Disputation: Piyumi Udeshinee

4 december 2024 presenterar Piyumi Udeshinee sin doktorsavhandling på Institutionen för data- och systemvetenskap (DSV) vid Stockholms universitet. Titeln är ”CALL for Dynamic Assessment: Using Collaborative Technologies for Second Language Development”.

Doktorand: Piyumi Udeshinee, DSV
Opponent: Peppi Taalas, University of Jyväskylä, Finland
Huvudhandledare: Ola Knutsson, DSV
Handledare: Sirkku Männikkö Barbutiu, DSV

Ladda ner avhandlingen från Diva

Kontaktuppgifter till Piyumi Udeshinee

Disputationen genomförs i DSVs lokaler i Kista, med start klockan 13.00.

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Sammanfattning (på engelska)

The developments within the information society and the wide spread of collaborative technologies have created new opportunities for collaboration and learning. Such collaborative technologies like text chat can help address certain challenges in language education. For example, students, most often, do not seem to notice the corrective feedback (CF) given to their language errors. This may be attributed to the possibility that the teachers’ CF lacks a systematic approach or fails to consider individual differences in learner abilities. Unlike in oral conversation, text chat, which can be considered as a conversation in slow motion, allows students to revisit and reflect on feedback.

This thesis aims to explore the potential of dynamic assessment (DA) as a feedback strategy, supported by text chat, to enhance the language development of learners. Thus, three research questions are addressed:

(1) What are the attitudes of teachers and learners of English as a second language regarding the text chat mediated corrective feedback?
(2) How can the text chat mediated dynamic assessment be provided to learners in order to promote self-regulation?
(3) How can the text chat mediated dynamic assessment be implemented to accommodate more students in the everyday classroom?

Grounded in Sociocultural Theory, this study employs a design-based research approach. The analysis of the data reveals five main findings:

(1) Collaborative technologies such as text chat can be used as a mediational tool to provide corrective feedback to students,
(2) the DA based three-phase regulatory scale helps promote language development,
(3) the three-phase regulatory scale leads to learner reciprocity that helps teachers diagnose learner abilities,
(4) group dynamic assessment could be implemented in the everyday language classroom using the collaborative approach which promotes both teacher mediation and peer scaffolding and
(5) text chat features could be used as mediational and reciprocity moves.

These findings offer insights into the current discussion on DA in the CALL (computer-assisted language learning) context. The threephase regulatory scale, the learner reciprocity typology and the collaborative group dynamic assessment approach serve as valuable contributions to the existing research.

Nyckelord: Technology Enhanced Learning, Computer Assisted Language Learning, Collaborative Technologies, Dynamic Assessment, Regulatory Scale, Design Based Research, English as a Second Language.