ESL Teachers' Scaffolding Strategies to Teach Writing

In Malaysia, English as a second language (ESL) students vary widely in terms of language proficiency. Their performance in writing shows a great disparity. The good students are able to write excellently while the weak ones struggle to write. The aim of this study was to validate the scaffolding models and modules for teaching the writing skills particularly to weak learners of English. This research was conducted using a qualitative approach. It was employed throughout the whole study except for ascertaining the students' performance in tests given to them for which a quantitative approach was used. The techniques for collecting data were document analysis, classroom observation, interviews and tests. Data from the lessons observed were triangulated with those obtained from the teachers' lesson plans. The findings have shown positive and favourable effects of scaffolding on the teaching and learning of writing among weak ESL learners. The effectiveness of the model was seen in the strategies used by the teachers. The teachers were competent in teaching English language lessons as they had more than five years of teaching English to weak students.