Dynamic Assessment

Dyads of siblings in which the younger sibling had an intellectual disability (ID, n 5 25) were videotaped interacting. The ID group was compared with typically developing sibling dyads matched on mental age (n 5 25) and chronological age (n 5 25). We observed the mediation strategies, activation, and antimediation behaviors of older siblings and younger siblings' responsiveness to mediation. Mediation strategies were analyzed by the Observation of Mediation Interaction scale. The ID group scored highest on mediation strategies and lowest on activation and antimediation behaviors. Younger siblings' responsiveness to mediation was highest among the ID group. Mediation for Intentionality and Reciprocity and Meaning were positively associated with the verbal responsiveness of the younger siblings. Activation and antimediation behaviors were negatively associated with the verbal responsiveness.

This study was an attempt to investigate the effect of dynamic assessment on elementary EFL (English as a foreign language) students' grammar learning. To this end, forty six male adult elementary EFL learners in two groups, namely the experimental and control groups, participated in the study. The participants were chosen based on intact group sampling. Their homogeneity was also checked by Cambridge Michigan Test. The participants' initial knowledge of the target grammatical items (prepositions of time and place) was checked by the grammar pre-test. Then, while the experimental group underwent their specific treatment in the form of dynamic assessment for ten sessions, the control group experienced their routine classroom activates. At the end of the treatment sessions, both groups took a grammar post-test. The results of an independent sample t-test suggested that dynamic assessment has a significant effect on elementary EFL learners' learning of prepositions of time and place and the impact was high.

A focus of interest among researchers and educators is to find teaching methods adjusted to developmental aspects in early childhood. Teaching that generates significant learning and creates motivation, interest and enjoyment in young children is a real challenge in contemporary education. The effectiveness of using puppets in early childhood has been demonstrated in clinical areas as having the potential to create communication, increase involvement and change attitudes. However, there is limited research literature relating to the use of puppets as a teaching method, and therefore a methodology based on measurement and evaluation is lacking in this field. This article presents partial results of a broader study that examined the influence of an intervention program integrating a puppet as a mediation tool on learning motivation, and enhancing literacy achievements in regular and special kindergarten children. One of the aims of this research was to evaluate, from mediators' perspectives, the use of puppets as a mediation tool for kindergarten children. This evaluation was carried out by means of personal interviews with each of the mediators at the end of the intervention program. From the interviews it became apparent that the mediators considered the puppets to be an effective tool for young children's developmental aspects, by means of which they could relate to cognitive, emotional, and social realms. Mediation using puppets facilitated learning processes, while using puppets, children's cooperation level increased, as did interest, attention span and their involvement in learning interaction was evident. The puppets contributed to the mediators' self-confidence and to their sense of professionalism. During the puppets mediation, the mediators felt that they were teaching in a clear manner, and they felt they were being interesting and. interactive. By using puppets, they succeeded in creating a close personal connection with the children. These findings have an applicable contribution in presenting the effectiveness of the puppet as a mediation tool for use in kindergarten and with special needs children.

A focus of interest among researchers and educators is to find teaching methods adjusted to developmental aspects in early childhood. Teaching that generates significant learning and creates motivation, interest and enjoyment in young children is a real challenge in contemporary education. The effectiveness of using puppets in early childhood has been demonstrated in clinical areas as having the potential to create communication, increase involvement and change attitudes. However, there is limited research literature relating to the use of puppets as a teaching method, and therefore a methodology based on measurement and evaluation is lacking in this field. This article presents partial results of a broader study that examined the influence of an intervention program integrating a puppet as a mediation tool on learning motivation, and enhancing literacy achievements in regular and special kindergarten children. One of the aims of this research was to evaluate, from mediators' perspectives, the use of puppets as a mediation tool for kindergarten children. This evaluation was carried out by means of personal interviews with each of the mediators at the end of the intervention program. From the interviews it became apparent that the mediators considered the puppets to be an effective tool for young children's developmental aspects, by means of which they could relate to cognitive, emotional, and social realms. Mediation using puppets facilitated learning processes, while using puppets, children's cooperation level increased, as did interest, attention span and their involvement in learning interaction was evident. The puppets contributed to the mediators' self-confidence and to their sense of professionalism. During the puppets mediation, the mediators felt that they were teaching in a clear manner, and they felt they were being interesting and. interactive. By using puppets, they succeeded in creating a close personal connection with the children. These findings have an applicable contribution in presenting the effectiveness of the puppet as a mediation tool for use in kindergarten and with special needs children. Keywords: puppets, mediation tool, kindergarten, special education

