doi: 10.14744/alrj.2018.36844 ALR Journal 2018;2(3):58–66
Applied Linguistics Research Journal
The Efect of Interventionist Classroom vs.
MALL Dynamic Assessment on EFL Learners’
Vocabulary Learning
Original Research
1. Introduction
In an instructive setting, assessment is the way toward describing,
gathering, scoring, and translating data about learning. According
to Brown (2010, p.346), “assessment is an ongoing process of
collecting data about a given object of interest according to
procedures that are systematic and substantively grounded.”
Nowadays, researchers are recommended to use multiple
assessments to evaluate what learners have learned. Dynamic
assessment (DA) is a kind of interactive assessment used most
frequently in education. DA is a relatively new approach to L2
ABSTRACT
At the level of research, assessment and instruction have evolved/
developed as separate specializations with their own conventions and
techniques, e.g., expert diaries and gatherings (Pohner 2005). One of the
areas which recently have been advancing more dynamically in applied
linguistics is MALL. It has been considered a means of developing various
language skills and sub-skills (Marandi, 2011). Therefore, the present
study tried to merge these two important issues by exploring the efect
of interventionist classroom dynamic assessment and MALL on EFL
learners’ vocabulary learning. For this purpose, initially, a PET (2015) was
administered to 130 EFL students, 90 of whose scores were between one
standard deviation above and below the mean score. First, vocabulary
knowledge test was administered as a pre-test to check students’
vocabulary knowledge. The participants were then divided into two
experimental and one control groups, each experimental group received
treatment in a specifc type of classroom setting and MALL. In the control
group, the participants learnt 40 lexical items/words in a traditional
manner, whereas in the classroom dynamic assessment and MALL
dynamic assessment groups, the participants received DA strategies
feedback on 3 vocabulary tests throughout the semester, however, the
way they were treated in these two groups varied. After the treatment,
VKS was administered as the posttest. The results of a repeated-measures
two-way ANOVA showed that there was a signifcant improvement in all
the three groups. More specifcally, the fndings showed that although
the classroom dynamic assessment group outperformed the other two
groups in the posttest, the diference was signifcant only between the
classroom dynamic assessment and control group. Conclusions and
pedagogical implications are discussed towards the end of the paper.
Keywords: Dynamic assessment; interventionist; MALL; vocabulary
learning.
Corresponding Author: Amir
Marzban; Department of English,
University of Islamic Azad,
Qaemshahr Branch, Qaemshahr, Iran
Phone: +09126134950
e-mail: marzban2006@yahoo.com
Article citation: Marzban, A. &
Nafarzadehnafari, F. (2018). The
efect of interventionist classroom
vs. MALL dynamic assessment on EFL
learners’ vocabulary learning, Applied
Linguisics Research Journal, 2(3):
58–66.
Received Date: 07 November 2018
Accepted Date: 23 November 2018
Online Date: 21 December 2018
Publisher: Kare Publishing
©2018 Applied Linguistics Research Journal
E-ISSN: 2651-2629
Department of English,
University of Islamic
Azad, Qaemshahr Branch,
Qaemshahr, Iran
Amir Marzban
Fatemeh
Nafarzadehnafari