Scaffolding and Monitoring in Smart Class+
SmartClass+，as an audio and video based interactive transmission system，allows teachers to use the meadset microphone of the student computer to perform individual monitoring，and carry out interpreting tasks for a combination of established or random order of participants.Within such an MBL environment，the monitoring and support function of the SmartClass+permits the teacher to monitor all students to ensure that they stay engaged in an active participation of the relevant activities.
Teachers can simultaneously monitor student progress，carefully observe，and listen to see how each student participates in group discussions，initiate conversations at any time，participate，comment on，and answer questions in real time.Teachers can also view multiple student screens concurrently to assess overall class status.In addition to monitoring each student’s progress，giving timely feedback and answering all questions，the ability to concurrently view multiple screens allows the teacher to more easily determine each student’s proportional participation in group-discussions.Moreover，teachers can also use the monitor function to observe the screen recording and audio of the students’performances to conduct one-on-one“private”consultation，so that students who are naturally shy or lack confidence are able to reduce their psychological burden，and overcome the tension of passive compliance，thus improving overall classroom learning.Such efficacious assistance and mentorship offered to participants in the SmartClass+ MBL environment is framed as“Scaffolding”，which assists students in acquiring expertise in accordance with a progressive philosophy，which ultimately allows students to pursue autonomy as a skilled performer(Calvo，2015:309).To the question of what activity the students believed to be the most beneficial，P2[4]mentioned that“the teacher can discretely observe my screens and listen to my audio while I work on my interpreting assignments and give me feedback immediately”.(SLRJ).
Some students possess a sound bilingual proficiency，and their dialogue interpreting performance is generally satisfactory.However，they tend to show hesitation in moving forward，their self-efficacy regarding their interpreting skills are low，and they often doubt their capabilities and shy away from obstacles.Since such students have low aspirations and weak commitment to the goals they choose to pursue，they often dwell on personal deficiencies when faced with difficult tasks(Bandura，1994:4).Therefore，it’s crucial that teachers give effective learning feedback in a timely manner after showing proof of learning.With regards to the external study that was referenced earlier that investigated the effect of the SmartClass+ MBL environment on students’selfefficacy，the following participant’s responses are representative of the benefit that scaffolding has provided to interpreting learning:“I lack confidence and always think I can’t do a good job，it was not until I got positive feedback from the instructor that I knew I can do it well.”(P13，SLRJ).
Quantitative data derived from the study demonstrates that a vast majority of participants believed that SmartClass+ was less stressful than traditional interpreting learning methods，and that it gave them an increase in confidence in interpreting learning.The results，as well as excerpts of two selected participant quotes，are detailed below:
SmartClass+is“less stressful”than a traditional-learning environment(Yes:88%)
P29:SmartClass+is lessstressful because it is more student-centred，rather than teacher-transmissive，and students can have more alternatives to decide what，because students know themselves a lot，and then students can decide what aspects they need to get improved，and what aspects they do not do well in.
Increase in confidence in SmartClass+ (Yes:97%)
P9:Yeah definitely，in terms of confidence，I think it’s more of a you can wind-back and take your time，so in a sense you take time learning it.In a traditional learning environment，if you have any questions sometimes，you may not understand it or understand all the terminology or phrases you might have，and whereas in SmartClass+，you can do the selflearning and as long as there is feedback，it provides confidence in what you learn.(interview)
Another benefit that contributes to the improved learning effect of SmartClass+is that if students are required to pay direct attention to the teacher’s explanation，or need to watch a lecture in progress，the “Blank Screen”function allows the teacher to“remotely control”the student’s screen at any time，and temporarily“lock”the students’keyboard and mouse to attract the attention of the whole class，thus improving the impact of the teaching.The rich variety of expert functions and classroom mode settings bring great convenience to the teachers’operation，and the multi-level interactive functions ensure communication between teachers and students run smoothly.