Enhancing learning potential score in EFL listening comprehension and self-regulation through self-regulated dynamic assessment procedures

Abstract

AbstractThis study aimed to integrate self-regulation strategies into dynamic assessment procedures of listening comprehension in an EFL setting and examine the possibility of raising EFL students’ listening comprehension and self-regulation skills. In addition, it explored the possibility of enhancing EFL learners’ potential scores in listening comprehension and self-regulation through applying self-regulation activities as a tool for motivating learners while being assessed. The assessment procedure was based on Vygotsky’s notion of the zone of proximal development and self-regulated intervention. The participants were 49 Iranian EFL learners in three groups: a control group, which received the institute’s regular instructional activities; a comparison group, which received dynamic assessment (DA); and an experimental group which received self-regulated dynamic assessment (SR-DA) procedures, in the form of an intervention focusing on cognitive, emotional, and behavioral self-regulation states of learners. Results of the study pointed to the potential of SR-DA for enhancing the students’ learning potential over and beyond that which is available from the DA (as offered to the comparison group) and the static testing (as offered to the control group). The results have important implications for a theoretical understanding of the mechanisms through which EFL learners develop necessary self-regulation skills in the EFL context.