employing dynamic assessment and interactive digital content: the development of grammatical knowledge

Vygotsky's sociocultural theory and subsequently the genesis of dynamic assessment (da) approach have criticized the traditional way of teaching and assessment. this study aimed to use the interactionist da approach and interactive digital content to investigate how a series of mediation, offered from the most implicit to the most explicit, affect learners' grammatical knowledge in pre-ielts course preparation. sixty ielts applicants were randomly assigned to two treatment groups: (1) the computerized-da group, (2) the non-computerized-da group, and (3) one control group. the study followed a sandwich format of da and included three phases: (1) a pre-test of independent performance, (2) a mediation phase followed by a transfer task, and (3) a post-test of independent performance. the study's findings centered on the post-test results compared with the pre-test ones. besides, learning potential score (lps) formula was used to reveal gains between the mediated and unmediated performance. the result indicated that although grammar proficiency in the groups was quite similar at the beginning of the course, the two experimental groups outperformed the control group in the (3) phase. in addition, there was a significant difference between these two experimental groups at the end of the course. besides, the two experimental groups performed better transcendence after receiving da treatment. the study specifically highlighted the importance of employing da and interactive digital content in teaching and assessment of grammatical structures. furthermore, the research presented pedagogical and technological implications for effective use of computerized-da and online technologies in the efl context. it was suggested that computerized-da can be employed as an alternative approach in language teaching and assessment.