چکیده:
Computerized dynamic assessment has been proposed as a solution to the practicality issues involved in ordinary dynamic assessment procedures. However, most of computerized dynamic assessment studies have addressed receptive skills (i.e., reading and listening). Responding to the scarcity of CDA studies of productive skills, the present study was an attempt to design and implement a computerized dynamic test of writing (CDTW) for 93 Iranian EFL university students. Moreover, this study investigated if learners’ willingness to communicate might have a facilitating role in their level of responsiveness to mediation. CDTW was designed following a sandwich-format interventionist approach. 93 Iranian EFL learners took part in a six-week procedure that consisted of a pretest; a mediation procedure; a posttest; and a delayed posttest. Running paired sample t-test revealed that there was a significant difference between learners’ non-dynamic (pretest) and dynamic (posttest) scores indicating the fact that providing learners with Zone of Proximal Development based mediations brings about significant changes in their performance. Moreover, learners’ learning potential score (LPS) proved useful in differentiating among learners with the same non-dynamic (independent) performance. In addition, comparing the posttest and delayed posttest scores revealed that learners could transfer their learning to situations outside CDTW. Finally, comparing learners’ performance through ANOVA at three levels of L2 WTC (i.e., low, mid, high) showed that L2 WTC could have significant role in learners’ level of responsiveness to mediation in CDTW. This could be indicative of the fact that learners with high L2 WTC lend themselves better to the mediation provided in dynamic assessment procedures.
خلاصه ماشینی:
Responding to the scarcity of CDA studies of productive skills, the present study was an attempt to design and implement a computerized dynamic test of writing (CDTW) for 93 Iranian EFL university students.
Running paired sample t-test revealed that there was a significant difference between learners‟ non-dynamic (pretest) and dynamic (posttest) scores indicating the fact that providing learners with Zone of Proximal Development based mediations brings about significant changes in their performance.
g. Baghaei & Dourakhshan, 2012; Bukhari, Cheng & Khan, 2015; Khorasani & Amini Harsini, 2015; MacIntyre, 2007; MacIntyre, Dornyei, Clement & Noels, 1998; Maftoon & Amiri, 2012; Mahmoodi & Moazam, 2014; Yashima, 2002; Yashima & Tanaka, 2001) As the outcome of any DA procedure is highly dependent on how well learners interact with ZPD-based mediations they are provided with, the second objective of this study was to investigate if learners‟ with different levels of L2 WTC would perform differently in a CDTW procedure.
In other words, the current study aimed at assessing and developing EFL learners‟ writing ability through the application of different steps of computerized dynamic assessment while assessing the role of L2 WTC as a facilitator variable in the outcome of the procedure.
1. Grouping learners according to their L2 WTC This study sought to address two major issues of (1) designing and implementing a computerized dynamic test of English writing that both updates and solves the problems of the few CDTW conducted so far and (2) examining the facilitating role of WTC as a source of individual difference on leaners‟ performance in terms of responsiveness to mediation in DA procedures.