Zhou HongXia, Dr Tan Chee Lay 

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Abstract

The teaching of Chinese writing is facing ever-increasing challenges due to the changing linguistic landscape in Singapore. With the aim of improving students' Chinese writing ability, this study proposes an instructional scaffolding writing model that comprises of five sequential teaching steps, drawing on Vygotsky's socio-cultural theory and his notion of Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). This scaffolding model further takes reference from effective writing instructions from existing scaffolding writing models and empirical studies. Adopting a convenience sampling, this study intervened two primary 3 classes from a government school with the proposed scaffolding writing model so as to determine the model's feasibility and effectiveness. The experiment collected both quantitative data of pre- and post-tests and qualitative data of interviews with teachers and students from the experiment and control groups. Statistical analysis of the data reveal that the proposed scaffolding writing model is feasible, effective and worth implementing on a much larger scale in the Chinese as a second language classroom in Singapore.

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Keyword(s) : Chinese language; writing instruction; instructional scaffolding model