The Impact of Group Dynamic Assessment (GDA) vs. Computerized Dynamic Assessment (C-DA) on Iranian EFL Learners’ Pragmatic Comprehension

Most foreign language (L2) learners suffer from dire deficiencies in their pragmatic comprehension partly due to the less explicit instruction they receive and the complexities and multi-layeredness inherent in L2 pragmatic comprehension. Accordingly, this study sought to scrutinize the effect of two dynamic assessment (DA) models on L2 pragmatic comprehension accuracy and speed. A convenience sample of 52 upper-intermediate female EFL learners that were randomly assigned into a dynamic assessment experimental group (GDA), a computerised dynamic assessment (C-DA), and a Non-DA control group took part in the study. A 26-item researcher-made pragmatic listening comprehension test including requests, apologies, greetings, and refusals was used as pre- and posttests, and the treatments using the aforementioned DA and non-DA conventional models were completed in 14 sessions. Data analysis using ANCOVA showed that C-DA and G-DA could significantly increase pragmatic comprehension accuracy than the conventional non- DA instruction with C-DA being significantly better than G-DA. However, only CDA could significantly decrease learners’ pragmatic comprehension speed than GDA and Non-DA instruction. The findings of this study suggest that implementing C-DA by teachers can promote pragmatic comprehension accuracy and speed among L2 learners.