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

Abstract

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 first-year 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.