DYNAMIC ASSESSMENT IN READING COMPREHENSION CLASSROOM : A Case Study at One Private University in Bandung.

DYNAMIC ASSESSMENT IN READING COMPREHENSION CLASSROOM

(A Case Study at One Private University in Bandung)

A Thesis

Submitted as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain Strata Two (S2) Degree

Written by: Rindilla Antika

1201552

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

SCHOOL OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES INDONESIA UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION

==========================================================

DYNAMIC ASSESSMENT IN READING

COMPREHENSION CLASSROOM

(A Case Study at One Private University in

Bandung)

Oleh Rindilla Antika S.Pd UNP Padang, 2012

Sebuah Tesis yang diajukan untuk memenuhi salah satu syarat memperoleh gelar Magister Pendidikan (M.Pd.) pada Fakultas Pendidikan Bahasa dan Seni

© Rindilla Antika 2014 Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia

Juli 2014

Hak Cipta dilindungi undang-undang.

Skripsi ini tidak boleh diperbanyak seluruhya atau sebagian, dengan dicetak ulang, difoto kopi, atau cara lainnya tanpa ijin dari penulis.

PAGE OF APPROVAL

DYNAMIC ASSESSMENT IN READING COMPREHENSION CLASSROOM (A Case Study at One Private University in Bandung)

By:

RINDILLA ANTIKA 1201552

Approved by:

Prof. Emi Emilia, M.Ed., Ph.D. NIP.196609161990012001

Main Supervisor

Dadang Sudana, M.A., Ph.D. NIP.196009191990031001

Co. Supervisor

This Thesis has been approved by Head of Study Program of English Education

Prof. Emi Emilia, M.Ed., Ph.D. NIP.196609161990012001

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PAGE OF APPROVAL ... ii

DECLARATION PAGE ... iii

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ... iv

ABSTRACT ... v

TABLE OF CONTENTS ... vi

LIST OF TABLES ... x

LIST OF FIGURES ... xi

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ... 1

1.1 Background of the Study ... 1

1.2 Research Questions ... 3

1.3 Purpose of the Study ... 3

1.4 Significance of the Study ... 3

1.5 Definition of the Key Terms ... 4

1.6 Thesis Organization ... 4

CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEWS ... 6

2.1 Assessment ... 6

2.1.1 Definition of Assessment ... 6

2.1.2 Basic Principles of Assessment ... 8

2.1.3 Types of Assessment ... 10

2.2 Dynamic Assessment ... 13

2.2.1 Definition of Dynamic Assessment ... 13

2.2.2 Basic Principles of Dynamic Assessment ... 15

2.2.3 Advantages of Dynamic Assessment ... 17

2.2.4 Models of Dynamic Assessment ... 20

2.2.4.1 Interventionist Dynamic Assessment ... 21

2.2.4.2 Interactionist Dynamic Assessment ... 22

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2.2.5 Criticism of Dynamic Assessment ... 26

