Therapeutic Scaffolding for Underachieving ESL Students.

Abstract

In Sri Lanka, many students who have completed their primary and secondary studies in their mother tongue, and who have limited English language proficiency, struggle at the university level where the medium of instruction is in English. These students have to face difficulties in learning a new language and new content simultaneously, and they encounter various types of learning challenges including cognitive, behavioural, language, and pedagogical problems. Literature on learning problems/challenges among students for whom English is a second language indicates that there is a dearth of empirical in-depth research investigating learning challenges of these students and limited intervention strategies to support them. Therefore, this research explores the use of a novel intervention approach/model called ‘Therapeutic Scaffolding’ (TS) to support underachieving ESL students to mitigate their learning challenges and enhance academic proficiency.