Dynamic Assessment and second language development

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Matthew E. Poehner ◽  
Zhaoyu Wang

This timeline is concerned with Dynamic Assessment (henceforth, DA) as it has been taken up and elaborated in contexts involving the teaching, learning, and assessment of learners of second languages (L2s). DA is distinguished by its insistence that an individual's independent performance of assessment tasks reveals only part of his/her abilities, namely those that have completed their development at the time of the assessment; insights into abilities that have begun to emerge but have not yet fully developed can be determined according to an individual's responsiveness to particular kinds of support, referred to as mediation (e.g., reminders, leading questions, hints, provision of a model, feedback), offered during the assessment as difficulties arise (Haywood & Lidz, 2006). In this respect, DA differs from more conventional distinctions in assessment, such as that between assessments concerned with the results of previous learning (‘summative assessment’) and those intended to provide information relevant to subsequent instruction (‘formative assessment’). Instead, the embedding of an interactive, instructional element within the assessment procedure allows for the possibility of expanding the evidential basis upon which summative interpretations of learner abilities are made; that is, the results encompass previous learning that has resulted in both complete and partial understanding of relevant concepts. At the same time, DA serves a formative function in so far as interaction allows insights into the underlying sources of learner difficulties and the kind of support to which they are most responsive (Sternberg & Grigorenko, 2002).

1989 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nina Spada ◽  
Patsy M. Lightbown

This paper is a report on a study designed to investigate the second language development of francophone children in experimental intensive ESL programmes in Quebec primary schools. Classroom interaction patterns and learners' contact with and attitudes toward English were also investigated. Learners in the intensive programmes were compared with learners in regular ESL programmes at the same grade level, as well as with learners who had received a comparable number of hours of instruction spread over a longer period of time. The results indicated that the intensive programme learners outperformed both comparison groups on tests of listening and reading comprehension and in oral fluency. In addition, although both regular and intensive programme learners were found to have very little contact with English prior to instruction, the intensive programme learners indicated somewhat greater contact after instruction. They also held more positive attitudes toward English than did the regular programme learners.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Parisa Abdolrezapour ◽  
Nasim Ghanbari

AbstractThis study aimed to integrate self-regulation strategies into dynamic assessment procedures of listening comprehension in an EFL setting and examine the possibility of raising EFL students’ listening comprehension and self-regulation skills. In addition, it explored the possibility of enhancing EFL learners’ potential scores in listening comprehension and self-regulation through applying self-regulation activities as a tool for motivating learners while being assessed. The assessment procedure was based on Vygotsky’s notion of the zone of proximal development and self-regulated intervention. The participants were 49 Iranian EFL learners in three groups: a control group, which received the institute’s regular instructional activities; a comparison group, which received dynamic assessment (DA); and an experimental group which received self-regulated dynamic assessment (SR-DA) procedures, in the form of an intervention focusing on cognitive, emotional, and behavioral self-regulation states of learners. Results of the study pointed to the potential of SR-DA for enhancing the students’ learning potential over and beyond that which is available from the DA (as offered to the comparison group) and the static testing (as offered to the control group). The results have important implications for a theoretical understanding of the mechanisms through which EFL learners develop necessary self-regulation skills in the EFL context.


2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-44
Author(s):  
Tamer El-Maaddawy ◽  
◽  
Christopher Deneen ◽  

This paper aims to demonstrate how assessment tasks can function within an outcomes-based learning framework to evaluate student attainment of learning outcomes. An outcomes-based learning framework designed to integrate teaching, learning, and assessment activities was developed and implemented in a civil engineering master-level course. The assessment instruments for this course were designed together to form a deliberate, balanced, and practical approach to evaluating student attainment of learning outcomes within the outcomes-based learning initiative. Direct evidence of student learning was derived through analysis of student results in assessment tasks constructively aligned with intended outcomes of learning. Student feedback provided indirect evidence of student attainment of learning outcomes and confirmed the effectiveness of the learning approach implemented in the course under investigation. Results of the direct assessment instruments were, generally, consistent with the student self-perception confirming achievement of learning outcomes. Students tended, however, to overestimate the level of attainment of learning outcomes. Results of the present study are anticipated to assist educators and researchers to efficiently and effectively implement and evaluate outcomes-based learning in higher education thus improving educational quality and student learning


2011 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rohmani Nur Indah

Studies on language acquisition become the pillar of Psycholinguistics as a branch of Applied Linguistics that deals with the relationship between human’s thought and language as well as how human beings comprehend, acquire and develop their language. Language acquisition does not merely involve children’s first or second language development, but also temporer language disorder –which does not belong to permanent language disorder. Deviation on language development to some extent gets little attention from psycholinguists. Most references on psychology of language discuss language disorder in general, whereas the current issues on this area are still rarely found. The following article deciphers what and how language acquisition can be done and cannot be completed.


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