2.3 Reading Comprehension ... 28

2.3.1 Definition of Reading Comprehension ... 28

2.3.2 Reading Comprehension Skills ... 29

2.3.3 Teaching Reading Comprehension ... 33

2.3.4 Assessing Reading Comprehension ... 35

2.4 Dynamic Assessment and Reading Comprehension Skills ... 37

2.4.1. Dynamic Assessment and its Relation to Reading Comprehension ... 37

2.4.2 Procedures of Applying Dynamic Assessment in Reading Classroom ...39

2.5 Students’ Opinions in Language Learning in Classroom ... 42

2.6 Previous Studies ... 44

2.7 Conclusion of the Chapter ... 46

CHAPTER III: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ... 47

3.1 Research Design ... 47

3.2 Research Site and Participants ... 48

3.3 Techniques of Data Collection ... 48

3.3.1 Classroom Observation ... 48

3.3.2 Interview ... 49

3.3.3 Tests ... 50

3.4 Techniques of Data Analysis ... 51

3.4.1 Analysis of Data from Classroom Observation ... 52

3.4.2 Analysis of Data from Interview ... 53

3.4.3 Analysis of Data from Tests ... 54

3.5 Conclusion of the Chapter ... 54

CHAPTER IV: THE IMPLEMENTATION OF DYNAMIC ASSESSMENT ... 55

4.1 The Implementation of Dynamic Assessment on Reading Comprehension Performance ... 55

4.1.1 Administering the Pretest ... 56

4.1.2 The Mediation Program ... 57

4.1.2.1Mediational Strategies in Dynamic Assessment Reading Comprehension ... 59

4.1.2.2 Dynamic Assessment in the Teaching of Reading ... 74

4.1.3 Administering the Posttest ... 92

4.1.4 Summary of the Implementation of Dynamic Assessment ... 93

4.2 Textual Analysis of Students’ Test Results ... 94

4.2.1 Analysis of Tests’ Results ... 94

4.2.2 Summary of Students’ Test Results ... 98

4.3 Conclusion of the Chapter ... 99

CHAPTER V STUDENTS’ OPINIONS ON DYNAMIC ASSESSMENT .. 100

5.1 Students’ Opinions on Dynamic Assessment ... 100

5.2 Students’ Suggestions on Dynamic Assessment ... 109

5.3 Summary of Students’ Opinions on Dynamic Assessment ... 110

5.4 Conclusion of the Chapter ... 111

CHAPTER VI: CONCLUSION, LIMITATION OF THE STUDY AND RECOMMENDATION FOR THE FUTURE RESEARCH ... 112

6.1 Conclusions ... ... 112

6.2 Limitation of the Study ... 113

6.3 Recommendation for Future Research ... 115

BIBLIOGRAPHY ... 116

APPENDICES . ...127

Appendix 1a: Reading Comprehension Test (Pretest) ... 127

Appendix 1b: Reading Comprehension Test (Posttest) ... 136

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Appendix 3: Mediation Design Programs in Reading Comprehension Classroom

... ... 150

Appendix 4: Classroom Observation Format ... 151

Appendix 5: Condensed Field Notes from Classroom Observation of Mediation Program in Dynamic Assessment ... 152

Appendix 6: Example of Reading Texts Materials and Its Practices ... 156

Appendix 7: Interview Guideline ... 167

Appendix 8: Example of Interview ... 168

LIST OF TABLES

Table 2.1 The Differences between Traditional and Alternatives Assessment .... 12

Table 4.1 Students’ Means Scores ... 95

Table 4.2 Pair Test Pretest – Progress 1 ... 96

Table 4.3 Pair Test Progress 1 - Progress 2 ... 96

Table 4.4 Pair Test Progress 2 – Post Test ... 96

Table 4.5 Pair Test Progress 1 - Posttests ... 96

Table 4.6 Pair Test PreTest – Progress 2 ... 96

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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 2.1 Regulatory Scale –Implicit (strategies) to Explicit ... 24 Figure 2.2 Dynamic Assessment Procedure in Classroom ... 42 Figure 3.1 Typology of Mediator’s Strategies Occurred during Dynamic Assessment Impelementation in Reading Classroom ... 52 Figure 4.1 Mediation Typology in Dynamic Assessment of Reading Comprehension ... 59

DYNAMIC ASSESSMENT IN READING COMPREHENSION CLASSROOM

(A Case Study at One Private University in Bandung) ABSTRACT

Dynamic assessment is the integration of assessment and instruction in teaching activities to understand students’ abilities by actively supporting their development (Lantolf & Poehner, 2011) which is conceptually based on the sociocultural theory of Vygotsky in the Zone Proximal Development (Lantolf & Thorne, 2006). This study aimed to investigate how dynamic assessment affects students’ reading comprehension performance. This study also aimed to reveal students’ opinion in the implementation of dynamic assessment in the reading comprehension classroom. This study employed a case study design and the data were obtained from several sources including classroom observations for eight weeks by the researcher and her colleagues, interview with the students from different level of achievement (low, middle, and high), and reading comprehension tests including pretest, posttest, and progress tests. The data were analyzed and interpreted based on the thematic analysis to do with the functions of mediational typology namely managing interaction, identifying the problems, overcoming the problems and promoting students’ learning development. The findings reveal that dynamic assessment is an effective means of understanding students’ abilities and helps the students in overcoming their reading problems. The result also shows the functions of mediational typology employed have affected students’ reading comprehension performance. The results indicate that students’ reading abilities in identifying main idea, making prediction, using context clues to predict a word meaning, making inferences and reading for details have improved which can be seen from the mean scores of pretest (40.35) and posttest (68.29). Moreover, the result also shows that the integration of assessment and instruction in interaction is successful to establish students’ development in reading comprehension. Based on the findings, it is recommended that dynamic assessment be gradually adopted in the classroom practices to enhance learning as well as promote students’ learning potential. In addition, dynamic assessment can be used as a means to identify the students’ problems in learning. Further, research on dynamic assessment is widely open in other language skills such as listening, speaking, and writing.

