A Comparison Study of Dynamic Assessment and Nondynamic Assessment on EFL Chinese Learners' Speaking Performance: Transfer of Learning

Abstract

One goal of language instruction is to support students' ability to transfer their learning or apply what they have learned in school to another setting. A common problem arises when the expected transfer does not take place, and follow-up assessments are unable to reveal where the student has had difficulty learning the language in such a way that they can apply it in other settings. Dynamic assessment (henceforth, DA) rooted in Vygotsky's sociocultural theory has explained the importance of learning transfer or transcendence. Defined as the change in an individual's cognitive knowledge that is applicable to other situations, transcendence supports the individual to move beyond the "here-and-now" demands of a given activity. DA differs from traditional nondynamic assessment (henceforth, NDA) in that DA makes it possible for teachers to make teaching recommendations based on their assessment of a learner's developmental potential. The present study aims at investigating the differences between applying dynamic assessment and nondynamic assessment to EFL Chinese learners' speaking performance and examining their transfer effect. Data included 119 firstyear college students' performance on integrated speaking tasks and records of the teacher's interactive support and learners' responses to the mediation. Results indicated that DA outperformed the NDA group in terms of supporting improvements in college students' speaking performance. The interactive mediation provided through DA assisted advanced learners' content development in speaking and assisted beginning learners' control of grammatical structures. More importantly, the learning effect on the DA group did not fade away over time. Both beginning and advanced level learners performed better transcendence after receiving DA intervention. This study contributes to the literature in that few studies have examined whether DA assists speaking performance at the tertiary level in comparison to nondynamic assessment approaches.

Developing and using hints in computerized dynamic assessment of a TOEFL iBT reading exam

“…Current results confirmed other studies' results (Estaji and Ameri, 2020;Lidz and Gindis, 2003) in that the construct of cognitive functioning was not fixed but rather a socio-cultural formation hence the SCT dimension of language acquisition and learning. This finding was in agreement with other results (e.g., Esteve, 2018;Grigorenko, 2002;Haywood, 2012;Kao, 2020aKao, , 2020b) that emphasized the positive learning impacts of integrating instruction and assessment where mediators are supposed to implement C-DA to improve language learning. Moreover, several studies (e.g., Nirmalakhandan, 2013;Teo, 2012) proved the positive effects of C-DA in overcoming the weaknesses of DA, including its time-consuming nature.…”

“…Reading is also multifaceted and cognitively challenging, mainly because learners are required to ultimately show attention, perception, memory, and comprehension (Sellers, 2000). It is presumably highlighted that, in contrast to L1, L2 and/or EFL readers read in a way that enhances the reading processes (Kao, 2020a(Kao, , 2020b. For comprehension to take place, many factors, such as cultural background, students' motivation, and language ability (Sellers, 2000;Vakilifard et al, 2020), should come into play.…”

Dynamic Assessment: A Complementary Method to Promote EFL Learning

“…The study stresses the fact that providing the learners with just the grades will not accelerate their learning and observance of solo performance is insufficient. This notion is supported by Kao (2020). The study states that one of the goals of language instruction is to support students' ability to transfer their learning or apply what they have learned in school to another setting.…”

Using Technology to Assess Interactive Skills in a Speaking Test

“…When designing a test measuring interactional ability, we had to envision how the test would be administered and assessed. For spoken language proficiency tests, it is not uncommon to have an interactive assessment with pairs of test takers (Galaczi, 2010;Kao, 2020;Köroglu, 2019). An interactive assessment can be defined as one that includes deliberate and planned engagement of test takers and assessment of their performance (Haywood & Tzuriel, 2002).…”