Interventionist and interactionist dynamic assessment of argumentative writing in an EFL program

Abstract

Standardized measures of language ability have held the status quo in L2 scholarship for decades. Complementary assessment practices, however, are gaining ground against the psychometric backdrop. In keeping with the trend, dynamic assessment (DA) embeds intervention within assessment. In this exploratory case study research, we tracked development in the abilities of five English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) learners to write argumentative essays following the implementation of two types of DA: interventionist and interactionist. Data were collected from four one-on-one sessions between a mediator and the learners. Learners in the interactionist group (n = 3) outperformed those in the interventionist group (n = 2), as they demonstrated better understanding and application of target argumentative elements. Findings are discussed in light of the distinct features of the two DA types.

Introduction

Classroom assessment has shifted drastically over the past decades. More practitioners are now tilting away from assessment of learning (AoL) toward assessment for learning (AfL) (Dann, 2014; Earl, 2013; Lee & Coniam, 2013). The former makes judgments about outcomes of previous learning (William, 2001), whereas the latter promotes learning (Black, Harrison, Lee, Marshall, & Wiliam, 2004). AoL has been criticized for being decontextualized and product-oriented (Sadeghi & Rahmati, 2017), and hence not offering in-depth insight into the process of learning. AfL, on the other hand, emphasizes revisiting previous learning on the basis of learners’ knowledge level and active engagement with learning. Moreover, AfL recognizes that learning objectives are there for evaluative and improvement purposes both by the learner and the instructor, among others (Gardner, 2006; Jones & Wiliam, 2008). Dynamic Assessment (DA) shares with AfL a focus on the learning process as well as the view that instruction and assessment are dialectically interconnected.

Exploratory in design, this article examined the effectiveness of DA for English argumentative essay writing. In the following sections, we initially explain DA and its underlying concept of the zone of proximal development (ZPD). We proceed with a selective review of DA applications to second/foreign language education contexts. Specifically, we elaborate on interactionist and interventionist approaches to DA. This leads to our research purpose and exploration of the relative effectiveness of these two DA approaches.