Application of Scaffolding Instruction in Senior High School English Reading Teaching: A Case Study of Living Legends

This study explores the application of Scaffolding Instruction in senior high school English reading teaching, aiming to enhance students' reading comprehension, autonomous learning abilities, and critical thinking. Based on Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) and Scaffolding Instruction, the study employs a reading lesson from the People's Education Press Senior High English Book 1, Unit 3 Sports and Fitness Lesson 2 Living Legends, to demonstrate how scaffolding strategies—such as situational, structural, and peer scaffolds—facilitate students' progressive mastery of reading skills. Findings suggest that scaffolding instruction effectively bridges the gap between students' current and potential developmental levels, fostering collaborative exploration and independent problem-solving. This paper provides practical strategies for high school English reading instruction and looks forward to future research directions.