Dynamic Assessment: Integrating
Assessment and Teaching to Understand
and Promote Development in a Second
Language
Matthew E. Poehner (mep158@psu.edu)
Center for Advanced Language Proficiency
Education and Research (CALPER)
The Pennsylvania State University
Interaction and L2 Development:
Teaching or Assessment?
• Example -> Taken from Dynamic Assessment in the
Foreign Language Classroom: A Teachers Guide (2006),
J. P. Lantolf & M. E. Poehner
▫ CALPER Project on Dynamic Assessment
• Background  Advanced Learners of L2 French ,
Composing Oral Narratives (based on video clips, literary
excerpts)
▫ Important feature of performance is ability to control verbal
tense (past) and aspect (perfective and imperfective)
L2 Interaction Example: Sara
S: enceinte! Enceinté, uh Samuel Rebecca a dit qu’elle ne comprend
pas pourquoi il était enceinte mais la
pregnant! Pregnant, uh Samuel Rebecca said that she doesn’t
understand why he was pregnant but the
M: Rebecca a dit? Sorry
S: Rebecca a dit que elle ne sss (...) sa, elle ne sait pas she did not
know elle ne sait pas pourquoi
Rebecca said that she doesn’t know she did not know she does not
know why
M: Well actually elle ne sait pas is present tense
S: it’s present tense which is wrong
M: because you said she did not know so that would be past tense
L2 Interaction Example: Sara (cont)
S: the past tense elle ne su pas* that’s wrong (...)
M: were you looking for imparfait or passé composé?
S: (...) it’s imparfait
M: okay so you would use the form of savoir—
S: elle ne savait pas
she didn’t know
M: voilà
S: I forgot it’s savoir, elle ne savait pas pourquoi il il était dans sa
situation aussi mais elle était…
she didn’t know why he he was in his situation also but she was…
Teaching or Assessment?
Assessment-Teaching
• In Dynamic Assessment, assessment and
teaching are integrated as a single activity that
seeks to simultaneously understand and
promote learners’ abilities through mediated
interaction in the Zone of Proximal Development
L. S. Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory of
Mind
S
R
X
• Higher forms of consciousness – social and
cultural mediation
Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory of Mind
(cont.)
• Uniquely human higher forms of consciousness
(awareness of and control over cognitive
functions)
• Incorrect solution to the problem of the
environment
▫ Environment is not a backdrop for
development but a source of development
(Vygotsky 1998)
• Tools – physical, symbolic, and psychological
(Kozulin 1998)
Interaction is indispensable for understanding
mental abilities
• Independent problem solving reveals an individual’s actual
developmental level
• What she cannot do independently but can do through
interaction with others (external mediation) reveals functions
that are in the process of maturing – the zone of her
proximal development
• Move from reliance on external mediation to internal
mediation: “What a child can do with assistance today she
will be able to do by herself tomorrow” (Vygotsky 1978: 87)
• Potential development varies independently of actual
development – the latter cannot be used to predict former
The Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)
Imagine that we have examined two children and have
determined that the mental age of both is seven years.
This means that both children solve tasks accessible to
seven-years-old. However, when we attempt to push these
children further in carrying out the tests, there turns out
to be an essential difference between them.
With the help of leading questions, examples, and
demonstrations, one of them easily solves test items taken
from two years above the child’s level of [actual]
development. The other solves test items that are only a
half-year above, his or her level of [actual] development.
(Vygotsky 1956: 446-447, cited in Wertsch 1985: 68)
ZPD (cont.)
From the point of view of their independent activity they are
equivalent, but from the point of view of their immediate
potential development they are sharply different. That which
the child turns out to be able to do with the help of an adult
points us toward the zone of the child’s proximal
development.
This means that with the help of this method, we can take
stock not only of today’s completed process of development,
not only the cycles that are already concluded and done, not
only the processes of maturation that are completed; we can
also take stock of processes that are now in the state of
coming into being, that are only ripening, or only developing
(Vygotsky 1956: 447-448; cited in Wertsch 1985: 68)
Importance of the ZPD
• “determining the actual level of development
not only does not cover the whole picture of
development, but very frequently
encompasses only an insignificant [italics
added] part of it”.
• Vygotsky, L. S. (1998). The Problem of Age. In The Collected Works of L. S.
Vygotsky. Vol. 5. Child Psychology. R. W. Rieber (Ed.). New York: Plenum.
