The Effect of Teacher Scaffolding on Students’ Paragraph Writing Skills in EFL Classroom: The Case of Grade Nine Students in Meneguzer Secondary School, Amhara Regional State, Ethiopia

This study was intended to examine the effect of teacher scaffolding on grade nine students’ paragraph writing performance in Meneguzer secondary school, Amhara-Ethiopia. The study employed a quasi-experimental research design with explanatory sequential mixed methods of data collection and analysis. There were experimental and control groups of students including 40 students in each group. Test, questionnaire and interview were used to gather data. The quantitative data were analysed using an independent sample t-test, whereas the qualitative data were analysed thematically.  The pre-test yielded a significant value of sig. (2-tailed) =0.659 which was higher than α =0.05. This showed that both the experimental and the control groups of students were equal and homogenous in their writing performance before treatment. However, after the treatment, there was a significant difference between the writing performance of the students in the two groups as the analysis of writing test in post-test yielded sig. (2- tailed) =0.025 which was smaller than α = 0.05. This implies that the treatment enabled the participants in the experimental group to improve their writing skills. The result of the questionnaire and interview analyses further revealed that the experimental group of participants were motivated and initiated by the teacher scaffolding to improve their writing skills. Thus, it can be concluded that teacher scaffolding has a positive significant effect on students’ writing skills. As a result, it motivates students to practice their writing skills independently.