Keywords: Assessment, Dynamic Assessment, Reading Comprehension Performance

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PENILAIAN DINAMIS PADA KELAS PEMAHAMAN MEMBACA (Studi Kasus pada Satu Universitas Swasta di Bandung)

ABSTRAK

Penilaian dinamis merupakan pengintegrasian dari penilaian dan instruksi dalam kegiatan pengajaran untuk memahami kemampuan siswa dengan mendukung perkembangan mereka secara aktif (Lantolf & Poehner, 2011) yang didasari secara konseptual dari teori sociokultural oleh Vygotsky pada Zone Proximal Development (Lantolf & Thorne, 2006). Studi ini bertujuan untuk menginvestigasi bagaimana penilaian dinamis mempengaruhi kemampuan pemahaman membaca siswa. Studi ini juga bertujuan untuk mengetahui pendapat siswa terhadap pengimplementasian penilaian dinamis pada kelas pemahaman membaca. Studi ini menggunakan a case study design dan data diperoleh dari beberapa sumber yang meliputi observasi kelas selama delapan minggu oleh peneliti dan koleganya, wawancara siswa dari tingkat prestasi yang berbeda (rendah, sedang, dan tinggi) dan tes pemahaman membaca meliputi pretest, posttest dan progress test. Data ini dianalisa dan diinterpretasikan berdasarkan pada analisa tematik pada fungsi dari bentuk mediasi berlabel mengatur interaksi, mengidentifikasi masalah, mengatasi masalah dan mempromosikan perkembangan belajar siswa. Hasil studi mengungkapkan bahwa penilaian dinamis merupakan suatu alat yang efektif untuk memahami kemampuan siswa dan membantu dalam menyelesaikan masalah membaca. Hasil studi juga menunjukkan bahwa fungsi – fungsi dari bentuk mediasi memiliki pengaruh pada pemahaman membaca siswa. Hasil ini mengindikasikan bahwa kemampuan membaca siswa pada keterampilan mengindentifikasi ide pokok, membuat prediksi, menggunakan konteks untuk menentukan makna suatu kata, membuat inferences dan membaca untuk informasi detail meningkat yang dapat dilihat pada nilai rata – rata dari pretest (40.35) dan posttest (68.29). Sebagai tambahan, hasil studi juga menunjukkan bahwa integrasi penilaian dan instruksi dalam interaksi berhasil dalam meningkatkan pemahaman siswa dalam membaca. Berdasarkan hasil studi tersebut, dapat direkomendasikan bahwa penilaian dinamis di secara bertahap di dalam kelas untuk meningkatkan pembelajaran sebagaimana mempromosikan potensi belajar siswa. Sebagai tambahan, penilaian dinamis dapat digunakan sebagai alat untuk mengindentifikasi masalah siswa dalam belajar. Selanjutnya, penelitian pada penilaian dinamis terbuka secara luas pada keterampilan bahasa lainnya seperti mendengarkan, berbicara dan menulis. Kata kunci: Penilaian, Penilaian Dinamis, Kemampuan Pemahaman Membaca

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

This chapter presents the background of the study which briefly generates the bases to conduct the study, the research questions as the guidance for this study and the purposes of the study. It also describes the significance of this study, the clarification of the key terms used in this study and an overview of the thesis organization of this study.

1.1 Background of the Study

Teaching and learning are not complete without assessment. Assessment can be used to appraise students’ knowledge and abilities (Poehner, 2007, p. 323). It means that assessment is important in the teaching and learning process as a means to measure students’ capability. Moreover, assessment provides information of the effectiveness of the teaching program employed, students’ progress and their performance in learning (Cameron, 2001, p. 222; Douglas, 2014, p. 20). This information can be used to lead better improvement in the teaching and learning. Thus, assessment is essential and inseparable in the teaching and learning process (O’Malley & Pierce, 1996).

Regarding the teaching and learning English in Indonesian contexts, there are four skills that should be mastered. Reading is one of the skills which is important to be mastered since it is essential not only for carriers, studies or pleasure but also for language acquisition (Harmer, 2007, p. 99). It helps students to think in the target language, enriches vocabulary, and improves other general language skills (Mikulecky & Jeffries, 2004, p. 1) in foreign language learning. The importance of reading in Indonesia can be seen from the fact that it is the main part of national examination which measures students’ reading competence as being targeted by the national content standard (see Depdiknas, 2011) in junior and senior high schools.

