Abstract:

Dynamic assessment (DA) rooted in sociocutural theory of Vygotsky has a monistic view toward teaching and testing and is based on modern cognitive placticity theories that view abilities as sensitive to instruction. This lets the hidden aspects of reading comprehension ability being revealed which wouldn’t be possible using other assessment approaches. The present qualitative study aimed at highlighting its advantage in data gathering in comparison with traditional non-dynamic testing. 9 EFL participants at three proficiency levels of high, mid, and low were assessed dynamically during five weeks of this study. The interactions were recorded, tape scripted, and analyzed. The findings revealed five major data type only available through DA including an exact estimation of examinees’ abilities, identifying the source of problem, identifying the stage of the problem, estimating the extent of examinees’ development within their ZPDs, estimating the extent of transcendence for later independent performance. The findings of this study can be applicable for language teachers, examiners, curriculum developers and teacher educators to improve their performance having a more detailed and exact information about learners.

Keywords:

Dynamic assessment, non-dynamic assessment, reading comprehension ability.