Traditional approaches to language assessment have been criticized for their inadequacy in taking account of language learners' potential for development. To obviate this pitfall in traditional assessment, language teachers and researchers have been paying increasing attention to dynamic assessment (DA), which is rooted in Vygotsky's (1978)…

Mobile phones are turning into a growingly widespread educational tool across various contexts. However, the scope of research on teachers' role in mobile-oriented instruction is limited, much less examining how professional development influences their associated beliefs and practices. Grounded in sociocultural theory, this study aimed to fill…

The introduction of Vygotsky's sociocultural theory (SCT) into the second language (L2) domain provides a potential site to explore the mechanisms underlying L2 learners' cognitive modification and the transformation of social understanding into the personal one. This study provided a picture of L2 personalization in two groups of advanced and…

In order to gain a deeper insight into second/foreign language (L2) classroom discourse, teacher talk, as one of the most important aspects of this discourse, needs to be studied from different perspectives. So, the purpose of the present study is to address the association between teachers' experience and different types of semantic schemata in…

Dynamic Assessment (DA) is proposed as a workable diagnostic tool in second or foreign language context. Compared to traditional non-dynamic testing, DA presents a more comprehensive account of human beings' abilities through addressing both the fully internalized abilities and the abilities that are in the process of being internalized. However,…

Although studying teachers' online interactions has gained momentum in recent years, little is known about interactional development in online communities. The present study addressed this gap by exploring discursive change in second language teachers' interactions in an online professional development (PD) course structured around mobile phone…

Framed within the perspective of Vygotskyan sociocultural theory and models of third language learning, this study examined the impact of differing linguistic backgrounds and learning experience on the nature of dyadic interaction during task completion in the divide between true L2 and L3 learners. It was conducted in an EFL classroom with eight…

Following a suggestion by Poehner [2008. Dynamic Assessment: A Vygotskian Approach to Understanding and Promoting Second Language Development. Berlin: Springer] about the possible merger between group dynamic assessment (GDA) rooted in Vygotskian sociocultural theory (SCT) and computer testing, this study has decided to test the feasibility of…

Computerized dynamic assessment (C-DA) brings the rationality of assessment-instruction integration behind dynamic assessment (DA) into computerized context through the presentation of electronic mediations (Poehner). This study attempts to unravel L2 learners' actual/developed ability and learning potential in a C-DA reading comprehension context…

The current study investigates the effects of dynamic and non-dynamic oral corrective feedback in response to learners' errors on English as a foreign language (EFL) learners' English wh-question development over three treatment sessions. Sixty-eight EFL learners were assigned randomly to one of two experimental conditions that received either…

Lexical inferencing has not led to substantial vocabulary gains. In previous studies, the learners were not obliged by design to notice the unfamiliar words and static approaches to assessment were adopted. In this quasi-experimental study, we adopted dynamic assessment (DA) approach and took measures to ensure noticing of the new words. Through…

Dynamic assessment (DA), having its theoretical base in Vygotskyan Sociocultural theory of mind, is a newly developed classroom assessment through which learners are helped to perform beyond their current ability. Drawing upon the theoretical aspect of DA, the present study explored the impact of DA on the development of speaking skills. To this…

Vygotsky's writings on Sociocultural Theory (SCT) of mind, his concept of Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) and its related metaphor, scaffolding, serve as the theoretical basis for the study of peer collaboration. This paper aimed at examining the effects of peer-scaffolding on EFL writing ability and finding out how revising techniques are…

Vygotsky-inspired sociocultural theory (Vygotsky, 1962) indicates that human learning is mainly a social and cultural process that occurs through meaningful negotiation and interaction (scaffolding) between learners. The present study investigates whether training student reviewers can help them provide stronger scaffolding for their peers through…

Dynamic assessment as a complementary approach to traditional static assessment emphasizes the learning process and accounts for the amount and nature of examiner investment. The present qualitative study analyzed interactions for 270 reading test items which were recorded and tape scripted. The reading ability of 9 EFL participants at three…