In assessing reading comprehension, many techniques can be employed such as gap filling, cloze procedure, information transfer tasks, and

multiple-2

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choice items for measuring students’ development and performance (Hughes, 2003 p. 138; Brown, 2004 p. 190). It means that most educators still use traditional assessment in the form of paper-pencil tests for testing reading comprehension, including in Indonesian educational practices (Widiatmo, 2013). Although these kinds of assessment are regarded practical, simple, and efficient to administer and easy to score (McNamara, 1996; Pinter, 2006), some experts assume that they do not fully measure learners’ performance (Brown, 2001; McNamara, 1996 p. 4). As a result, the educators try to develop alternative assessments to seek the effective ways to measure reading comprehension and the changes of teaching methods that focus on the process of learning (Kumaravadivelu, 2006, p. 134). One kind of alternative assessments is dynamic assessment.

Dynamic assessment is considered suitable to assess reading comprehension because the best time of assessing reading comprehension is while the students are reading and engaging with the texts (Valencia & Pearson, 2010). Moreover, using dynamic assessment as a tool in assessing students’ reading comprehension helps the students to be aware of their problems in reading (Naeini, 2014, p. 1306) and their learning potential (Lantolf & Poehner, 2011). Dynamic assessment is assessment followed by instructional intervention which focuses on process-orientation and the integration of instruction and assessment (Sternberg & Grigorenko, 2002, p. 23; Thouësny, 2010, p. 3517; Zhang, 2013, p. 38). Based on the explanation above, it can be assumed that dynamic assessment is suitable to be applied in assessing students’ reading comprehension and can be integrated in the teaching reading.

This research is conducted to see the implementation of dynamic assessment and its contribution to students’ reading performance. Based on the researcher’s observation through scientific and literature studies, the implementation of dynamic assessment has not widely applied in Indonesia and in reading classroom specifically. For that reason, this study attempts to reveal the implementation of dynamic assessment as one of alternative assessments in assessing reading comprehension. Specifically, this study attempts to find out how the

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implementation of dynamic assessment affects students’ reading comprehension performance and to reveal students’ opinions towards the implementation of dynamic assessment itself.

1.2 Research Questions

The research questions of this study are:

a. How does the implementation of dynamic assessment affect students’ reading comprehension performance?

b. What are students’ opinions through the implementation of dynamic assessment in reading comprehension performance?

1.3 Purpose of the Study

Based on the questions above, this study is intended to meet the following purposes:

a. To find out how the implementation of dynamic assessment affect students’ reading comprehension performance.

b. To find out students’ opinions on the implementation of dynamic assessment in reading comprehension performance.

1.4 Significance of the Study

The results of this study contribute to some aspects. Theoretically, the results of this study can be used to enrich the literature reviews on language assessment especially reading assessment. It also contributes to the approaches of assessing students’ reading comprehension performance. Practically, the results of this study can encourage the teacher to apply dynamic assessment as one of reading assessment in language classroom. Professionally, the results of this study can provide information for the teachers of how to use dynamic assessment in reading classroom, especially and in the classroom generally.

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Dynamic Assessment In Reading Comprehension Classroom 1.5 Definitions of the Key Terms

Alternative Assessment

Alternative assessment refers to the means used in assessing students’ performance where the evaluation is focused on process-oriented in which the students have opportunity to demonstrate what they have learned (Dikli, 2003, p. 17).

Dynamic Assessment

Dynamic assessment is integration between instruction and assessment which aims to promote students’ learning potentials (Poehner & Lantolf, 2004). In this study, dynamic assessment is integrated in the teaching of reading.

Reading comprehension

Reading comprehension is the process of simultaneously extraction and construction meaning through interaction and involvement with written language (Snow, 2002, p. xiii).

Reading Comprehension Performance

Reading comprehension performance relates to students’ ability in doing reading assessment. In this study, students’ reading comprehension performance are assessed and taught by using dynamic assessment.

Opinions

Opinions in this study refer to students’ judgment about the implementation of dynamic assessment on their reading comprehension performance.

1.6 Thesis Organization

This thesis is organized into six chapters. Chapter One is a general introduction which relates to the backgrounds of the study, statement of the problems, research questions, purposes of the study, the scope of the study, the significance of the study, hypothesis, the definitions of key terms and thesis organization. Chapter Two discusses the theoretical framework underpinning the study which involves the concept of reading comprehension, the concept of assessment, reading assessment, dynamic assessment, and the procedures of

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applying it in reading classroom and previous studies on dynamic assessment. Chapter Three presents research design, population and sample, techniques of data collection and techniques of data analysis used in this study. Chapter Four reveals the teaching programs used in implementing dynamic assessment in students’ reading comprehension performance and reading classroom. Chapter Five presents students’ opinions toward the implementation of dynamic assessment. Moreover, the last chapter delivers conclusions drawn from the previous chapters and offers suggestions.

