Internalizing Linguistic Features Through Expert Scaffolding: A Case of Iranian EFL Learners

Abstract

The study aims to explore the effect of expert scaffolding on the internalization of linguistic features by Iranian EFL elementary learners. Two groups of elementary (n=10) and advanced (n=6) learners of English were invited to participate in this study. A picture description task was administered to the elementary participants as their pretest and posttest. The participants’ oral presentations of the pictures were audio-recorded and transcribed. Two weeks after the pretesting session, they were given another picture description task as the treatment. In the next stage, each elementary learner was assigned with an advanced learner forming an expert-novice pair to work on the transcripts of their oral presentations. The results indicated that the advanced learners employed several scaffolding techniques to make the novice notice the linguistic gaps and consequently internalize the co-constructed knowledge during the treatment session. Following Van Lier’s (1996) framework, some features of scaffolding were observed in the dialogic process of expert-novice interaction. The study may shed light on how expert-novice learners jointly create learning opportunities.