As argued by Poehner (2008), Dynamic Assessment (DA) can substantially improve our understanding of students' abilities and promote their development at the same time by providing information on both the individuals' Zone of Actual Development (ZAD) and their Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), and this way helps us avoid overestimates and underestimates of these individuals' abilities. The present study, as a result, was an attempt to investigate the role DA can play in students' placement into appropriate levels and courses of education. For this end, the researchers observed and recorded the placement interviews of four placement teachers in the Iran Language Institute (ILI) and Nashr-e-Zaban. The researchers analyzed the gathered data and found out that the placement teachers dealt more with the students' ZAD than their ZPD. Adopting the Interactionist Model of DA, and believing that " understanding individuals' abilities necessitates intervention " (Poehner, 2008, p. 113), the researchers discussed DA and its key concepts including ZPD, mediation, scaffolding, intervention, the assessment-instruction integration and the role these could play in a better prediction of the students' future performance and emergent abilities. Having discussed DA and its key concepts using some examples from previous placement interviews in a six-hour course, the researchers observed and recorded the placement interviews of the four teachers in the following term. The gathered data were transcribed and interpreted to see if the intervention had an effect on placement teachers' performance of placement interviews. The results showed that placement teachers then relied more on DA and its key concepts as better indicators of students' future performance. The implications are for those teachers who hold placement interviews to adopt a more development-oriented approach and assess the students' both ZAD and ZPD so that they can avoid misplacements into inappropriate levels and courses.

The effects of a peer-mediation program and training in analogies versus math on mediation strategies, cognitive modifi ability, and math were investigated with 78 tutor-tutee dyads. Experimental group tutors (EGT, n = 39) received the Peer-Mediation for Young Children program, whereas control group tutors (CGT, n = 39) received a substitute program. Grade 3 tutors taught kindergarten tutees analogies and math problems. Their interactions were videotaped and analyzed by the Observation of Mediation Interaction scale. Dynamic assessment measures were administered before and after the program. EGT showed higher levels of mediation strategies and cognitive modifi ability than did CGT. EGT trained in teaching analogies showed higher mediation strategies and cogni-tive modifi ability than did EGT trained in teaching math. EGT teaching math showed higher levels of mediation strategies than did EGT teaching analogies. EGT showed higher improvement in math than CGT. The fi ndings are discussed in view of the mediated learning experience theory and transfer effects of intervention.

This study aims to investigate the effects of dynamic assessment on improving ELT learners of English as a foreign language at a large state university. The researchers followed the pre-test—treatment—post-test procedure in the study. The test type used in the assessment procedures was 'Retelling Story Test' type in which learners were provided with authentic news stories and expected to narrate the event in the story. The study involves both quantitative and qualitative data analysis. The statistical data were analyzed by Mann Whitney U-Test and Wilcoxon Sign Test. As for the qualitative data, responses to a student evaluation form were analyzed at the end of the whole procedure. The researchers found significance in the performances of control and experiment groups after the treatment program implemented for the latter group. The students also in the experiment group were able to maintain their success in transfer tests applied after the post-tests. Students were observed to be less dependent on the teacher's mediation in transfer tests, which proved the power of interactions in the students' Zone of proximal development. Furthermore, the qualitative data obtained from the student evaluation form revealed that learners found the assessment procedure beneficial.