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Dynamic Assessment In Reading Comprehension Classroom CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter deals with some important aspects related to the research methodology and procedures in conducting the research. The research methodology comprises the aims of the research, research design, setting and participants. In addition, the procedures deal with data collection and data analysis that are based on a case study research design.

3.1 Research Design

This research employed a case study design since the circumstances on the field were suitable for implementing such research design. The design of this research allowed the researcher to focus on a single group of subjects and pointed out one particular instance of educational practice that was using dynamic assessment in reading comprehension classroom that the researcher acted as a teacher or in this study called as a mediator (Stake, 1995 in Emilia, 2005). Moreover, this research also employed multiple sources of evidence based on the same issue to gain more complete description to analyze the values and the effectiveness of the teaching program, which is in this study refers to mediation, implemented in this study (Yin, 2003). From those characteristics and based on the purpose of this study and the research questions above, this research could be included into qualitative study. Furthermore, based on Nunan's (1992, p. 76) categorization of research designs, this research could be included as a qualitative program evaluation for the reason in which the researcher created and then implemented a teaching program for this study.

The values and the effectiveness of the course were evaluated through

ongoing assessment of the students’ achievements based on the objectives of the

program. As stated by Nunan (1992, p. 78), assessment is important to assist the researcher to determine whether the program needed to be modified or altered in any way. Therefore, the objectives might be achieved more effectively.

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3.2 Research Site and Participants

This study was conducted in English Department of a private university in Bandung. This site made the researcher more feasible and suitable in terms of time, mobility, and skills (McMillan & Schumacher, 2001, p. 432). Firstly, it was

located near from the researcher’s place. This could ease the researcher to manage

time and cost in running the study. Secondly, the tertiary levels of students were chosen since they tend to read a lot in English texts and their comprehension is better than any other levels. University students were expected to have better achievement of English, especially in reading skills. They were expected to understand and comprehend the English texts better than the secondary or primary level. Thirdly, the researcher had good access to the site since many of her colleagues were the lecturers in the site.

The participants of this study enrolled in fourth semester of a Bachelor degree in the English department. There were forty-five (45) students involved in this study. They were taking Reading for Academic Purposes subject which frequently dealt with various reading skills and reading materials. The students were assumed to have adequate background which was beneficial for their reading (Alderson, 1999) and they had better proficiency in reading comprehension since they had taken two reading subjects before following the Reading for Academic Purposes subject.

3.3 Techniques of Data Collection

This section discusses data collection methods, including observation, interview, and test.

3.3.1 Classroom Observations

The classroom observations were conducted in eight sessions in which the researcher acted as the teacher and participant observer. The researcher’s involvement in the settings aimed to reveal depth information (Creswell, 2009, p. 139; Punch, 2009, p. 157) from classroom activities. This kind of observation was applied to enable the researcher to reach inside of a real situation and gather a

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detailed description about what was happening in order to gain thick descriptions and explanations of the social process and interaction (Cohen, Manion, & Morrison, 2007, p. 405). Moreover, Taft (1989 p.347 cited in Emilia, 2005 p. 347) states that direct experience of researchers to be involved in the normal activities of the group provides unstated knowledge which helps them to understand the group members behaviors significantly rather than the information obtained from other sources such as interviews and documentary material.

During the observation, the researcher took note on everything that was going on in her class which aimed to have better understanding of the implementation of dynamic assessment on students’ reading comprehension performance and how the teacher as well as the students participated in the class. In this study, the field notes were recorded continually in the process of the teaching program to gain as much as possible clear and detailed information about what was happening during the process of the implementation of dynamic assessment in the teaching reading which will be discussed in Chapter IV section 4.12. Moreover, the field notes also served to investigate students’ opinions on the implementation of dynamic assessment on their reading comprehension performance which will be discussed in Chapter V. To maintain the reliability of observational evidence (Yin, 2011, p. 93) and to reduce bias as well as to avoid missing important events during the observation process (Cohen, Manion and Morrison, 2007 p. 407), the researcher invited one of her colleagues making an observation.

3.3.2 Interview

The data of this study were also obtained from interviews which aimed to

seek students’ opinions on the implementation of dynamic assessment in the

reading classroom. The qualitative research interview has been described as a

‘conversation with a purpose’ (Burgess, 1984, p. 102 cited in Richards, 2009, p. 181) or ‘professional conversation’ (Kvale, 1996, p. 5) and has been described as

‘the gold standard of qualitative research’ (Silverman, 2005). Interview was

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Manion and Morrison, 2007 p. 351, Fraenkel, Wallen & Hyun, 2012 p.451). It

was also done to provide clearly pictures of the students’ opinion in the teaching

program which might not be seen in the observation and questionnaire.

