Effectiveness of Korean Elementary EFL Learners’ Writing in English through Dynamic Assessment

This paper examines the effectiveness of Dynamic Assessment (DA) on Korean elementary-level EFL students in South Korea. DA is procedure that integrates assessment and instruction. It allows an instructor both to determine students’ actual language level and reach their own developmental potential. Fourteen elementary school students participated in the eight weeks study, in concert with a teacher. When the teacher went over the students’ finished written work, she utilized the Regulatory Scale, which was introduced by Aljaafreh and Lantolf (1994). This scale helps instructors guide students to depend less on other regulations and the teacher and more on self-regulation. In Week 8, students’ perceptions of DA were ascertained through interviews. The students needed detailed feedback to identify and correct their mistakes at the start of the study, but that changed over time. As the sessions continued, the students became more critical of quality of their writing, and the speed of their work became faster than in the beginning. In the interview, many students responded that the new DA teaching method helped them improve their English skills. Based on the results from data collection and interviews, it can be said that DA is a valuable teaching method for EFL students.