Leontjev, Dmitri ICAnDoiT: The Impact of Computerised Adaptive Corrective Feedback on L2 English Learners Jyväskylä: University of Jyväskylä, 2016, 152 p. (Jyväskylä Studies in Humanities ISSN 1459-4323; 284 (nid.) ISSN 1459-4331; 284 (PDF)) ISBN 978-951-39-6585-3 (nid.) ISBN 978-951-39-6586-0 (PDF) The present dissertation examines the impact of (computerised) adaptive corrective feedback, that is, feedback dynamically adapting to learners’ abilities, in English as a second/foreign language (L2) and explores the ways to maximise this impact. The study was inspired by the sociocultural perspective on development, which had implications for the interpretation of the results, including those obtained through statistical data analyses. The dissertation comprises five articles and a synthesis. In the first article, a positive effect of adaptive corrective feedback on the learners’ ability to formulate L2 English wh-questions is established. The second article explores how learners’ beli...

Despite growing interest in the implementation of dynamic assessment in second or foreign language learning research, few studies have attempted to incorporate the notion into real second language classrooms. This study explored the effect of cumulative Group-Dynamic Assessment on depth of vocabulary knowledge in an EFL context. To this end, 50 EFL learners were selected from a junior high school in Iran after administering the Oxford Quick Placement Test. Then, they were randomly assigned to two equal groups, namely, experimental Group-Dynamic Assessment and control Non-Dynamic Assessment. The Group-Dynamic Assessment group was instructed through interactionist cumulative Group-Dynamic Assessment procedures while the control group was taught without providing any cumulative ZPD-sensitive feedback. Before and after the instruction, a vocabulary knowledge scale (Paribakh & Wesche, 1993, 1996) was administered to measure both groups' depth of second language vocabulary knowledge. The split-plot ANOVA results revealed that the implementation of interactionist cumulative Group-Dynamic Assessment helped the learners outperform the Non-Dynamic Assessment group on both immediate and delayed posttests. Additionally, complementary qualitative analysis showed that cumulative Group-Dynamic Assessment had both diagnostic and developmental potentials to contribute not only to individual participants but also to the whole class to increase their depth of vocabulary knowledge. The findings pointed to the use of ZPD-based collaborative frameworks in teaching second language vocabulary in meaningful contexts and thereby helping learners develop deeper word knowledge.

When an educational establishment decides to promote reflective practice in its midst and expects all stakeholders (teachers, students, and administrators) to become reflective practitioners and advocates, there ought to be a firm understanding of the meaning of the term reflection and of the concept of reflective practice.  This research paper will address all relevant issues concerning the practice of reflection, highlighting the primacy of professional development as a reliable and robust link between theoretical knowledge and practical knowledge.  The paper will also explore the current research with regard to reflective practice.  A comprehensive literature review of the practice within the educational field will be alluded to. Best approaches to integrate relevant strategies and to address issues emanating from the practice will also be included. Finally, recommendations for future development and a synthesis of the various elements needed for efficient reflective practice will be provided.

Many existing assessments for deciding the potential special education needs of emergent bilingual youth are either normed on monolingual students or normed on bilingual students through monolingual data collection (Hamayan, Marler, Sánchez-López, & Damico, 2013; Otheguy, García, & Reid, 2015; Perkins, 2005). To address this issue, we describe a recent study using translanguaging in dynamic assessment with six middle school emergent bilingual youth. Using bilingual language sample analysis of content-based story retells, coded with the Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts software, we demonstrate how emergent bilingual youth are able to produce more language and content knowledge when given the freedom to translanguage. These quantitative data may improve decisions distinguishing language difference from disability and address issues of disproportionality in special education.

