Dynamic assessment in EFL classrooms: Assessing listening comprehension in three proficiency levels (original) (raw)
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The effect of dynamic assessment on L2 learners’ listening comprehension
Bellaterra Journal of Teaching & Learning Language & Literature, 2018
Group dynamic assessment (G-DA), which is grounded in Vygotsky's sociocultural theory (SCT), explores the role of social interaction and collaboration in the development of participants' listening performance. This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of G-DA approach on listening comprehension of English as a foreign language(EFL) learners in two time intervals. To this end, twenty learners were selected from among Iranian EFL learners at an English language institute. The quantitative data analysis revealed that mediational strategies which were offered to learners within the group's Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) could enhance their listening comprehension. These findings have important implications for all classroom teachers who can benefit from different designs of integrating instruction and assessment through offering mediational strategies to assist L2 learners in the development of their listening skill.
The present study concentrated on the theoretical and methodological issues at the intersection of second language acquisition, language pedagogy and socio-cultural theory (SCT) which were proposed by Vygotsky (1978). One of the offsprings of SCT is dynamic assessment (DA) emanating from Vygotsky's socio-cultural theory which has a long history in applied linguistics but has been the hot topic of EFL studies recently. Dynamic assessment promotes language development; it assumes that mental activities are mediated by psychological instruments. Dynamic assessment has received considerable attention from researchers over the last three decades culminating in many studies which have been conducted on the effect of DA on language skills, but a few studies have focused on the effect of dynamic assessment on listening comprehension, and the unclear results have prompted the researchers to capitalize upon the impact of dynamic assessment on the listening comprehension. Therefore, the present study aimed to expand traditional understanding of listening assessment in foreign language contexts and pertain dynamic assessment to the development of learners' listening ability. To do so, thirty six elementary Iranian students studying English as a foreign language ranging in age from 12 to 17 took part in the present study. They were selected among the seventy students who participated in Oxford Quick Placement Test who were then divided into one dynamic group, one non-dynamic group, and one control group. The analysis of one-way ANOVA and Tukey test demonstrated that the dynamic group outperformed both non-dynamic and control groups, but the non-dynamic group did not have a better performance than the control group. Finally, according to the findings, language teachers are recommended to use the meditational strategies and also care about the learner's potential. Furthermore, teachers are suggested to apply more DA approaches in their classes in a more systematic way rather than the traditional kind of testing which concentrates only on the learning product.
English Language Teaching (ELT), 2014
This study employed a mixed method to investigate the effects of dynamic assessment (DA) on listening comprehension of EFL students in a foreign language learning context. The participants of the study (N=57) were randomly divided into one control group, i.e., non-dynamic, and one experimental group, i.e., dynamic. They were asked to listen to some listening comprehension teaching materials and transcribe what they hear. The participants in the control group just listened to the audio files and took the tests while in the experimental group, the participants received mediation. The qualitative analysis of the exchanges between the mediator and the participants in the experimental group indicated that the application of mediational strategies was successful enough to help the participants promote their comprehension of the listening input. In addition, participants" listening problems diagnosed in the mediation sessions and the related support helped them overcome their listening comprehension problems. The performances of the participants in the two groups on an achievement test developed based on the instructional materials showed that the dynamic group outperformed the non-dynamic group.
Exploring the role of online group dynamic assessment on L2 learners' listening comprehension
International Journal of Research Studies in Education, 2020
Group dynamic assessment (G-DA), rooted in Vygotskian sociocultural theory (SCT), provides a context in which mediational strategies can create a Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) whereby language learners manifest the capacities beyond their current level of functioning. The present study investigated the effect of online G-DA in developing the listening comprehension of English as a foreign language (EFL) learners. It also explored the mediational strategies that could foster the development of listening comprehension. To this end, 47 upper-intermediate EFL learners in a language institute were assigned to experimental (dynamic), and control (non-dynamic) groups, and were asked to take part in a pretest, posttest, and delayed posttest. To analyze the data, one-way ANCOVA and a mixed between-within subjects ANOVA were carried out. The results of the data analysis indicated that the dynamic group significantly outperformed the non-dynamic group. Also, the participants' listening gains in the experimental group significantly increased from the pretest to the posttest and delayed posttest. Further qualitative analysis led to the detection of 13 mediational strategies which could foster the development of listening comprehension in the upper-intermediate learners. Finally, suggestions are made to uncover and solve some of the problems L2 learners encounter during listening comprehension process.
