Impact of Dynamic Assessment on ADHD Learners’ Knowledge of L2 Vocabulary and Working Memory: A Case Study

Research in English Language Pedagogy

مقالات آماده انتشار، پذیرفته شده، انتشار آنلاین از تاریخ 21 اسفند 1402

نوع مقاله: Original Article

شناسه دیجیتال (DOI): 10.30486/relp.2023.1995287.1498

نویسندگان

Hadiseh Salehi¹؛ Roya Khoii^{* 2}؛ Ali Akbar Arjmandnia³

¹TEFL Department, North Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University

²North Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University

³Department of Psychology and Education of Exceptional Children, Faculty of Psychology and Education, University of Tehran

چکیده

The need to provide equal access to L2 education has directed modern educators’ attention to the potentials of Dynamic Assessment (DA) for students with learning disabilities. The present single case study investigated the effects of the interactionist DA on the vocabulary knowledge and working memory capacity of L2 learners with the Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). A 13-year-old female elementary EFL learner with the combined type of ADHD participated in this study for 10 sessions. A few new vocabulary items were taught each session through mediations relying on a regulatory scale from the most implicit to the most explicit emerging from the interactions between the mediator and the learner. The required data were collected using the Working Memory Test Battery for Children (WMTB-C) and a teacher-made Vocabulary Knowledge Scale (VKS). The microgenetic analysis of DA protocols led to the development of an inventory of mediations consisting of implicit and explicit prompts. A qualitative approach was used for data collection and analysis; however, minimal descriptive statistics were used to report the learner’s performance on the tests. The results demonstrated that DA had contributed to the learner’s vocabulary knowledge with some fluctuations in certain DA sessions, while it did not improve her working memory capacity. The findings of this study provide further insight into teachers’ perception of how ADHD learners can learn an L2 and call for policy makers’ and materials developers’ greater attention to the progressive mediations required to help ADHD learners develop a higher level of self-regulation through dialogic interactions.

کلیدواژه‌ها

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)؛ Dynamic assessment (DA)؛ L2 Learner؛ Vocabulary؛ Working Memory