A Case Study of EFL Teacher Scaffolding of an ASD Learner’s Shared Reading with a Storybook App

Abstract

Research conducted into scaffolding variations has widely investigated first/second language teachers and learners who do not have communication constraints. However, little is understood about how an EFL teacher scaffolds a young autism spectrum disorder (ASD) learner’s shared reading experiences with a storybook app. This study aims to draw an EFL teacher's cognitive, affective, and technical scaffolding and investigate to what extent Vygotsky’s theory accounts for the three types of scaffolding during shared reading activities with a storybook app. This case study design involved an EFL teacher and an ASD learner (aged 12, with an IQ of 110). The ASD learner only learned English from his teacher and a storybook app for more than one year. The EFL teacher’s frequency of utterances was transcribed, coded, and interpreted into three scaffoldings behavior. The results indicate that the three types of cognitive behavior frequently emerged during shared story activities to support learners’ interactive communication. This study offers a robust framework of how the three scaffolding categories are applied concurrently during interactive story sharing with the storybook app. It recommends that future researchers examine teacher's scaffolding behavior using a specific micro-analytical approach.