An Exploration of the Impact of Cognitive, Meta-cognitive and Motivational Scaffolding on EFL Students Oral Production in Asia Context

Abstract

This paper examined the efficiency of three types of scaffolding (cognitive, meta-cognitive and motivational scaffolding) in boosting English as Foreign Language (EFL) university students speaking motivation and proficiency in the context of Asia. To this end, this study is carried out by reviewing and synthesizing previous literature and empiric work. It is found out that each type of scaffolding is effective in improving learners oral production. However, an ambiguous classification between these three scaffolds, in terms of their operational definitions, would made it hard to measure the extent to which students speaking performance can be influenced by each type of scaffold alone. Hence, the answer to which type of scaffold is the most effective is inconclusive. In addition, the exploration of the motivational scaffold framework aimed to focus on learners emotional needs is in progress, yet a much more significant amount of studies and empirical work about this type of scaffold will be needed, in terms of investigating its impact on students both cognitive and affective aspects. Finally, no current research empirically investigated the impact of these scaffolds on students speaking motivation; instead only a fragment of descriptive comments can be found in a few studies.