The Art of Scaffolding an EFL Writing Class in a Hybrid Environment: A Practical Experience

Many universities are adopting eLearning in their programs. Accordingly, there is an urgency to reconsider the pedagogical perspectives, which need to be refined in order to meet the demands of learning conducted in these technology-rich environments. The theory of scaffolding, which aligns with the constructivist theory, is revisited to teach an EFL writing class and expanded in order to provide our future learners in a hybrid environment (both online and face-to-face) with better pedagogical strategies. As a result, learning writing within these scaffolded environments occurs in a carefully-monitored manner but outside the scaffolds used, it is intended that learning may then occur in a natural and disorganized way without the students being conscious of having to achieve assessment objectives. This ‘natural and disorganized way’ is referred to as chaotic creativity. An action research design has been utilized throughout this study to achieve a paradigm shift as well as to inform practice in these technology-rich environments so that teachers continually strive to improve and rethink their existing pedagogical perspectives while using a hybrid learning environment. The results have indicated that the students take the advantages of using the scaffolds implemented in a hybrid learning environment to enrich their rich and meaningful learning journeys. The online activities, mostly conducted after the F2F mode, have given them greater opportunities to both reinforce and expand the knowledge they have acquired in the F2F mode.