Niloofar Emam - Department of Foreign Languages, Iran University of Science and Technology
Mahboubeh Taghizadeh - Department of Foreign Languages, Iran University of Science and Technology

This study aimed to investigate (a) the effect of using scaffolding on young learners’ vocabulary knowledge and (b) the changes in learners’ perceptions after receiving scaffolding. The participants of this study were 40 students between 8 to 12 years old in Hamisheh Bahar Elementary School. According to the written and oral placement testwhich was held at the beginning of the term they were assigned to experimental and control group. During 12 treatment sessions of vocabulary instruction, the experimental group received songs, games, movie, art craft, dialogue, role play and school visiting; however, in the control group only activities in the textbook were taught. The results of the study revealed that the experimental group performed better than control group on the posttest of vocabulary, indicating that providing scaffolding was an effective technique for improving learners’ knowledge of vocabulary. In addition, all learners in the experimental group preferred to receive scaffolding from their teachers, and they stated that they learned better and more effectively by this way

attitudes, teaching/learning vocabularies, scaffolding, young learners, zone of proximal development