Abstract

The current study investigates whether English language teachers use scaffolding strategies for developing their students’ reading comprehension skills or just for assessing their comprehension. It also tries to demonstrate whether teachers are aware of these strategies or they use them as a matter of habit. A questionnaire as well as structured interviews were basically designed for the purpose of the study. The descriptive qualitative research design was adopted due to suitability for the nature of the study. Results of the study revealed that Non-native English language teachers are not aware of the nature of scaffolding strategies they use; they use such strategies for the purpose of assessing their students’ comprehension rather than scaffolding their comprehension. It is recommended that English language teachers have an adequate orientation of the nature of scaffolding strategies, to what extent to be used (when to begin using these strategies and when to stop using them) and the significance in developing comprehension skills of students in the mainstream schools.

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