Interactive Dynamic Assessment with Children Learning EFL in Kindergarten

This paper reports on a study of interactive dynamic assessment undertaken by children learning English listening and speaking as a Foreign Language in a kindergarten. It investigates how an interactive dynamic assessment could be designed to assess young English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) learners, what information such an interactive dynamic assessment may generate about the language program and the participating children, and how such information may promote children’s EFL learning. Instead of being context-independent and solely form-focused, this interactive dynamic assessment is contextualised within an English intervention program and incorporated with a pre-formulated set of supportive mediations for the participating children. The study shows this interactive dynamic assessment differs from traditional non-dynamic assessments in that it includes the assessor’s mediation and thereby generates the information about the participating children’s needs for and potential responses to mediation. It also demonstrates the potential of an interactive dynamic assessment in promoting children’s EFL learning and supporting teaching EFL.