Post 127: Scaffolding and Schema Theory in ESL Education

Post 127: Scaffolding and Schema Theory in ESL Education

English as a second language (ESL) students' learning units should build on the educational and personal experiences they bring to school (Early, Thew, and Wakefield 1986; Ashworth, Cummins, and Handscombe 1989). In language learning, students should be encouraged to use their previous experiences with oral and written language to develop their second language and to promote their growth to literacy (Au and Jordan 1981; Hudelson 1986, Edelsky 1986; Cummins and Swain 1986; Enright and McCloskey 1988). Students bring to school cultural identities, knowledge, and experiences that should be awarded by instructional practices rather than replaced or forgotten as learning takes place (Cummins 1986; Heath 1983; Jordan 1985; Moll and Diaz 1987).

Krashen's Input hypothesis states that learners progress in their knowledge of the language when they comprehend language input that is slightly more advanced than their current level. Krashen called this level of input "i+1", where "i" is the learner's interlanguage and "+1" is the next stage of language acquisition. Since each learner is a unique person with unique experiences, educators should use this knowledge base to build ESL curriculum. Getting to know each student and getting to know each students' background adds to the educator's arsenal of possible teaching topics that students can relate to. If what the teacher is teaching is similar to the experiences the students have had, then it makes it easier for students to relate to what the teacher is teaching. 

As the teacher bases her language lessons off the students' real life experiences, students can then be more motivated to learn the L2 language.  This correpsonds with Krashen's Input hypothesis where you teach just above what the student knows and then when the student makes errors, the teacher focuses on meaning not form and not constantly focus on correcting the student's every L2 mistake. For instance, when I was teaching ESL adult immigrant students, I taught them Survival English. I taught them how to say, "How do I buy a bus ticket?" "Where can I get a California ID?", "What is my Social Security Number?", "I am from Mexico.", "I want to learn good English to get a good job." And English grammar is then tied up with the real life expressions they learn much like how Rosetta Stone teaches its foreign languages using the Direct Immersion Method through pictures of real life. Using scaffolding (teaching based on students' prior experience) makes it easier for teachers to bond with students and gain the trust of students. If you remember the COI construction (Community of Inquiry Construction), Social, Cognitive and Teaching Presence? Cognitive Presence refers to how much the teacher knows about the students in the class based on student feedback and student interaction with the teacher. The more the teacher has cognitive presence, (knows about her students), the better she can construct lessons to match that background.