well-established in textbooks and learners are supported by having access to lists of formulaic expressions that they can refer to to seek clarification or confirmation.

Implications

In terms of subject content knowledge, teachers would be aided by a better understanding of the construct of speaking competence – what skills, strategies and routines fluent speakers employ – so as to scaffold the learning for students and to enhance their skills in oral interaction. The author indicates possible directions for classroom inquiry, such as examining how student metacognition is developed and supported as a result of task repetition and pre-task planning, and the use of technology, beyond form-focused instruction and drills, to scaffold thinking and planning.

Original article retrieved from Google Scholar.