Several studies, usually carried out in settings that are conducive to interaction, demonstrate peers can provide mutual scaffolding effectively. In contrast, this article focuses on constraints to peer scaffolding which, possibly, happened because of participants' demotivating learning environment. Analysis is based on the video and audio recordings of the performance of two beginning Brazilian students carrying out two oral tasks in an EFL class. Task one consists of an information gap and task two, of a communicative drill. The following constraints were identified: 1) the less capable peer's object-regulation, 2) the more capable peer's hindrance to scaffolding, 3) the more capable peer's lack of L2 knowledge. These hindrances can be explained by the students' pervasive and frustrating foreign language learning experience in the Brazilian public school and by the lack of socialization into scaffolding.
sociocultural theory; scaffolding; the zone of proximal development