Scaffolding Language Learning in an Academic ESL Classroom - Assignment Example

? Scaffolding Language Learning In an Academic ESL room The generic structure of this article has a more complex structure. This is because the paper is divided into several sections, which include abstract, introduction, literature review, the study, findings, further interpretation, implications for teachers, and conclusion. Additionally, other sections such as the study section is further divided into small sub-topics, which include research setting and participant, classroom task and interactions, and data collection and analysis. The finding section is divided into small lectures, small work group, and student-led discussion. The abstract section covers about 10 percent of the text while introduction section also covers about 10 percent, literature review section 20 percent, literature review, the study, findings, further interpretation, implications for teachers sections together covers 50 percent, and conclusion section about 10 percent of the text. There is also a smooth transition between one section into another that makes it easier for readers to comprehend the text with ease. Additionally, the abstract section is presented in italics to give readers a quick glance and gist of what the article presents. The other feature of the text is that the topics and sub-topics are not presented in the usual way, but are aligned on the left side of the paper with the information on the right side of the paper. In an academic oral skills class, learning as an activity should involve various undertakings. The classroom interaction should be some of the core areas the ESL learners should be well acquainted with. The paper portrays learning as a socially mediated and acquired process, which in its broader perspective involves various communicative activities (Kayi-Aydar, 2012 p13). The scaffolding is, therefore, affected by the classroom interaction while gaining knowledge. The interaction in the classroom, as a social area, must involve cognitive performances as well as dialogue, which are one of the bases of language development. Language as an aspect of development, on the other hand, is one of the key aspects of scaffolding in the classroom environment (McNeil, 2012 p398). The socio-cultural theory, on the other hand, is another crucial aspect of an academic oral skills learning. This is in relation to the socialization processes. The poorly socialized individuals and students tend to lack a well-developed argumentative skill, which is the basis of interactions while discussing academic issues (Lantolf, 2000 p34). On the kindergartens, the English language learners should be taught by reciting various words they learn in class. This will allow the expansion of their brains as recited words always stick, in the memory, for a long time (Lantolf, 2000 p41). This will as well accompany communicative activities such as salutations the kindergarten language learners always take part in on a daily basis starting from their teachers to their fellow colleagues whenever they interact. In the studies of the ESL, the students especially in an academic oral class should aptly embrace the interaction between the students and teacher for steady uprise in the oral and language skills (Kayi-Aydar, 2012 p26). The power relations as a result of interaction are one of the key aspects towards healthier scaffolding. The power relations enhance effective participation of the ESL learners in an academic oral skills class. The scaffolding should, therefore, involve description of various learning activities and putting them into practice through the group discussions and debates. This will not only set strong academic oral skills, but also enhance a proper language and presentation skills development. This system of the academic oral skills is a socially arbitrated process thus involves much of communicative activities thus relates to the socio-cultural linguistic (McNeil, 2012 p402). The provision of the scaffolding information by the tutors should be well adopted to enhance there is a relationship and understanding between the individuals undertaking the learning activities. This interaction between the learners centre of focus because of scaffolding will be primarily be based on the language between the groups of learners in terms of their levels of participation during the academic orals learning skills (O’Malley & Pierce, 1996 p62). From this article, I have encountered various unique ideas in relation to the language structure and composition. These ideas are to some extent what has made the language, and the various oral skills to evolve up to this extent. On the socio-cultural theory aspect in enhancement of the effectiveness, the language composition, the characteristic of socialization and social order should be greatly put into consideration. Ethnography is, on the other hand, another principle concept though not common amongst ESL learners may influence the academic oral skill class. The ethnic orientation in linguistics may greatly influence the classroom interaction as well as the power relations toward scaffolding. This aspect of linguistics brings the beliefs, traditions and religion towards the learning activities and in the end, the dominant language groups will influence the whole oral skills in the classroom in terms of pronunciation or even the vocabulary use in a classroom