Static Assessment

This study was aimed at investigating the effect of collaborative assessment, as compared to that of static assessment, on the EFL learners’ reading comprehension, metacognitive strategies, and critical thinking. In this mixed-methods research design study, 62 intermediate EFL learners out of a population of 79 English language learners, were randomly selected and divided into two groups of experimental and control with 31 participants in each group. They were both female and male, who were administered a meta-cognitive strategy and critical thinking questionnaire and a reading comprehension test at the pretest and posttest stage of the study. Furthermore, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 participants and six sessions of the course were picked for observation. A multivariate ANOVA (MANOVA) test was run and the obtained results revealed that the students in the experimental group showed statistically significant gains on the reading comprehension and metacognitive strategy as compared with the participants in the control group but did not show any significant difference on their critical thinking. Similarly, the analysis of the interviews and classroom observations provided important themes which revealed that the students found collaborative assessment a very fruitful and practical way of promoting their reading skills and strategies mainly metacognitive strategies.

Purpose: This study was an attempt to find the impact of audio corrective feedback on Iranian intermediate EFL learners’ writing improvement at micro and macro levels using static and dynamic assessment methods. Methodology: This study employs a quasi-experimental design; The study population comprises individuals residing in Yazd, Iran, aged between 22 and 30 years old, and possessing intermediate-level proficiency in the English language.Forty Iranian intermediate EFL learners were randomly chosen and assigned to two groups of static and dynamic assessment, each comprising 20 learners. Both groups received audio corrective feedback on the micro (grammatical range and accuracy and lexical resource) and macro (task response and coherence and cohesion) writing skills. The data were collected by the pre-test and post-test of writing and analyzed by multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA). Findings: The results revealed significant effects of audio corrective feedback on EFL learners' writing skills. Improvements were observed in grammatical accuracy (F = 12.45, p < 0.01), lexical resource (F = 9.67, p < 0.05), task response (F = 14.32, p < 0.01), and coherence and cohesion (F = 11.21, p < 0.01). Furthermore, comparison between the static and dynamic assessment groups showed a more pronounced improvement in the dynamic group, with significant differences in micro skills (F = 5.78, p < 0.05) and macro skills (F = 6.34, p < 0.05). Conclusions: The results of this study indicate that the dynamic assessment approach had a statistically significant effect on enhancing both micro and macro-level writing skills among the participants. Notably, it had a more pronounced impact on the improvement of task response and grammatical range and accuracy. This highlights the potential of dynamic assessment as a valuable tool for educators and curriculum designers to promote more comprehensive writing skill development in Iranian EFL learners.