Dynamic assessment of morphological awareness in the EFL context

• Main Authors: Mahnoosh Hamavandi, Mohammad Javad Rezai, Golnar Mazdayasna
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Taylor & Francis Group 2017-01-01
• Series: Cogent Education
• Subjects: dynamic assessment; morphological awareness; reading comprehension; zone of proximal development; efl learners
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/2331186X.2017.1324254

The Vygotskyan concept of the Zone of Proximal Development forms the basis of DA which endorses interaction between teacher and learner during the assessment procedure. Although morphological awareness constitutes a key aspect of reading comprehension, little research has addressed the effect of morphological dynamic assessment (DA) on EFL learners’ reading comprehension in EFL settings. The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the DA effect on reading comprehension. The other aim of the study was to examine which method of assessing morphological knowledge could predict and account for the EFL learners’ reading ability. To fulfill these aims, 50 intermediate EFL learners, divided into experimental and control groups, participated in the study. The participants in the experimental group were assessed using a dynamic assessment procedure, while the participants in the control group were taught the morphology following the methodology proposed by the institute. The Nelson–Denny Reading Test and Test of Morphological Structure were applied as posttests. The results indicated that dynamic assessment of morphology developed EFL learners’ reading comprehension. Furthermore, the dynamic assessment task could predict EFL learners’ reading comprehension over and above the static assessment task of morphology. The findings provide preliminary support for the usefulness of a dynamic assessment of morphological awareness within an EFL context.