A Study on the Application of Scaffolding Instruction to Continuation Writing Teaching in Senior High School English

Abstract

Continuation writing combines language input and output, which helps develop students’ comprehensive language ability and facilitates the achievement of core competencies. However, in current senior high school classrooms, students’  ability to integrate reading and writing is notably inadequate, and teachers’  instructional focus often deviates from the core objectives of this task. Scaffolding instruction, grounded in the Zone of Proximal Development and constructivism, advocates providing timely support at the threshold of students’ competence and gradually withdrawing it, thus offering a theoretically compatible solution to improve this teaching situation. This study makes the scaffolding procedure into five phases in the continuation writing classroom, namely constructing scaffolding, entering the scene, exploring independently, cooperative learning and evaluation, and uses the teaching case to illustrate the guidelines of implementation in each phase. The case shows that this model effectively stimulates students’ emotional engagement and logical reasoning, guiding them to constantly enhance their own abilities and ultimately enabling them to produce continuations that align with the original text in both style and emotional coherence. The research not only provides frontline teachers with a clear classroom framework but also enriches the practical pathways for implementing continuation writing instruction in theory and practice.