The effect of dynamic assessment on complexity, accuracy, and fluency in EFL learners’ oral production

Abstract

The present study aimed to investigate the effect of dynamic assessment on complexity, accuracy and fluency (CAF) in EFL learners’ oral production. Participants were 44 intermediate; they were all female and aged from 11 to 15 in a language institute in Isfahan. They were divided into two experimental and control groups: The experimental group received the treatment (dynamic assessment/DA), and the control group received regular instruction under institute’s normal situation. Findings revealed that the implementation of DA promoted more complex and accurate oral productions while it did not have any effect on the fluency of learners’ oral productions. In addition, results manifested strong positive correlations between measures of CAF and learners’ oral proficiency scores. Finally, the factor analysis revealed that there were three main factors (CAF) underlying the six measures used in the present study. The results of this study have a number of implications for EFL practitioners and teachers as well.