Investigating the Effect of Dynamic Assessment on Learning Congruent and Non-Congruent Collocations by Iranian EFL Learners

Document Type : research article

Authors

1 Associate Professor of English Literature, Faculty of Languages, University of Tehran

2 Department of Humanities, Faculty of Foreign Languages Studies, Tehran University, Kish Int'l Campus, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

The current study was an attempt to explore whether dynamic assessment had any significant impact on learning non-congruent and congruent collocations by Iranian EFL learners. To this end, 60 out of 120 Iranian EFL learners were selected based on their scores in an Oxford Placement Test, and divided into experimental (N=30) and control (N=30) groups. During ten sessions of treatment, eight of the collocations incorporated in the initial test including four congruent and four noncongruent collocations in each session were presented to the learners, thus 80 collocations were covered. The experimental group was exposed to the pre-testmediation-posttest design (sandwich model of dynamic assessment) while the control group was instructed through conventional ways of teaching collocations. The findings of paired samples t-test revealed that the dynamic assessment instruction had a significant effect on learning congruent and specifically noncongruent collocations by Iranian EFL learners. However, there was no difference between the participants with and without prior learning experience in foreign language community. If the purpose is to have an active learning environment, attention needs to be devoted to the integration of a dynamic approach in the classroom, providing learners, with and without prior learning experience, with appropriate and leveled-feedback within the evaluation and teaching process.

Keywords

References

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Journal of Foreign Language Research
Volume 9, Issue 3
January 2020
Pages 789-814

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