Augmenting Iranian Students’ Autonomy and Reading Comprehension through Implementation of Dynamic Assessment

This study was undertaken to investigate the accountability of implementing dynamic assessment (DA) on Iranian high school students’ autonomy and reading comprehension development. To this end, 60 Iranian male students from two public vocational high schools in Guilan, Sowme’eh Sara took part in this study. To gather the required data, two instruments were used including an autonomy questionnaire and a reading comprehension test. To conduct the study, the participants were divided into two groups: an experimental group (N=30) and a control group (N=30). Before the academic term, the pre-tests (autonomy and reading) were administered. Then, during the academic term, the experimental group was exposed to a sandwich format dynamic assessment which consists of three phases: pre-test, mediation, and post-test. The control group was exposed to conventional teaching practice. After ending the academic term, the post-tests (autonomy and reading) were administered again. The driven data through pre-and post-tests of this study were analyzed through SPSS software. The results of the study indicated that implementing DA had a statistically significant effect on Iranian high school students’ autonomy and reading skill development. This study has some implications for EFL teachers, students, and language syllabus designers.