The Effect of Online Group Dynamic Assessment on EFL Learners’ Writing Performance

Several studies in some countries have mentioned the effectiveness of Group Dynamic Assessment (GDA) in improving the students’ writing skills in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) context. But a few studies have employed online group dynamic assessment and it was the purpose of this study to fill this gap in the literature. The objective of the current investigation was to examine the impact of the online group dynamic assessment on EFL learners’ writing performance. For the purpose of this study, the researcher selected 61 EFL learners as the research sample through a convenience sampling design. Then, they were assigned into two groups: the experimental group (n=31) and the control group (n=30). Before performing the treatment, the researcher gave a descriptive topic to students of both groups to write about it. It was considered as the pretest of this study. After that, the treatment was started. The researcher selected 10 descriptive topics for students of both groups. She set a group in WhatsApp for students of the experimental group and they had to share their writing in this group. The students of the control group were provided with graduated and contingent feedback following a concurrent interactive approach. It means that the teacher provided feedback on their errors. On the other hand, the control group only received direct corrective feedback without any chance to interact over their errors. After, 10 sessions, the researcher gave other descriptive topics to both groups. The results of the scores of both groups have proved that the participants of the experimental group performed significantly better. It shows that online group dynamic assessment can be employed in many pedagogical settings and teachers can employ it for reinforcing their students writing performance.

Keywords:

Online Group , Group Dynamic Assessment (GDA) , Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) , Writing Performance