A Progressive Contextual Scaffolding Framework for Developing Engineering Students' Expressive Competence

Abstract

Expressive competence does not emerge automatically from isolated competitions or short-term training. It develops through sustained task engagement, structured practice, diverse feedback, and transfer across contexts. To address low willingness to speak, weak organization, and limited professional transfer among first-year engineering students, this paper proposes a progressive contextual scaffolding model embedded in class management. The implementation context is a first-year automation class of 40 students at Xinjiang University of Technology. Drawing on sociocultural, experiential, and situated learning, together with feedback-literacy research, the model treats the class as a stable learning organization. Psychological, cognitive, contextual, and transfer scaffolds progressively move students from willingness to express toward structured, context-responsive, and autonomous high-quality expression. A recurring cycle of task engagement, expression practice, multiple feedback, reflective revision, and contextual transfer drives this process. The framework specifies a four-year objective matrix, task carriers, an assessment rubric, longitudinal data points, and ethical safeguards. Unlike approaches that infer competence from participation counts, it separates engagement, observable performance, feedback literacy, and transfer. Direct performance tasks and calibrated multi-rater scoring are proposed as the primary evidence. This conceptual and implementation study reports no uncollected outcomes. Its contribution is a testable, low-cost, longitudinal pathway for developing and tracking expressive competence in engineering classes in less-resourced regions.