Reconceptualizing Grammar Development through Dynamic Assessment: Differential Effects across Achievement and Proficiency Levels in Secondary EFL Classrooms

Abstract

This study examines how Dynamic Assessment (DA), a Vygotskian conceptualization of the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), can influence the grammatical development of Emirati EFL students at the secondary level. The quasi-experimental study, which employed a sequential explanatory mixed-methods design, followed an intervention with 140 twelfth-grade students to compare instruction mediated by DA with Non-Dynamic Assessment (NDA). The respondents were classified by achievement (low, average, high) and proficiency (general vs. advanced) to test the interaction effect. Quantitative data showed that students who received DA achieved a much larger improvement in grammatical accuracy than those who received the NDA. Interestingly, the greatest improvement was observed among the low achievers, indicating that DA is successful in engaging underdeveloped ZPD potential, whereas advanced-proficiency learners also responded better to mediation than their general-proficiency counterparts. These findings were supported by qualitative data from 20 semi-structured interviews, which demonstrated perceptions of the roles of graduated mediation, dialogic feedback, and scaffolded support in reducing anxiety and improving metacognitive engagement. The results not only extend the existing body of research on DA but also show the extent to which it applies to large EFL classrooms and indicate how learners' characteristics mediate reactions to the assessment-as-instruction. ZPD-informed grammar instruction has pedagogical and theoretical implications that are addressed with respect to similar EFL situations.