Teaching and Assessment: Two sides of the
same coin
• ZPD situates tasks beyond what learners can do
independently in order to guide development; goal of
educational activity in the ZPD is not the product but the
process (not about completing a task or ‘getting through’
a test)
• Assessment/Teaching that targets maturing abilities
allows for cognitive functions to be observed while they
are still forming and offers the possibility for intervening
to promote the development
• We must not ignore the “possibility that the predicted
destiny may not materialize if powerful intervention
takes place” (Feuerstein et al., 1988: 83).
Defining Dynamic Assessment (DA)
• an “approach to understanding individual differences
and their implications for instruction…[that] embeds
intervention within the assessment procedure” (Lidz &
Gindis 2003: 99)
• focuses “on modifiability and on producing suggestions
for interventions that appear successful in facilitating
improved learner performance” (Lidz 1991: 6).
Defining Dynamic Assessment (cont.)
• DA differs from other assessments -> basic premise that
fully understanding abilities requires active intervention
in development
▫ Shifting procedure’s focus from product of prior
learning to processes through which abilities are
formed
• At level of practice -> familiar assessment model in
which teachers observe student performance is
replaced; teachers and students jointly carry out
activities, with teachers intervening as necessary to help
learners stretch beyond current capabilities
Co-constructing ZPD During DA
• Through its history in education, intelligence/abilities
testing, and special education, different approaches to
providing mediation have been devised:
▫ in form of hints, prompts, leading questions scripted
beforehand & arranged from most implicit to most
explicit (Campione, Brown & colleagues’ Graduated
Prompt Approach; Guthke’s Lerntest)
▫ open-ended, negotiated dialogically, continually
attuned to learner needs (Reuven Feuerstein’s
Mediated Learning Experience)
• L2 DA work (to date) emphasized dialogic approach
(Lantolf & Poehner 2004; Poehner 2007, 2008; Ableeva
2008; Summers 2008)
Contribution of DA to L2 Classroom
1.
Integration of teaching with assessment
2. Focusing Teaching on emerging rather than fully formed abilities
(maximize impact on learner development)
3. Theoretically-driven, systematic approach to diagnosing learner
abilities
•
Rea-Dickins & Gardner (2000): Informal and unsystematic nature of
classroom assessments lead to
▫ overestimates of ability, underestimates of progress
• Possible implication: individual students or group of students lose out
on the appropriate kind or level of instruction
• Decisions based on formative assessments are high-stakes
▫ A traditional difference between classroom-based assessment and
formal assessments (i.e., tests) may not be as clear-cut as assumed
Challenge of Feasibility of DA in L2
Classrooms
• Dyadic, expert-novice, mediator-learner model
• Teacher expertise needed for DA principles to be
followed in particular classroom context with
particular learners
• DA is NOT a technique or method but a framework
for approaching educational activity that
foregrounds learner development
Classroom-based Dynamic
Assessment
• Teacher (Tracy) had studied Teachers Guide to DA;
collaboratively designed approach to implement DA
in her classroom context
• Class of primary school (4th Grade) learners of L2
Spanish in US; focus of lesson is vocabulary for
indigenous Peruvian animals (unit on Peru) &
substantive-modifier concord
• Tracy engages learners in game: individuals take
turns (one student at a time) rolling cube w/
pictures of animals to randomly select animal to
describe using appropriate vocabulary & marking
agreement
Inventory of Mediating Prompts
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Pause
Repeat the whole phrase questioningly
Repeat just the part of the sentence with the error
Teacher asks, “What is wrong with that sentence?”
Teacher points out the incorrect word
Teacher asks either/or question (negros o negras?)
Teacher identifies the correct answer
Teacher explains why
Sample Cumulative G-DA Mediation Chart
Interactants in Classroom-based
DA
• Primary Interactants: teacher & learner whose
difficulty is focus of mediation at given moment
• Secondary Interactants: other learners present
during exchange & who together constitute social
space of classroom
- Secondary interactants may also benefit from
exchanges between primary interactants; vicarious
responses as in Ohta (2001); (also Lantolf & YanezPrieto 2003)
Classroom DA Example 1: Vicente
T: ¿Tiene dos orejas * café?
it has two *brown ears?
V: (looks at the cube again and points at it twice with his finger) sí dos
orejas (pause) *café
yes two *brown ears
T: ¿*Café?
*brown?
V: ¿Amarillo?
yellow?
T: ‘Café’ es correcto pero ¿dos orejas café?
‘brown’ is correct but two brown ears?
V: (no response, turns his body to face the class, looks at cube then out at
class and back to cube)
Example 1: Vicente (cont.)
T: ¿Cuántas orejas?
how many ears?
