Does Scaffolding-Based Instruction Improve Writing Performance? The Case of Jordanian EFL Learners

The present study examines the potential effect of scaffolding instruction on Jordanian EFL tenth-grade students’ overall writ ing performance and their performance on the sub-skills of focus, development, organization, conventions and word cho ice. The study follows a quasi-experimental experimental/control g roup, pre-/post test design. In the experimental group, 20 female t enth-grade students from the North-Eastern Badia Directorate of Educatio n (Jordan) were taught to generate ideas, structure, draft, and edi t the r essays using agency scaffolding and the scaffolding principles o f contextual support, continuity, intersubjectivity, flow, conti gency and handover, within the Zone of Proximal Development. Another gr oup of 28 students was instructed conventionally per the guid elines outlined in the Teacher’s Book. After the treatment, descriptive statistics and ANCOVA were used to analyze the students’ scores on the pre-test and the post test. The results showed that the scaf folding instruction group outperformed the control group (at α≤ 0.05) in their overall writing performance and in their performance on all writing sub-skills except the sub-skill of development. Does Scaffolding-Based Instruction Improve Writing Performance? 107