How to Use Dynamic Assessment in the Language Classroom

Teaching and learning are a process that is inherently complex and dynamic. Language assessment is an integral part of this process. Can assessment be dynamic, too? The answer is yes! Dynamic assessment (DA) is relatively less well known than traditional forms of assessment and even lesser used in language education programs. Moving away from the traditional view of teaching and assessment as two distinct activities, DA integrates assessment into the language learning process.

In DA, learners’ language ability is not regarded as fixed at a point in time that could be captured through traditional assessment. DA focuses on this language ability through interaction, guiding/leading questions, and feedback. As coauthor Shahid Abrar-ul-Hassan explains, DA “involves assessing what students can do or perform at present as well as assessing their capability in the future by employing either a preplanned or spontaneous intervention during a teaching activity.” Based on the Sociocultural Theory of Learning and related concepts, DA offers an innovative approach to promoting effective assessment.

Types of Dynamic Assessment

To put it into practice, language educators can use DA in many forms, but two main approaches are interactionist and interventionist.

First, the interactionist approach involves educator–learner interaction, which is unscripted and adaptive to the learner’s capability during the assessment process. So, it is essentially dialogic, or an approach that uses ongoing, interactive conversation in speech and/or writing. This approach is flexible and individualized; educators can respond to learners’ needs during the interaction, and they provide guidance, ask questions, give hints, and adjust their support as learning unfolds.

Second, the interventionist approach follows a more structured process in that educators use predetermined prompts or activities in a consistent manner. This approach makes the assessment process less individualized but more standardized for all learners, which in turn enhances rater reliability and the psychometric evaluation dimension of assessment scores.

Principles of Design Dynamic Assessment

These principles form the foundation of DA and should guide the design of any DA task. They can also be used as a checklist to confirm that a task truly reflects the principles of DA in both theory and practice:

1. 1. Teaching and assessment happen together.
   2. Learners improve through mediation (i.e., the support provided by the educator, such as questions, hints, prompts, explanations, and feedback, to help learners perform beyond what they can do independently.) This is the central concept in DA.
   3. Educators assess learning potential, not just current performance.
   4. Support should be gradually adjusted to learners’ needs through graduated prompts (i.e., a series of increasingly specific hints/cues that help learners identify and correct their mistakes before the educator provides the correct answer).
   5. The goal is to promote learning while assessing it.

Classroom Application

DA can be incorporated into everyday teaching without requiring separate assessment sessions (e.g., a quiz, test, or exam) just for the sake of assessment. The following three classroom practices illustrate how educators can integrate both DA approaches in assessment and instruction while adhering to the principles of DA assessment:

1. Guided Error Correction

Rather than immediately correcting learners’ mistakes, educators can provide graduated prompts. For example, if a learner uses the present tense instead of the past tense while narrating a story in a speaking skills task, the educator first repeats the sentence with emphasis, then asks the learner to identify the problem, followed by increasingly specific hints until the learner successfully self-corrects the statements. This process enables the educator to assess both the learner’s current performance and responsiveness to mediation provided.

Educators can prepare a sequence of prompts that move from general to more specific support. For example, when a learner makes an error, the educator might use the following graduated prompts:

1. 1. "Can you try that again?"
   2. "Think about the verb tense."
   3. "Remember, you are talking about something that happened yesterday."

Using graduated prompts encourages learners to identify and solve language use problems independently while allowing educators to determine the amount of support each learner requires.

2. Verbalizing Thinking and Feedback

Educators can encourage learners to explain their thinking by asking questions about how they arrived at an answer or why they chose a particular word, grammar structure, or communication strategy in their speaking or writing. As learners talk through their reasoning, they often become more aware of their own language choices. At the same time, educators gain valuable insight into learners' understanding, misconceptions, and learning strategies.

This kind of guided reflection helps learners discover the patterns and rules that shape language. For example, rather than simply correcting a mistake, an educator might use an authentic English text and ask a series of questions that lead learners to notice how the language works. With graduated prompts and guidance, learners can identify patterns and exceptions on their own, such as when to use the or no article, how irregular past tense verbs are formed, or why some verbs (such as know or believe) are not typically used in the progressive tense.

3. Interactive Feedback Protocol

During a DA task, instead of immediately providing correct answers, educators can guide learners through purposeful questioning. Begin with general prompts and gradually move to more specific ones, such as:

• • "Does that sentence sound right?"
  • "Who is performing the action?"
  • "What tense should we use here?"

This approach encourages learners to reflect on their language use, identify their own errors, and gradually arrive at the correct response.

In DA, feedback is not simply about telling learners whether their answer is right or wrong. Instead, it is an ongoing dialogue between the learner and the educator that helps learners think through problems and build their skills.

An important part of DA is tailoring the type and amount of feedback to each learner’s needs and gradually reducing support as learners become more independent, much like taking the training wheels off a bicycle.

For assessment purposes, educators must pay attention not only to whether learners eventually produce the correct answer, but also to how much support they needed along the way. For instance, a learner who succeeds after only a small prompt may be ready for more challenging tasks, while a learner who requires more guidance may benefit from additional guided practice. This information could also be reflected in assessment results, with learners receiving different scores or grades based on the level of support they needed.

Dynamic Assessment for Language Skills

One of the strengths of dynamic assessment (DA) is its flexibility. It can be adapted to a wide range of classroom activities, making it a practical approach to both assessment and instruction. The following skill-based strategies offer ideas for putting DA into practice:

Final Thoughts

DA is receiving growing attention as an innovative approach to language teaching and assessment. Many educators may already recognize some elements of DA in their own classroom practice, even if they have not used this approach before. By integrating assessment with instruction, DA enables educators to understand not only what learners know, but also how they learn and the specific support they need to succeed.

Ultimately, DA transforms traditional assessment practices from a measure of learning into a powerful mechanism for learning. In this way, assessment becomes an integral part of instruction by helping educators make more informed decisions while supporting learner development.