The interview was conducted after the students were given a posttest to measure their reading development. Nine students were purposively chosen (Creswell, 2009) from low, middle, and high achievers based on the pretest and posttest results. The type of interview used was semi-structured interview (Fraenkel, Wallen & Hyun, 2012, p.453, Cohen, Manion and Morrison, 2007 p. 353) which enabled the researcher to get all information required. It was also at the same time permitted the participants to look into some aspects in depth (Richards, 2009, p.186) such as the effects of dynamic assessment to their reading skills and the advantages of dynamic assessment.

The number of questions in the interview was 14 questions (see Appendix 7). It consisted of some questions to elicit students’ opinions about the implementation of dynamic assessment. The questions were related to the dynamic assessments and reading comprehension skills in Chapter II. The interview was recorded, which aimed to provide a comfortable condition so that they were not hesitant to talk (Creswell, 2009), with the agreement of the interviewees where all of the participants were asked the same questions. The researcher set up the interview appointments and facilitated a quiet environment where interruptions could not occur during the interview. The interview was

conducted in Bahasa Indonesia in order to elaborate students’ answer since it is as

their native language; however, the students could also use English in expressing their ideas.

3.3.3 Tests

Reading comprehension tests were administered in this study which included pretest, two progress tests and posttest (see Appendix 1 and Appendix 2). The pretest was given in the beginning of the implementation of dynamic assessment in order to have basic knowledge of the students’ ability in reading comprehension skills. The progress tests were given twice in the third week and

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sixth week which aimed to see the effects and the improvement on students’

reading comprehension performance. The form of the tests chosen was multiple-choice item with several considerations. Firstly, multiple multiple-choice is regarded as one of suitable items for testing reading comprehension (Brown, 2004, p. 47). Secondly, it could be administered and scored easily and quickly (Brown, 2004, p. 47). It could be administered and scored in shorter time than the other formats of tests and it could be scored by machine or software. Moreover, the multiple choice item scoring system is more reliable and more accurate. In the term of analyzing the validity and reliability of test items, the multiple-choice form is simple and easy to analyze (Brown, 2001, p. 386).

There were forty (40) items of reading comprehension questions that were asked in the pretest and posttest whereas in the progress tests, the items were reduced to twenty items consisted of two reading passaged. The tests items for the

pretest were constructed as similar as the posttest in order to seek the students’

improvement in reading comprehension performance. Most of the tests were taken from TOEFL reading comprehension tests in order to maintain the content validity (Hatch & Fahardy, 1982, p. 250; Hughes, 2003, p. 26; Brown, 2005, p.

221) which referred to students’ level and basic reading competences defined in the syllabus of English Department in the university where this study conducted. The items were tried out to ensure the reliability and subsequently modified (Hatch & Fahardy, 1982, p. 253). They were also tried out to another group of students not involved in the study. There were fifty (50) items on the try-out but only forty (40) items were selected for the tests.

3.4 Techniques of Data Analysis

The data analysis of this study is analyzed along and at the end of the mediation session of dynamic assessment. There are three kinds of data namely, class observation, interview and the results of the reading comprehension tests.

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3.4.1 Analysis of Data from Classroom Observation

The data from the classroom observation were analyzed in several steps. First, each video recorded of observation session was transcribed and analyzed. Then, various types of mediation moves used in dynamic assessment were noted from the interaction between the teacher and the students emerged. Mediation program, as one of the stages in dynamic assessment (see Chapter II section 2.4), was used to capture the teacher-students’ interaction. After that, the data were coded into some different kinds of prompts based on the interaction happened during the implementation of dynamic assessment. The codes were proposed as mediational strategies in order to portray a clearer picture on the analysis of the interaction between the teacher, which was in this study called mediator, and the students. The purposes of the mediational strategies were to diagnose the source

of the students’ problems impedes to comprehend the written English and offer

the learners an opportunity to improve their reading ability as well as to promote their second language in general. The mediational strategies could be seen in the figure below;

1. Accepting response

2. Rereading the question and relevant part of the passage 3. Identifying the problems area

4. Providing clues 5. Offering a choice 6. Translation

7. Requesting for re-answering the question 8. Providing the correct response and explanation

Figure 3.1 Typology of Mediator’s Strategies Occurred during Dynamic Assessment the Implementation in Reading Classroom

This mediation typology was developed based on Aljaafreh & Lantolf’s regulatory scales (1994) and Poehner’s mediation typology (2005) as stated in Chapter II Section 2.4.2.2. The mediational strategies were arranged from the most implicit (low numbers) to the most explicit (the higher numbers).