Considering the statement that errors can affect the quality of translations, the need to adopt an objective model to analyze these errors has been one of the most debated issues in translation quality assessment. In recent decades, some objective models have emerged with an error analysis nature according to which evaluators can make decisions on the quality of translations. In this study, Method (A) of Waddington's model (2001) was applied on the novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck (1937) and translated by Parviz Daryuosh in 1966. To this end, 20 paragraphs were chosen at random, then compared and contrasted thoroughly with their translations to evaluate the quality of translation. By close examination of the data, the kinds of errors were detected and tabulated according to the number of frequency and percentage. The results of the study revealed that almost all extents of Waddington's model (method A) could be applied on the novel. Furthermore, the values of the statistical analysis showed that out of the total of 270 errors, the most frequent errors went to the first category of the model with 232 errors accounted for 85.92%, and affected comprehension in the source text. The most frequent errors related to this category were fauxsens, omission, addition and loss of meaning and the rest of errors were not significant. In contrast, the least dominant errors were related to the second category with 38 errors accounted for 14.07%, and affected the expression of the target text. The most frequently occurred error related to this category was grammar and the other errors were not significant.

This study investigated the effect of dynamic assessment (DA) on reading comprehension development and metacognitive awareness for reading strategies of Iranian IELTS students within the framework of Poehner (2008) who advocated the integration of assessment and instruction in promoting learners' abilities. It was a pretest-treatment-posttest quasi-experimental design in which 71 men and women advanced EFL learners participated. The experimental group (n=35) received DA interventions for the period of 10 weeks (40 hours in total) and the control group (n=36) went through regular teaching methods and static assessment. Two academic IELTS reading comprehension equivalent tests were employed as the pretest and posttest. Also, the metacognitive awareness for reading strategy questionnaire of Mokhtari and Richard (2002) was administered twice (once at the outset and once at the end of the study). The results of an ANCOVA analysis showed that the experimental group outperformed the control group in reading comprehension development. Moreover, a statistically significant difference was found between the metacognitive awareness for reading strategies of the experimental group and that of the control group through the repeated measure AVONA test. Regarding the results, this study recommends teachers and IELTS instructors to consider DA in their test preparation programs.

In Developmental Education, language plays an essential role as a tool for communication (and thinking). Learning to produce coherent messages (“narratives”) with both cultural and personal value in the context of meaningful socio-cultural practices is considered as an important goal of Developmental Education. Narratives are essential for human action as they function as a tool for giving meaning to reality. Therefore, close observation and assessment of children’s narratives is essential in the context of Developmental Education. Over the past years we have developed a Dynamic Assessment (DA) instrument for assessing children’s narrative competence. This instrument combines two common approaches to DA, namely standardised interventionist DA and interactionist DA. With the help of this instrument, teachers are able to gain insight into children’s actual narrative competence as well as their developmental potential and their receptivity to certain forms of assistance to reach this potential. Our experience up to now shows that it is possible to assess children’s narrative competence in a valid and reliable manner.

This review explores contemporary literature available to Educational Psychologists (EPs) concerning the value, and unique contribution, of Dynamic Assessment (DA) in EP practice.

The key features of Feuerstein’s (1979-2008) model of Dynamic Assessment are presented, and the theoretical and methodological underpinnings contrasted, with those from the psychometric paradigm. Links are made to other prominent theories of development to explore the theoretical validity of DA and establish its philosophical base.

Arguments for the use of DA as a tool for helping others are explored, however this review found that the clinical value of DA comes at a cost to reliability and validity in psychometric terms. Contributions from research on this issue are considered.

This review concludes that the value of DA for EP practice lies in its power to investigate the nature of an individual’s cognitive functioning within the psycho-educational domain. When used as a tool for helping, DA can inform educationalists of suitable interventions, and can account for a wide range of individual needs; but the lack of verifiability of the constructs it uses mean it has limited application for research or diagnostic purposes.

The school inclusion of people with educational needs is dominant proposition in Special Education and Education in general, in the last decades, addressing programs and educational and rehabilitation politics in several countries, including Brazil. It demands the transformation of school, proposing the students' insertion with any needs in the regular school, letting to the schools the adaptation to the students' characteristics, what makes the rupture to the traditional model of teaching and is the problem starting. The institutions of Basic School have been having difficulties in the school inclusion, starting in the diagnosis of the learning disabilities, finishing in the little professional training to assist pedagogically and psychologically that population. Trying to contribute in this basic aspect of the inclusive process - the child's diagnosis with special educational needs -, the dynamic assessment is a complementary modality to the traditional evaluation of cognitive and linguistic abilities. This includes the examiner's help during the process, after an initial phase without help, being common in research works the procedure test-aided-retest, in that the subject works as his own control. This evaluation modality of the cognitive and linguistic processing favors the acting and it comes as more prescriptive to the curriculum adaptation. Especially used in the Special Education, this is still a little used evaluation proposal in Brazil, where there are research papers since the 90s last century.

