The Impact of Online Dynamic Assessment on the Development of EFL Students’ Speaking Skills - A Comparison of Online Synchronous and Asynchronous DA Sessions

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Ivy

The current paper examined the impact of Dynamic Assessment (DA) on the speaking skills of EFL learners applying socio-cultural theory developed by Vygotsky (1934). The study compared online synchronous DA sessions delivered via Google Meet with asynchronous DA sessions delivered via Gmail. Ninety Iranian EFL institutional students preparing for IELTS were assigned to two experimental groups and one control group, with 30 participants each. IELTS speaking tasks, scored using band descriptors, showed pre-test to post-test gains in fluency, vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation, and asynchronous DA outperformed synchronous experimental results.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryExam

FormatPDF

Pages21

Reading Time53 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

1. Introduction

Technology and online approaches in education

Dynamic assessment in language learning and assessment

Research gaps and study aims

The Impact of Online Dynamic Assessment on the Development of EFL Students’ Speaking Skills: A Comparison of Online Synchronous and Asynchronous DA Sessions Saba Ghanbari Haez University of Trento, Italy saba.ghanbarihaez@studenti.unitn.it Mahtab Delfani Urmia University, Urmia, Iran [m.delfani@urmia.ac.ir](m.delfani@urmia.ac.ir) Bio-Profiles: Saba Ghanbari Haez holds an MA in applied linguistics and translation studies with several years of solid experience in English language education as an EFL teacher and educational supervisor. Her research interests include computer-assisted language learning, language assessment, and educational technologies. Currently, she is doing research in computational linguistics, focusing on automatic information extraction for educational purposes. Mahtab Delfani holds a PhD. in mathematics from Urmia University, Urmia, Iran. She has several years of experience in academic teaching and research. Her current research interests include group theory, focusing on character theory, fixed points in generalized metric spaces, and application of statistics in mathematics education and education in total. Abstract The current paper examined the impact of Dynamic Assessment (DA) on the speaking skills of EFL learners applying socio-cultural theory, which was developed by Vygotsky (1934) . The study also tried to compare the results from online synchronous DA sessions, which were done in the form of one-to-one online training over Google Meet, with the results from asynchronous DA sessions, in which the trainer and the trainees were interacting over Gmail. To this end, 90 EFL institutional students from Iran, who were getting ready to take the IELTS test, were selected as the participants of the program. The cases were then divided into two experimental groups and one control group, each with 30 contributors. IELTS speaking tasks, marked by IELTS speaking band descriptors, were used to assess their speaking skills. Comparing the pre-test and post-test, the findings indicated development in all four areas of fluency, vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation. Moreover, comparing the results from the two experimental groups showed that the participants who received asynchronous DA sessions outperformed the other experimental group. It is worth mentioning that a broader level of development was observed in experimental groups than the control group, in which the members received synchronous non-Dynamic Assessment (non-DA) methods. Keywords: Dynamic Assessment. Non-Dynamic Assessment, Zone of Proximal Development, Mediation, Interventionist DA, Interactionist DA 1. Introduction The remarkable progress in the adoption of technological developments in education has opened alternative paths in adopting distant educational technologies, including wide-area networks (Christensen, 2002; Baytak, Tarma, & Ayas, 2011; Tondeur et al., 2012 ; Cook & Grant-Davis, 2020) . Rapidly after the internet became accessible to a comprehensive range of societies, conventional teaching methods were transformed into modern, online, internetmediated approaches to teaching (Bernard et al., 2009) . Although technology-based education has been largely applied by language learning communities and institutions all over the globe, its usage in language assessment, especially DA, has not been studied broadly. Abrams (2003), for instance, studied how synchronous and asynchronous CMC (Computer-Mediated Communication) can affect learners’ oral improvements. The variables of her study included: “The number of idea units and words, the lexical richness and diversity, and the syntactic complexity of learner language.” She found no significant differences amongst the groups under study; however, she did not include DA in her treatment period. The internet can provide significant opportunities for applying DA, an interactive alternative for traditional assessment, in language education. DA aims at collecting data and

FAQs

How does the study compare online synchronous and asynchronous Dynamic Assessment?

It compares synchronous DA delivered through one-to-one sessions over Google Meet with asynchronous DA where interaction between trainer and trainees occurs over Gmail.

How were participants grouped in the research?

Ninety Iranian EFL institutional students preparing for IELTS were split into two experimental groups and one control group, with 30 participants in each group.

Which speaking skills showed improvement after the intervention?

Pre-test and post-test comparisons indicated development in fluency, vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Ivy