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This study employed a cake and sandwich formats of dynamic assessment, as discussed in Chapter II section 2.4.2.3, that privileged mediation determined on the basis of mediated dialoguing between the teacher and the learner which was sandwiched during dynamically conducted assessments. Although Figure 3.1

presented the identified mediator’s strategies arranged hierarchically from implicit to explicit, their use was not predetermined in advance and adjusted to the quality

of students’ reading performance.

Finally, after coding the data based on the mediational strategies, the data were reported and generated to tabulate the number of each type of strategy that was used for each interaction and individual. It should be specified that the strategies, presented in Figure 3.1, regularly and typically occurred during each dynamically conducted assessment and were not used in precisely the same order which emerged in responding to the difficulties experienced by the students.

Students’ comprehension performance was analyzed based on the amount and

quality of mediation used to help them complete the task in-group and individually.

3.4.2 Analysis of Data from Interview

The data from interview were analyzed through several steps. Firstly, the recorded data were transcribed to get the precise and more accurate data. In transcribing the data, the participants were coded to protect their privacy (Silverman, 2005) and their names were substituted with pseudonyms (Punch, 2009 p. 153). Then, the data were categorized based on the thematic analysis which became the main concern of this study (Creswell, 2009); they are the

participants’ impression on dynamic assessment and the effects on their reading

comprehension performance skills and strategies. Finally, the data were

interpreted based on the second research question namely students’ opinions on the implementation of dynamic assessment on reading comprehension classroom.

In discussing the data, students’ opinions were related to the value of each

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observation. It aimed to support the data from the classroom observations and the reading comprehension tests.

3.4.3 Analysis of Data from Tests

The pretest scores gained in the beginning of the mediation program were

investigated to see the students’ basic knowledge and reading ability. These data were important as a starting point of the program. The scores from the progress test, which were administered in the third week and sixth week, were analyzed by using matched t-test to see the improvement of the students’ reading comprehension performance. The scores of pretest and progress test were analyzed by using t-test formula which was appropriate for sets of paired data (J. D. Brown, 1988, p. 169). The match t-test analysis was aimed to see the comparison between two means obtained and the effects of dynamic assessment during and after the implementation of mediation program. The detailed explanation will be presented in Chapter IV Section 4.2.

3.5 Conclusion of the Chapter

This chapter has provided the information about the methodology of the research including research setting, participants, and research design. This chapter also presents techniques of data collection and data analysis such as tests, observation, questionnaire, and interview.

The next chapter discusses the teaching procedures as the teaching programs for the study. It describes the steps of mediation procedure of dynamic assessment and its implementation and the result of class observation.

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CHAPTER V

STUDENTS’ OPINIONS ON DYNAMIC ASSESSMENT

The previous chapter has provided information of how the implementation of dynamic assessment affected students reading comprehension performance and the integration of dynamic assessment in the teaching reading. It talked about the stages of dynamic assessment including pretest, mediation, and posttest. The mediation program was provided with the mediational strategies of reading comprehension in order to help the students overcome their problems in reading. This chapter will discuss the data collection techniques obtain from the interview. The interview was administered at the end of the mediation program after the researcher conducted the posttest in order to seek students’ opinions on the implementation of dynamic assessment in the teaching reading. Interview, as described in Chapter 3 section 3.3.3, is used as a tool for verify, extend, and elaborate the impressions of the researcher gained through observations (Cohen, Manion & Morrison, 2007 p. 351). The interview can be categorized into a semi structure interview (see Appendix 7 interview guideline) since some questions were created during the interview based on the students’ answers. Moreover, the interviews also aims to find out the students’ suggestions on the mediation program.