V: tiene dos orejas
it has two ears
(long pause, points at the image on the cube, then looks at teacher)
*café
*brown
(looks out to the class, then back to the teacher)
*café
*brown
(then looks back at the cube)
Example 1: Vicente (cont.)
(murmuring from another student of camera)
T: shhh (directed to the student)
T: Hay un problema (pause) con la palabra ‘café’
there is a problem (pause) with the word ‘brown’
(no response from Vicente but a girl in the class says “oh” and raises her
hand)
T: (looks to the girl and then back to Vicente) ¿Es *café o cafés ?
Is it *brown or brown?
V: Cafés
Brown
T: Sí muy bien tiene dos orejas cafés muy bien excelente Vicente
Yes very good it has two brown ears very good excellent Vicente
Classroom DA Example 2: Gabriela
T: okay ¿cuál animal es?
what animal is this?
G: uh I don’t get this one
T: clase ¿quién puede ayudarle? ¿ cuál animal es?
class who can help her what animal is this?
(several students raise hands to volunteer)
T: uhhhh ¿Josué?
J: la lechuza
an owl
T: la lechuza
an owl
Example 2: Gabriela (cont.)
G: uh la lechuza tiene (inaudible) or…?
the owl has (inaudible) or…?
T: sí
G: uh (pause) ¿*dos ala gris? (looks to teacher) wai-wai-wait ¿*dos alas gris?
*two gray wing?
*two gray wings?
T: gooood ¿*alas gris?
*gray wings?
G: ¿grises?
gray?
T: excelente muy bien Gabriela
excellent very good Gabriela
Classroom DA Example 3: Amora
T: (looking out to the class) por favor un voluntario más
one more volunteer please
(several students raising hands) Amora gracias
Amora thank you
(Amora comes to the front of the room, takes the cube and tosses it)
T: ¿ Cuál animal es?
What animal is it?
A: La alpaca
The alpaca
T: okay
A: um la alpaca tiene dos ojos (pause) uh negros?
the alpaca has two black eyes?
T: perfecto dos ojos negros
perfect two black eyes
Classroom DA Example 4: Vicente
Follow-Up
• Three days after the preceding examples, Tracy engaged
her class in a similar but slightly more challenging
activity: in pairs one student had a picture of an animal,
the other student had to ask questions to elicit
descriptive details about the animal from his/her
partner; goal was to correctly guess animal on card
• Vicente is holding a card with a picture of a chinchilla;
Tracy joins the pair and begins to prompt Vicente to
describe the animal
Classroom DA Example 4: Vicente
Follow-Up
V: Tengo …. (looks at photo he is holding) dos… orejas… cafés
I have two brown ears
T: Dos orejas cafés ¿y?
two brown ears and?
(Vicente looks at the teacher)
¿Qué más?
What else?
(Vicente looks at the photo)
V: Orejas
ears
T: Sí, dos orejas cafés. Sí. ¿qué más? Y …. ¿De qué color es la boca? ¿o los
ojos? Or [sic] las piernas
Yes, two brown ears. Yes. What else? And…What color is the mouth? Or
the eyes? Or the legs?
Example 4: Vicente Follow-Up (cont.)
V: Ojos
eyes
T: Y ? y dos ojos
and? and two eyes
V: Y dos ojos
and two eyes
T: Dos ojos ¿de qué color?
Two eyes, What color?
(Vicente looks at the teacher, who points to the picture)
¿De qué color son los ojos? dos ojos…?
What color are the eyes? Two eyes…?
V: Ah, negros
Ah, black
T: Negros. Perfecto…
Discussion
• Tracy’s approach to bringing DA into her classroom
depended upon expert knowledge of the local context as
well as knowledge of DA and ZPD (integration of
practice with theory)
• Result -> highly systematic approach to interacting with
learners; track individuals & class over time according
to independent assignments but also record of
interactions in class (problems, mediation)
• Impact on development of
1.Process (struggle) rather than immediate correction
2.Observation by secondary interactants of primary
interactants’ negotiations
Ongoing Project:
Computer-Administered DA (C-DA)
• Funded through US DoE Grant Award 421-47 (508P)
• Development of computerized language proficiency exams in
Chinese, French, & Russian
▫ Standardized, multiple-choice format (similar to TOEFL)
▫ Includes both reading and listening comprehension
• Administration of exams accompanied by menu of mediating
prompts and hints
▫ Graded from most implicit to most explicit
▫ Mediation provided as learner struggles with exam items
• Computer-generated profile of performance including
▫ Level of mediation needed for individual items, for exam sections
▫ Recommendations for future study based on performance on exam
sections