Effects of Dynamic Assessment on College EFL Learners' Reading Skills

This study investigated the effects of an innovative assessment, dynamic assessment (DA), on Taiwanese EFL learners. The researcher implemented DA to assess and instruct Taiwanese college EFL students' reading skills through the use of mediation. The reading skills being investigated in the study were: finding main ideas, using contextual clues to predict the meaning of vocabulary, and making inferences. The theoretical construct of DA challenged static assessment that relies on students' current/actual performance as the primary indicator of their abilities. The study attempted to answer two research questions (1) What are the effects of DA on promoting Taiwanese EFL students' reading skills? (2) Does DA help the participants realize their learning potential? If so, to what extent? Five EFL college students in Taiwan participated in the study. The research design followed the pre-test, mediation, and post-test paradigm. Implicit and explicit mediation were provided. Quantitative and qualitative data were used for analysis. The study showed that appropriately designed DA procedures played a significant role in promoting learners' reading skills and realizing their learning potential. They also gave valuable information to help the researchers to design future lesson plans to meet the individuals' needs.