Abstract
Dynamic assessment has been widely used in educational literature over the past two decades. The present study aimed at investigating the effect of using dynamic assessment on teaching the rhythm of English to Iranian EFL learners and scrutinizing their attitudes towards it. The participants of the study were 30 Iranian EFL leaners at the intermediate level of proficiency, who were conveniently selected from a foreign language institute in Isfahan, Iran. In order to achieve the objectives of the study, the participants were divided into two homogenous groups, including the experimental group and control group. In this quasi-experimental, pretest-posttest-control-group-design research study, the control group followed traditional method of learning pronunciation and rhythm, while dynamic assessment approach was used to teach the same materials to the experimental group. In contrast to the control group, the experimental group took an active role in the classroom by having more interaction and using the ongoing hints and prompts provided by the teacher. The result of the posttest unfolded that there was a significant difference between the performances of the two groups, and that the experimental group participants managed to outperform the control group members on the pronunciation posttest. Moreover, based on the attitude questionnaire, EFL learners had grown a positive attitude towards the use of dynamic assessment to learn rhythm. The results of this study demonstrated that through the implementation of DA, the proper form of mediation could be provided to the learners regarding their ZPD.
Highlights
One of the important aspects of learning a foreign language is developing adequate pronunciation skills
The results of this study demonstrated that through the implementation of Dynamic Assessment (DA), the proper form of mediation could be provided to the learners regarding their Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)
To make certain the two groups were at the same proficiency level, their Quick Placement Test (QPT) scores were compared by means of an independent-samples t test, the results of which are presented in Tables 1 and 2 below: Table 1
Summary
One of the important aspects of learning a foreign language is developing adequate pronunciation skills This is while a lot of graduates from the foreign language programs offered all around the world seem to be unable to develop enough competence in the skills and sub-skills of the target language they study, especially in pronunciation (Vellenga, 2004). Among the three reasons mentioned above, the third one seems to be of greater significance because this sub-skill is usually ignored in language classes due to this reason The reason for this inattention is that it is often found boring to teach by teachers as Foote, Quinney, and Taylor (2013) found it to be true in their study. Leung (2007) defines it as a new approach to assessment which is based ijel.ccsenet.org
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