Dynamic vs Nondynamic Assessments: Impacts on Intermediate EFL Learners’ Receptive Skills

Abstract

Listening and reading skills, which are two of the essential skills in the world of language learning, have established themselves in various academic fields. Many researchers have looked at teaching and developing these two receptive abilities, but less focus has been paid to assessing and testing them. Traditional evaluation has been used to examine learners for a long time, but new teaching methods should introduce new ways to test and assess students. This study attempted to investigate the impact of dynamic assessment (DA) vs. nondynamic assessment (NDA) on Ethiopian intermediate EFL learners’ receptive abilities, which was conceptually grounded by Vygotsky’s (1978) socio-cultural theory (SCT). To this end, 96 intermediate students from a high school participated in this study. Then, they were divided into three equal groups: two experimental groups (EG1 and EG2) and one control group (CG). After administering a pretest, the EG1 and EG2 were taught listening and reading skills through group dynamic assessment, and the control group received traditional instruction. After the treatment, a posttest was administered. The results of one-way ANCOVA revealed that dynamic assessment had significant effects on receptive skills. This study has implications for instructors, students, and material designers in light of the findings. Teachers are encouraged to use DA in their language instruction to help students improve their English language abilities.