On April 15, 2024, PhD student Piyumi Udeshinee will present her ongoing work on “DA in CALL: Pedagogical Potential of Dynamic Assessment through Text Chat in the Language Classroom”. The seminar takes place at the Department of Computer and Systems Sciences (DSV), Stockholm University.

Respondent: Piyumi Udeshinee, DSV and NSBM, Sri Lanka
Opponent: Dr. Müge Satar, Newcastle University, UK
Main supervisor: Ola Knutsson, DSV
Supervisor: Sirkku Männikkö Barbutiu, DSV
Professor closest to the subject: Teresa Cerratto-Pargman, DSV

Would you like to join the seminar? Contact Ola Knutsson if you would like to come to M10 or to get the Zoom link + password.

Contact information for Piyumi Udeshinee

Abstract

The evolution within the information society and the wide use of communication technologies such as social media among young people has created avenues for new learning opportunities. Thus, teachers must consider the latest trends and shifts in the changing technology to create more conducive learning environments for learners.

The issues that teachers face in teaching a language might be solved with the use of technologies that are commonly used by the learners. One such issue is that the students do not seem to notice the corrective feedback given, leading them to make the same error again. This issue may be attributed to the possibility that the teachers’ CF lacks a systematic approach or fails to consider individual differences in learner abilities. Addressing these challenges, this PhD thesis aims to explore the potential of dynamic assessment (DA) as a feedback strategy to enhance the language development of learners.

Thus, three research questions will be addressed:
(1) What are the attitudes of teachers and learners of English as a second language regarding the computer mediated corrective feedback?
(2) How can the computer mediated dynamic assessment be provided to learners in order to promote self-regulation?
(3) How can the computer mediated dynamic assessment be implemented to accommodate a greater number of students in the everyday classroom?  Grounded in Sociocultural Theory, particularly concepts of Mediation, Zone of Proximal Development and Dynamic Assessment, this study employs a design-based research approach.

The design consists of four phases: it starts with an exploration of the potential of using text chat as a mediating tool in the ESL class-room, progresses into an intervention study redesigning a DA-based regulatory scale for text chat mediated interactions, analyses learner reciprocity and concludes with an implementation study in a classroom setting.

Using conversation analysis and thematic analysis, the study yields five main findings:
(1) Text chat can be used as a mediational tool to provide corrective feedback to students,
(2) The DA-based three-phase regulatory scale has the potential to enhance the language development of the learners,
(3) The three-phase regulatory scale encourages learner reciprocity, which, in turn, helps teachers diagnose the learner's abilities,
(4) This scale could be implemented in the language classroom to accommodate a greater number of students with the support of collaborative group dynamic assessment approach that promotes both teacher mediation and peer scaffolding,
(5) Text chat features could be used as mediation and reciprocity moves.

These findings reveal the potential of text chat mediated dynamic assessment in promoting language development, offering insights into the current discussion on dynamic assessment in the CALL (computer-assisted language learning) context. Additionally, the study proposes a regulatory scale for practitioners to use in the text chat platform to provide mediation to learners. Further, the learner reciprocity typology and the approach of collaborative group dynamic assessment will serve as valuable contributions to the existing research. 

Keywords: Computer Assisted Language Learning, Dynamic Assessment, Regulatory Scale, Mediation, Reciprocity