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Majid Amerian

Majid Amerian

Academic rank: Associate Professor
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7772-0506
Education: PhD.
ScopusId: 55802017900
HIndex:
Faculty: Literature and Languages
Address: Arak University
Phone:

Research

Title
Sociocultural Theory in Practice: The Effect of Teacher, Class, and Peer Scaffolding on the Writing Development of EFL Learners
Type
JournalPaper
Keywords
writing development, teacher scaffolding, class scaffolding, peer scaffolding, sociocultural theory
Year
2014
Journal International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature
DOI
Researchers Majid Amerian ، Mousa Ahmadian ، Ehsan Mehri

Abstract

One of the influential concepts of sociocultural theory in language acquisition research is the zone of proximal development, which is an opportunity for language learners to develop their capacities. It is believed that the learner’s language development happens through scaffolding in language learning (Bruner, 1983). This study relies on the scaffolding technique to investigate the effect of three forms of scaffolding process, namely teacher, class, and peer scaffolding, on the writing development of EFL learners. To do this, an intact group sample of 30 participants was selected. The participants were doing their essay writing course in which 19 of them were in one class, assumed as the experimental group in the study, and 11 were in another, assumed as the control group. To maintain possible homogeneity of the participants, an Oxford Placement Test was administered to both groups. The experimental group practiced the techniques of teacher, class, and peer scaffolding in three consecutive sessions respectively, while the control group practiced three individual techniques. After analyzing the mean of the total scores in addition to interrater reliability, the multivariate tests, on the quantitative analysis, showed that the control group outperformed the experimental group. For further understanding of the reasons, on the qualitative analysis, the talks in the experimental group were analyzed. Finally, the findings of both quantitative and qualitative methods of analysis are discussed.