English Language Teaching, 2014
This study employed a mixed method to investigate the effects of dynamic assessment (DA) on listening comprehension of EFL students in a foreign language learning context. The participants of the study (N=57) were randomly divided into one control group, i.e., non-dynamic, and one experimental group, i.e., dynamic. They were asked to listen to some listening comprehension teaching materials and transcribe what they hear. The participants in the control group just listened to the audio files and took the tests while in the experimental group, the participants received mediation. The qualitative analysis of the exchanges between the mediator and the participants in the experimental group indicated that the application of mediational strategies was successful enough to help the participants promote their comprehension of the listening input. In addition, participants‟ listening problems diagnosed in the mediation sessions and the related support helped them overcome their listening com...
Alzahra University, 2023
Based on Vygotsky's concept of Zone of Proximal Development, dynamic assessment (DA) has at its core the integration of assessment and instruction through mediation. DA is practiced either individually or collectively. In group-dynamic assessment (G-DA), as Poehner (2009) introduced, learners are simultaneously exposed to mediation. The problem which has been ignored in G-DA is the homogeneity and heterogeneity of EFL leaners while being mediated. This study tried to investigate the effect of group-dynamic assessment on homogeneous and heterogeneous EFL learners' ability in listening comprehension. It also intended to find out if expert-novice and peer-to-peer mediation types in G-DA differed in their effects on homogeneous and heterogeneous EFL learners' command of listening comprehension. To this end, eighty intermediate EFL learners were chosen to be the participants. According to their language proficiency, they were assigned to two groups of forty homogeneous and forty heterogeneous learners. Then, each group was divided into two experimental groups. The participants in all groups attended three listening sessions. For the mediation, the participants were assisted through novice-expert and peer-to-peer mediation types. To find out the main and interaction effect of group type and mediation type in G-DA, the post-test scores were analysed through running a two-way ANOVA. The results indicated that both group type and mediation type had significant main and interaction effect on learners' listening comprehension. A post hoc test was also utilized to compare the mean differences between the groups.
The Effect of Dynamic Assessment on Iranian EFL Learners’ Reading Comprehension
Advances in Language and Literary Studies, 2014
Dynamic Assessment (DA), is grounded in Vygotsky's idea on Sociocultural Theory (SCT) of mind, his concept of Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) and its related metaphor; scaffolding. This study examined the effects of dynamic assessment on improving reading comprehension of Iranian intermediate students who were learning English as a foreign language. The participants, a group of Iranian male intermediate EFL learners ranging in age from 17 to 20, were randomly assigned to two groups of 14. In this study, the experimental and control groups' performances on pretests and post-tests were compared through paired-samples and independent-samples t-tests. The treatment period lasted for 2 months (16 sessions). The results showed that the experimental group, which was instructed through DA, outperformed the control group which was instructed in a non-dynamic way.
English Language Teaching, 2015
Listening has long been the neglected skill in second/foreign language acquisition, research, teaching, and assessment. And managing listening instruction and improving listening comprehension in the classroom are difficult for teachers and EFL learners. In this regard, this study aimed at investigating the effect of group dynamic assessment (G-DA) on Iranian EFL learners' metacognitive listening strategies and listening comprehension. Sixty young EFL listeners were assigned to an experimental and a control group at random. The experimental group (n = 30) was metacognitively instructed based on group dynamic assessment. The students in the control group (n = 30) were orally exposed to the same material without being metacognitively instructed by the same teacher. After ten instructional sessions, a listening comprehension post-test and the metacognitive awareness listening questionnaire (MALQ) were administered to both groups to measure their listening comprehension and metacognitive awareness, respectively. A comparison of pre-and post-test scores of the G-DA group showed that the learners benefited from metacognitive instruction as measured by the listening comprehension test. As well, it was found that the experimental group significantly outperformed the control group on both listening comprehension and MALQ post-tests.
Alzahra University, 2022
Framed in Vygotskian sociocultural theory, this study intends to examine whether computerized group dynamic assessment (GDA) through software has affected Iranian male and female learners’ listening comprehension ability. Data were collected through administration of listening comprehension pre- and post-tests among 140 participants divided into male and female learners in the experimental and control groups. There were 35 male and 35 female learners in each group of the study. Participants in the experimental groups were exposed to GDA in order to interactively work on the selected tasks of listening comprehension, and the teacher provided the necessary support as well. Quantitative analysis of the pre- and post-tests of listening comprehension among male and female groups was conducted through two-way analysis of variance and covariance. Results revealed that both male and female learners in the experimental groups significantly outperformed the learners in the control groups. However, there were not any significant differences between the gender groups’ listening comprehension ability in the experimental groups. Findings contributed to the effective employment of GDA through software in order to improve the learners’ listening comprehension ability, denoting that teachers are recommended to be aware of technological devices in paving an interactive way for learners to develop their language skills and sub-skills.