Scaffolding during the initial reading of picture books in Japanese elementary school EFL classrooms: a qualitative study investigating how teachers and learners co-construct meaning during whole class picture book reading
Title: Scaffolding during the initial reading of picture books in Japanese elementary school EFL classrooms: a qualitative study investigating how teachers and learners co-construct meaning during whole class picture book reading
Christopher Robert Cooper
Faculty of Development and Society
Department of Education, Childhood and Inclusion
TESOL
City Campus, Science Park
Howard Street, Sheffield S1 1WB
www.shu.ac.uk/tesol
Abstract
The current study investigated how an Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) and two Home Room Teachers (HRTs) co-constructed meaning with beginner 6-8 year old learners during whole-class picture book reading sections of EFL lessons in a Japanese elementary school. The study was qualitative, involving analysis of transcripts made from video and audio recordings, which were cross-referenced with the researcher’s reflective log.
The study posed two research questions, exploring how teachers provided support using different types of scaffolding and investigating whether learners provided collective scaffolding support to each other.
It was found that the ALT mainly provided support by ‘contextualising’ using gestures, pointing at pictures and verbal L2 explanations and also by ‘bridging’, providing links to students’ previous knowledge. The most common type of support provided by HRTs was ‘showing interest’, by laughing at students’ comments, responding with sounds of affirmation and repeating learner and ALT utterances in acknowledgment. The data suggested that collective scaffolding rarely occurs during whole-class picture book reading with these 6-8 year old Japanese elementary school learners.
Category: 2016 Thesis, Thesis