This paper outlines the attempts of a group of educational psychologists to apply the theoretical principles underpinning dynamic assessment to the process of solution focused consultation with teachers at the school-based stages of the Special Educational Needs Code of Practice. Process questions based on dynamic assessment are used within a semi-structured consultative framework in order to challenge thinking, to explore meanings, to mediate learning and to plan interventions. It is suggested that the principles of dynamic assessment lend themselves well to the consultation process, providing a model for effective and reflective practice for educational psychologists and teachers, and non-intrusive intervention with pupils.

Although some assessment modes have proved successful, many learning problems encountered by low achieving learners need to be fixed by a more procedurally adequate remedial classroom assessment. Many EFL instructors adopt conventional and static modes of assessment rather than flexible and humanistic assessment modes. Hence, the study aims at examining how Dynamic Assessment that premises on Vygotsky’s ‘zone of proximal development and advocates mediation through good social setting and practice can enhance EFL language learning. Accordingly, 25 EFL students pursuing the first level of an undergraduate course at Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz University, formed the experimental group for the writing task and 20 for the Reading task. Pre-test and post-test were administered based on Browns’ Interventionist Model for writing task and Feuerstein’s Interactionist model for Reading Comprehension. In addition, an online questionnaire was distributed to 43 university teachers from Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz University to elicit their opinion. Data were statistically analyzed using SPSS. The results show a significant relation between Dynamic Assessment and language learning. The implications of findings will be helpful in EFL classrooms and research.

This study seeks to provide insights into the process of vocabulary learning and promoting vocabulary knowledge by tracking its development in dynamic assessment (DA) procedures through thematic and microgenetic analysis. In order to meet the aim of this study, three male and three female EFL learners were chosen non-randomly based on their availability. All the participants were beginners with regard to their vocabulary knowledge. The participants voluntarily attended 15 DA sessions throughout each session a few new vocabulary items were presented using different techniques of teaching vocabulary. The participants received corrective feedback within their zone of proximal development (ZPD). They were provided with appropriate levels of help by moving gradually and using prompts through the regulatory scale from the most implicit to the most explicit assistance which emerged from the individualized mediation between the mediator and the learners. The results of the study indicated that using DA procedure can enhance the development of vocabulary knowledge among EFL learners.

World language educators are constantly tasked with evaluating appropriate and beneficial assessments for their students. This study investigated how first-year students in a Midwestern  United  States  high  school  perceived  three  different  alternative  assessments  in the  world  language  classroom:  Dynamic  Assessment,  Task-based  Assessment,  and  Formative Assessment using self- and peer-evaluation. The researcher correlated the perceptions to the students’ assessment scores. Additionally, the researcher compared final exam scores of the control group with those of the experimental group. The results indicated that the experimental group students favorably perceived the alternative assessments types, chose Formative Assessment as their most preferred and Task-based Assessment as the least desired, and scored equally as well as the control group students on the final exam.

Dynamic Assessment, referred to in this paper as DA, is one of the various methods of adopting a particular evaluation procedure in order to identify possessed language skills of individual learners in addition to their learning perspective. The dynamic assessment procedure in other words accentuates individuals’ learning potential before and during a systematic curriculum. This would help examiners to conduct the most fitted criteria for future sessions.  DA, derived from Lev Vygotsky’s (1989) Socio-cultural Theory (SCT) and his concept of Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), is based on the view that observing individuals’ independent performance discloses the results of their past development, while the purpose of most assessments is prediction of learners’ future performance. The present study thus reviewed the Iranian literature on DA due to the significance of the topic. To this aim, the theoretical background of DA will be first explained. What follows next is the section on the approaches to DA that are fully examined. Finally, recent related studies conducted on DA in Iran will be addressed and reviewed.

