Abstract

Language teaching and testing have been interrelated in the history of language teaching, and teachers and assessors alike have been looking for innovative ways to help language learners to discover their learning potential. Dynamic assessment (DA) is an innovative testing procedure that was developed as a reaction to the inadequacy of static assessment procedures. DA has been considered as an alternative to static assessment and does not draw a demarcation line between teaching and testing. This testing practice is process-oriented in nature, explores the precise learning abilities of the learners, and aims to make optimal use of teaching and testing. This study sought to compare interventionist and interactionist approaches, two basic approaches within the general framework of dynamic assessment, to specify which approach is more effective in terms of learning as result a of assessment. To this end, applying an experimental research design, a speaking “test-mediation-retest” paradigm, was adopted. The experiment was conducted in six phases on a group of sixty elementary students, selected based on the results of a placement test. The analysis of the data through successive paired-sample t-tests was indicative of significant improvement in the performance of the students treated on the basis of both approaches, which suggests the beneficial role of mediation through assessment. Furthermore, the comparison of students’ performances through independent sample t-tests showed that the students in the interventionist approach outperformed those in the interactionist approach. The findings have important implications for the way in which language is taught and tested.