setting (Fairclough, 2001 p49). The concept of the focus on the relationship towards scaffolding and power relations greatly makes some of the objective and subjective viewpoints, in the literature, as the inner core of every social system and society as a whole (, 2001 p78). The power relations, as a significant attribute of the language development, should be based primarily on the peaceful coexistence of various role players in any given learning environment. Social relations should focus on a maximum interaction, which will ensure all aspects of the oral skills in the classroom are followed to the later. Learning as a social activity should not only include cognitive performances and communicative activities, but also be considerate to the whole studying community. The studying community is always characterised by various students who are of special needs. The investigation of the ESL learners should have been more considerate for some of the students of special needs, and this should greatly influence these students nature of the classroom interaction towards learning of their oral skills (Kayi-Aydar, 2012 p121). The English language, as one of the linguistically diversified languages, differs from various parts of the world hence while scaffolding an oral class the socialization and cultural affiliations should put into consideration as the other aspects influencing the language individuals speak. Additionally, various interactions in the classroom should be guided by a tutor or a teacher for it to be complete as various students fails to understand the languages of one another. This is mostly common in the kindergarten schools where the toddlers might come from different historical backgrounds thus speak different types of English such as the Queen’s English, which may not be easily understood by many. In the classroom, the relationship between power relations and scaffolding may be well expressed by the overall nature of interactions especially during the debates or classroom discussions where some students dominate the others. This shows that one of the key determinants of linguistics and oral skills is the personality. The personality as well is dependent on the socialization processes these students underwent through in the primary channels of socialization. This will highly affect the classroom socialization especially where more active personality students are the ones participating in the oral skills class. I have also learnt that the best factor for a well-established ESL should a high level of competence where the teacher should be the leader in a support language learning and use. This will positively affect the student’s participation as the teacher- led classroom is a liberal classroom where each and every student is more than willing to take part in the learning activities. Moreover, the critical evaluation of the learning ideas should be well accommodated by the learning of the language skills. Therefore, for any language to be effective, it should be critically analyzed by the learners and the learners should as well take part in the day-to-day searching of new vocabularies in the intended language structure. The ESL learners, to acquire one of the best language development and language skills, should indulge in the critical evaluation of the language and the new words learnt during class interactions amongst themselves. The classroom tasks should as well be distributed for an improved learning of the oral skills. The classwork should entail a small group work, the formal lectures as well as a student led session discussions. All of these aspects will bring various students together and interact in various ways, which may include through the ideological differences in explaining subjects, through dialogues and in their cognitive performances. This aspect of various interactions will pave the way for an improvement in the learner’s academic oral skills. Lastly, learners should be highly appreciated whenever they make mistakes and encouraged to control their frustrations whenever they face difficulty in the use of vocabularies and punctuations. This will enhance a perfect and conducive classroom environment for the correction of various oral skills mistakes by the students hence giving room for the development of an appropriate academic oral skill in the students. This will also encourage the participation levels of the students towards every learning activity involving interactions thus nurturing their already existing socialised oral skills. Bibliography ANTON, M. (2002). ‘The discourse of a learnercentered classroom: sociocultural perspectives on teacher–learner interaction in the secondlanguage classroom’. The Modern Language Journal 83/3: 303–18. FAIRCLOUGH, N. (2001). Language and Power (second edition). London: Longman. KAYI-AYDAR, H. (2012). ‘Negotiating power in the ESL classroom: positioning to learn’. Unpublished PhD thesis. University of Texas at Austin. LANTOLF, J. P. (2000). “Introducing Socio-cultural Theory” in J. P. Lantolf (ed.). Socio- Cultural Theory and Second Language Learning. Oxford: Oxford University Press. MCNEIL, L. (2012). ‘Using talk to scaffold referential questions for English language learners’. Teaching and Teacher Education 28/3: 396–404. O’MALLEY, J. M. AND L. V. PIERCE. (1996). Authentic Assessment for English Language Learners: Practical Approaches for Teachers. New York, NY: Addison Wesley. Read More