Dynamic assessment (DA) has been recently used to dominate the realm of pragmatic research. This study investigated the effect of dynamic assessment on EFL learners’ complaint speech act performance, as the most face-threatening one. Thirty-three participants were selected using the convenience method of sampling. They formed two groups of NDA (non-dynamic assessment) (n = 15) and DA (dynamic assessment) (n =18) and the participants were all lower-intermediate on the Oxford Placement Test. The learners in both groups took a discourse completion test (DCT) as the pretest and posttest. At intervals, the participants in the experimental group took an intervention within the DCT test over five sessions. The gradually constructed hints which were constructed using both literature and experts’ view were given upon the participants’ response. The results of the study using the Rasch model and Classical True Score Theory revealed that DA groups significantly outperformed NDA groups. Furthermore, most of the participants in DA group made considerable changes from the pretest to the posttest. Rasch model reveals that the learners had idiosyncratic zigzagged changes as was predicted by Vygotsky. The findings of the study can shed light on language teaching and materials development for the complaint speech act. پرونده مقاله

In English as a Second Language Teaching and Testing situations, it is common to infer about learners’ reading ability based on his or her total score on a reading test. This assumes the unidimensional and reproducible nature of reading items. However, few researches have been conducted to probe the issue through psychometric analyses. In the present study, the IELTS exemplar module C (1994) was administered to 503 Iranian students of various reading comprehension ability levels. Both the deterministic and probabilistic psychometric models of unidimensionality were employed to examine the plausible existence of implicational scaling among reading items in the mentioned reading test. Based on the results, it was concluded that the reading data in this study did not show a deterministic unidimensional scale (Guttman scaling); rather, it revealed a probabilistic one (Rasch model). As the person map of the measures failed to show a meaningful hierarchical order for the items, these results call into question the assumption of implicational scaling that is normally practiced in scoring reading items. In English as a Second Language Teaching and Testing situations, it is common to infer about learners’ reading ability based on his or her total score on a reading test. This assumes the unidimensional and reproducible nature of reading items. However, few researches have been conducted to probe the issue through psychometric analyses. In the present study, the IELTS exemplar module C (1994) was administered to 503 Iranian students of various reading comprehension ability levels. Both the deterministic and probabilistic psychometric models of unidimensionality were employed to examine the plausible existence of implicational scaling among reading items in the mentioned reading test. Based on the results, it was concluded that the reading data in this study did not show a deterministic unidimensional scale (Guttman scaling); rather, it revealed a probabilistic one (Rasch model). As the person map of the measures failed to show a meaningful hierarchical order for the items, these results call into question the assumption of implicational scaling that is normally practiced in scoring reading items. پرونده مقاله