The efficiency of interactionist and interventionist dynamic assessment models on the upper and lower intermediate EFL learners’ oral narrative proficiency development

Contrary to the traditional assessment, Dynamic Assessment (DA) would help learners reach their potential capabilities by receiving mediation within their zone of proximal development (ZPD) and is generally implemented through interventionist and interactionist models. Interventionist DA offers pre-planned cues and scaffolding to assist learners while interactionist DA encourages negotiation between the examiner and the learners during the assessment. This study attempted to scrutinize the efficiency of interventionist and interactionist DA on upper and lower intermediate EFL learners’ oral narrative proficiency development whose English proficiency levels were attested with aid of the Oxford Quick Placement Test (OQPT). 150 EFL learners who were selected via convenience sampling procedure were categorized into four experimental and two control groups of 23–26. They were asked to narrate a story in their own words based on some selected video prompts for their pre and posttests which were scored based on CEFR. After the pretest, as the study’s treatment, the participants were exposed to interventionist and interactionist DA for 12 sessions to check for the possible different potentials. Data analysis revealed that DA significantly improved all the learners’ narrative proficiency; secondly, it was attested that the participants of the interventionist DA had significantly greater gains, and thirdly, it was found that learners’ responsiveness to DA models was not relatable to their English proficiency levels. The pedagogic implications are discussed based on the findings.