The present paper reports on a study examining how English for academic proposes (EAP) teachers' language use can contribute to opening up or obstructing learning opportunities for learners. In doing so, audiotapes of a typical tutorial session of four EAP instructors, seven hours of recordings in total, were closely analyzed. Conversation analysis (CA) methodology was adopted to demonstrate how teachers' intended or inadvertent online decision-makings affected learners' participation. Results unfolded that extended teacher turn, limited wait-time, extensive repair, and teacher echo erected some obstacles in the way of learners' participation and consequently minimized interactional space. The results also evidenced that overriding practice around material texts as well as skill and system mode coupled with focus on display questions curbed the learners' active involvement in more dialogic discussions. Furthermore, it was evidenced that the teachers' over-reliance on L1 and translation could contribute to a less L2 exposure and communicative setting. Some implications for pertinent stakeholders and fertile grounds for further research are presented.

This study investigated the effect of dynamic Assessment (DA) on the acquisition of L2 grammar by EFL learners. The focus was on teaching Conditional Type II, or Unreal Conditional, which is a difficult structure for language learners to acquire. To this end, two intact classes of intermediate EFL learners, each consisting of 23 male students were assigned to control and experimental groups. They were pre-tested and post-tested (immediately and delayed post-test) using a written grammaticality judgment task. Multivariate Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was run to analyze the data. The results revealed that the experimental group significantly outperformed the control group (p<0.05) on both immediate and delayed post-tests. The findings point to the advantage of implementation of DA in L2 grammar instruction in classroom contexts.

A test is first a method and that method generally requires some performances or activities on the part of either the testee or the tester or both. Testing is an inextricable part of the instructional process. If a test is to provide meaningful information on which teachers and administrators can base their decisions, then many variables and concerns must be considered. No EFL program can deny the significance of testing for evaluating learner's acquisition of the target language. This study reports on the use of an innovative assessment, dynamic assessment (DA), in EFL and ESL contexts. It can empower educators to become researchers when they implement and further investigate this innovative approach to language assessment. The present article is a literature review which aims to look critically at the emergence of DA as an alternative approach to the previous traditional approaches. Also, after taking a look at the theoretical framework as well as different models of DA, the researchers compare dynamic and non-dynamic assessments as well as the application and implication of DA in the scope of language teaching and language testing.

This paper, based on Vygotsky’s (1978, 1986) Sociocultural Theory of Mind, explores the applicability of a cognitive developmental activity using Dynamic Assessment (DA) to assess oral proficiency in a beginner Spanish course, and the consequences of implementing DA in the foreign language classroom.
DA insists on the inseparability of assessment and instruction, focusing on the learners’ potential development rather than in their present individual solving problem abilities. Thus, when approaching DA, the goal is to assess students' potential development as a predictor of future individual performance. In an attempt to develop this model, this study used a cognitive developmental activity to assess the oral performance of a group of 30 beginner Spanish students.
The participants in this study were randomly selected out of a pool of 62 students of Spanish at university level in their second semester. They were divided in pairs, and each pair was assigned with a picture selected out of a set of three photos specifically designed to evaluate and give a prognosis about the learners’ oral ability in giving and receiving directions in Spanish. In an interview format, students were allowed to use different sorts of mediation in order to complete their assigned task.
Through a review of the main tenets of DA, and data collected from actual students of Spanish, this study will suggest that the very use of DA in oral tests fosters students' development in the process of second language acquisition. Data analysis showed that mediation was only effective when the concepts were in the students’ Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). It was concluded that assessment has to be a dynamic process in order to conceptualize a valid prognosis of the learner’s potential development.

