Investigating the Effect of Dynamic Intervention on Competence of Language Learners in Interpreting Figurative Language

In new approaches to foreign language learning, communicative competence is a major goal. The literature review shows that foreign language learners find it a formidable task to interpret figurative language. The linguistic theories derived from the realm of literature are deficient in applied instructional solutions to these problems. Thus the current research was an attempt to use the interventionist model of dynamic assessment to expand the competence of learners to interpret figures of speech. Dynamic assessment enjoys rich theoretical underpinnings in psychology and linguistics. To this aim 10 student majoring in English literature participated in a quasi experimental pre-test, post-test study. The regulatory scale of Aljaafreh and Lantolf (1994) was adopted for intervention phase. Then, paired-samples t-test was used to investigate the effect of this intervention on interpretation of figurative language in writings of Edgar Allen Poe. The findings showed that the intervention promoted the competence of language learners significantly. These findings have implications for teachers of English literature, researchers in applied linguistics, language learners and syllabus designers.