The Role of Tutor Mediation in Understanding and Developing Iranian EFL Learners¡¯ Reading Strategies

详细信息    查看全文

• 作者：Ghorban Ahmadi
• 关键词：Dynamic Assessment (DA) ; mediation ; Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) ; Reading strategies
• 刊名：Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences
• 出版年：2013
• 出版时间：4 July, 2013
• 年：2013
• 卷：83
• 期：Complete
• 页码：867-872
• 全文大小：183 K

文摘

Mediation is the unique characteristic of DA which has recently been applied to understanding and developing learners¡¯ language ability in L2 context (, Lantolf & Thorne, 2006; ; Kozuline & Garb, 2002). This paper reports part of a research conducted to observe if tutor mediation is helpful in the instruction and assessment of Iranian EFL learners¡¯ reading strategies. 62 subjects, all majoring in EFL, took part in this research. They were given two formats of a reading test: non-mediated and mediated. Non-mediated test was not accompanied by mediation in order to test the Ss¡¯ background knowledge, but mediated test included mediation in order to observe its probable effect on the learners¡¯ reading performance. Written mediation was given to the learners within the mediation boxes appearing after each question following reading texts. The Ss¡¯ scores on the two test formats were compared through paired t-test analysis. Results indicated that mean scores of Ss in the two tests were significantly different, t(61)= -16.82, p<.01. This may be due to Vygotsky's proposal that if instruction moves in the learners¡¯ Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), their hidden abilities will emerge. One of the implications for the teachers/testers may be that their intervention in the assessment procedure is advantageous both in assessing learners¡¯ ability to learn in the future as well as their ability to do now and pushing their reading abilities forward.