Effects of Group Dynamic Assessment on L2 Chinese learners’ literacy development: Learners’ responsiveness to interactive mediation
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Yu-Ting Kao
Abstract
Dynamic Assessment (DA), an innovative assessment approach, has begun to attract attention as a conceptualization of assessment that emphasizes the social interactive role of learning. Although DA receives attention in the field of language testing/assessment, its feasibility in engaging larger cohorts of individuals is concerned. This shortcoming of DA leads to the application of Group Dynamic Assessment (G-DA). This study examined the extent to which mediation provided through G-DA frameworks – concurrent and cumulative – supported a group of language learners’ literacy development. It investigates five intermediate L2 Chinese learners’ rhetorical awareness via their performance on Chinese reading and writing tasks. One Chinese rhetorical structures, the ‘Qi-cheng-zhuan-he’ approach, was selected because it is considered the most difficult learning point for Chinese learners. Findings were reported: 1) the mediation provided to the participants through both concurrent and cumulative G-DA approaches promoted their understanding of the ‘Qi-cheng-zhuan-he’ approach, 2) the more times a participant engaged as the primary interactant, the better learning outcome he/she would present, 3) individual participant had different developmental level and thus showed various extent of responsiveness to the teacher’s mediation; yet, their active participation, either verbal or nonverbal behaviors, would foster their learning performance. Pedagogical applications are discussed.
Funding source: Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan
Award Identifier / Grant number: MOST 107-2410-H-017-017
Transcription conventions
| (.) | Micropause (less than 0.2 s) |
| (2.0) | Timed pause (longer than 0.2 s) |
| (( )) | Transcriber’s notes, comments, descriptions. |
| Italics | Words not used in English |
| :: | Sound lengthening. Multiple colons indicate more prolongation |
| ? | Rising intonation (not necessarily a question) |
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Research Articles
- Situated incidental vocabulary acquisition: The effects of in-class and out-of-class novel reading
- To translanguage or not to translanguage: Ideology, practice, and intersectional identities
- Psychotherapist’s empathic responses to client’s troubles telling/feelings talk in psychotherapy: A conversation analysis
- Refugees’ dehumanization in the Spanish media: A corpus-assisted study within the semantic preference framework
- Young children’s language-based agency in multilingual contexts in Luxembourg and Israel
- Effects of Group Dynamic Assessment on L2 Chinese learners’ literacy development: Learners’ responsiveness to interactive mediation
- Singular they in English as a foreign language
- Searching for the unit of meaning: Knowledge construction in university small group talk