Dynamic assessment, and in particular the learning potential approach, are receiving increasing attention from educators and research practitioners worldwide. This article re-ports on the status of dynamic assessment in South Africa, with particular reference to its use in higher education. A review of local studies and an informal survey of 36 institutions revealed that it is widely recognised that fair selection of students from a variety of different backgrounds requires assessment strategies that focus on future potential in addition to current ability. To this end, a number of South African learning potential instruments have been developed, empirical studies conducted (in most cases with positive results), and selection procedures implemented that make use of dynamic assessment techniques. The development and use of dynamic assessment in South Africa has been limited by misperceptions regarding the nature of dynamic assessment; a lack of a consistent defini-tions and research ...

The aim of this study is to create Turkish adaptation and do validity and reliability study of Application of Cognitive Functions Scale which has been developed by filling in the blanks between academic and cognitive requirements of learning programs for children aged between 48 and 66 months. Relational screening model was used in the study and the study group consisted of 76 girls, 82 boys, totaly 158 children; who continuing determined preschool education institutes at Istanbul: Ataşehir, Kadıköy, Üsküdar and Maltepe districts in 2015-2016 education year. The scale was administered by the researcher with the study group. The data obtained from the research was analysed using the appropriate statistical methods. According to the results, for construct validity when the difference between children’s pretest and post scores from ACFS Tasks Section Subscales was examined, it was determined that there is a significant difference at each subscale for Tasks Section Subscales at the level of .001 and in total scores at the level of .05. For reliability of the scale, the relationships between Tasks Section Subscales and Behavior Observation Scale were examined and it was determined that there are positive high correlations. Total reliability coefficient Cronbach’s Alpha value was calculated as .749 for Tasks Section Subscales and .997 for Behavior Observation Scale. When the relationships within Tasks Section Subscales and Behavior Observation Scale were examined, it was seen that there are positive medium and high level correlations. For Behavior Observation Scale, inter-rater reliability was examined and it was found that inter-rater reliability has a level of .90 and higher correlation value in all sub-dimensions. Findings of the study were discussed in light of the relevant literature and it was concluded that Application of Cognitive Functions Scale was a reliable and valid scale.

Vygotsky's (1978, 1987) notion of the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) brings into focus the dialectical nature of interactional processes that provoke second language (L2) learner development. Two areas of L2 sociocultural theory (SCT-L2) scholarship that draw upon the ZPD as a framework for organizing instructional interactions are Dynamic Assessment (DA), wherein mediator-learner interaction functions to diagnose learner maturing abilities (Poehner, 2008), and Mediated Development (MD), an interactional framework that fosters learner capacity to understand and employ L2 concepts within communicative activities (Poehner and Infante, 2017). We argue that DA foregrounds assessing learner emerging abilities without losing sight of their development through instruction, while MD shows how appropriate instruction has to include assessing the learner. This paper extends the argument that ZPD activity represents the dialectical relation between teaching and assessing through analysis of transcribed classroom interaction that supports the perspective that DA and MD can function together as part of a coherent SCT-L2 pedagogy.

Despite the increasing amount of bi- and multilingual clients in the caseloads of speech and language therapists, there is a limited number of instruments that clinicians can use to distinguish transient language difference, due to a bilingual environment, from language disorder. In the current study, the Dynamic Assessment of Preschoolers’ Proficiency in Learning English (DAPPLE, Hasson et al., 2013) was therefore adapted to Italian and administered to 18 bilingual children who had been referred to speech and language therapy services and to 29 typically developing bilingual controls. The two groups were matched on age, exposure to Italian, age of first exposure to Italian, primary caregiver education and non-verbal IQ. The ability to learn vocabulary, sentence structure and phonology was assessed through the use of a test-teach-retest format, and subsequently compared to the results of a non-word repetition task and a parent report on the child’s first language development. Overall, the Italian adaptation of the DAPPLE was found to discriminate the two groups of children. In the vocabulary subtest, statistically significant between-group differences were found on the receptive pre-test and on the immediate post-teaching naming task. Pre-test and post-test measures, as well as the children’s pre- to post-gains, differentiated the two groups in both the sentence structure and phonology tasks. Finally, significant inter-correlations were observed among the scores derived from the dynamic assessment, the results of the non-word repetition task and the parent report, which seemingly confirmed the pre-diagnostic accuracy of the proposed screening tool.