The Role Of Scaffolding In Language Learning

When moving from the level of actual development to the potential developmental level in ZPD, scaffolding is required to represent assistance from the guidance or collaboration (Bruner, 1975). Wood et al. (1976) introduced the concept of scaffolding in their mother-child dyads study in which mothers helped their children construct a toy pyramid using wooden blocks. Therefore, it can be said that scaffolding initially referred to the interaction between an expert and a novice engaged in a problem-solving task (Wood et al., 1976). This concept is defined in a similar way in applied linguistics and education. It is defined as “… the dialogic process by which one speaker assists another in performing a function that he or she cannot perform alone”

They hold the view that scaffolding — in language learning consists of those supportive behaviours, adopted by the expert or the more knowledgeable peer — can facilitate the learner’s progress to a higher level of language development when the learner attends to form and meaning. It is implied that scaffolded help is not fixed; but it instead is continually revised by the expert to accommodate the emerging abilities of the novice, whose internalization of knowledge has been promoted by scaffolding and has been co-constructed in a social activity (Johnson,

As a result, the support enables the learner to perform a new task on a new occasion independently in contrast to the previous assisted performance. The dialogic process between a teacher or other capable peers and the learner facilitates the learner to reach the actual developmental level. As the learner becomes more and more confident with the new learning item, the scaffolding can be gradually removed so that eventually the learner is able to support himself as learning has become internalized. In short, the learner first succeeds in performing a new function with the assistance of another person, and then internalizes this function so that he or she can perform it