Beyond the Silent Scaffold: A Case Study on the Perceived Impact of SEL Interventions on Junior High School Students’ Oral Fluency

This study explored the perceived impact of Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) interventions on the oral fluency of Junior High School students at San Jose Agricultural High School during the Academic Year 2025–2026. Grounded in Yin’s qualitative case study framework and informed by Krashen’s Affective Filter Hypothesis, the research examined how emotional scaffolding intersected with students’ spoken English performance. Ten purposively selected students from Grades 7 to 10 participated in semi-structured interviews, non-participant classroom observations, and document review. Data were analyzed using thematic coding and pattern matching. Six major themes emerged: (1) affirmative reinforcement and verbal encouragement, (2) instructional scaffolding as emotional safety, (3) cognitive freezing and mental blockage, (4) calmness as a prerequisite for fluency, (5) fear of negative evaluation and social judgment, and (6) the influence of teacher temperament on student confidence. Findings revealed that students’ oral fluency was strongly mediated by emotional states, with supportive teacher behaviors lowering anxiety and facilitating vocabulary retrieval and speech flow. Conversely, perceived strictness and peer judgment heightened anxiety and inhibited participation. The study highlights SEL as a critical pedagogical scaffold in second language instruction and underscores the necessity of emotionally responsive teaching practices to foster confident and fluent classroom communication.