5.1 Students’ Opinions on Dynamic Assessment

The data from the interview indicated that the mediation program of dynamic assessment had improved the students’ reading skills and it promoted their reading strategies potential. All participants assumed that the activities of dynamic assessment mediation were useful and helpful to improve their reading comprehension. It can be seen from the students’ answers below:

The activities in the class helped me in comprehending the text faster through the reading strategies and applied it immediately in doing the reading practices. (Cindy)

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I found the activities are useful for me, I knew my problems in reading and how to solve it. (Irfan)

These comments show that the mediation program given is useful and helpful for the students in order to improve their reading comprehension performance. The students could know their problems and solve their problems together with the teacher’s assistance. It is in line with Chu & Flores (2006 p. 6) who states in dynamic assessment, mediation is designed to teach the students problem-solving strategies to achieve successful test-taking performance and it enables the students to move to another development in their ZPD (Shrestha & Coffin, 2012 p. 5). Moreover, the strategies and skills given in the mediation program helped the students to be easier to comprehend the texts. Reading strategies are essential for successful comprehension and overcome the reading problems for the students and it also helps the students to be a better reader and have a good comprehension (McNamara, 2009 p. 34). In addition, these comments support the tests’ results since the students were aware of their reading problems, it can be assumed that their improvement of reading comprehension abilities are caused by their awareness of their reading problems and their understanding to overcome those problems.

Students’ opinions on the implementation of dynamic assessment in reading comprehension classroom were categorized into the functions of the mediational strategies namely managing the interaction, identifying the problems, overcoming the problems, promoting language competence, and reading skills development. The data from the interview are integrated with the data from the classroom observation (see Chapter IV section 4.1) and the tests’ results (see Chapter IV section 4.2). Each of the function will be explained below.

a. Managing the interaction

The function of mediation typology namely managing the interaction is assumed to be useful for the students even though this function does not really focus on identifying the problems. However, this function encourages the students

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to participate in the classroom discussion and interaction. It can be seen from the following statements below.

When the teacher asked some questions, I felt challenged and motivated to join classroom discussion. I wanted to be active in the class (Fifi).

I felt more motivated when the teacher asked several questioned in the class and gave more chances to the students especially the students who never participated in the class liked me (Lena).

These statements show that the teacher encouraged the students to participate in the classroom discussion. Managing the interaction is aimed to encourage the student to actively participate in the interaction between the teacher and the learner. These statements also confirm the data from classroom observation where the teacher asked several questions to the students and provided feedback as the responses (see Chapter IV section 4.1.2.1). As stated by Alavi, Kaivanpannah & Shabani (2012, p. 40), accepting responses in mediational typology of dynamic assessment is aimed to encourage the students to take part in the interaction and to provide affective scaffolding since feedback served as motivation for sustaining and furthering cooperation. In addition, these statements also in line with the definition of dynamic assessment proposed by Lidz (1987 in Poehner, 2008) (see Chapter 2 section 2.2.1) who states dynamic assessment is the interaction between the examiner-as-intervener and the learner-as-active participant which seeks to estimate the learners’ learning potential.

Moreover, the data also show that the teacher gave a chance to the students who were not active in the classroom discussion. It can be seen from Lena’s statement that she was one of the students who did not participate actively in the class discussion. Since the teacher actively asked the students, Lena felt motivated to speak and to interact in the class discussion. It is relevant to the roles of the teacher in the interaction as suggested by Brown (2001, p. 167) who claims the teacher as controller can manage and control the interaction in the classroom. This data supported the data of classroom observation in which the teacher tried to engage the students actively in the interaction and discussion.

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In conclusion, managing the interaction as one of the functions of mediational strategies seems useful to encourage the students to participate in the classroom interaction and it gives a chance to the students who do not actively participate in the classroom.

b. Identifying the problems

Identifying the problems is one of the functions of mediational intervention namely identifying the problem area. This mediational strategy aims to help the teacher to determine the students’ reading problems and the difficulties that they faced during reading the passages. Moreover, this mediational strategy also helps the teacher to design an effective instruction (Barjesteh & Niknezhad, 2013, p. 532, see also Poehner & Lantolf, 2005) which suits the students’ needs.

When the students were asked whether the implementation of dynamic assessment in reading classroom helps them to overcome their problems, the students’ statements revealed that the activities that have been done for the past two months have affected their reading abilities. The students were also aware of their reading problems. It can be seen from the following excerpt below.

The activities in that I have followed for this two months helped me to overcome my reading problems and I could know about my reading problems such as identifying main idea and making inferences (Verdy)

I could know what are my problems when I read the English passages and after following this class, I knew to solve my reading problems and applied the reading strategies (Cindy)

These comments show that the students are aware about their reading problems and they know how to overcome their problems. This is relevant to the definition of dynamic assessment proposed by Lantolf and Poehner (2004, p. 53) who state dynamic assessment not only provides more complete picture of the the learners’ abilities but also assists them to develop their language abilities. It also confirms the observation data where the teacher determined the students’ problems and helped them to overcome the problems (see Chapter IV section 4.1.2.1).

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Moreover, the data also show the students could apply their reading strategies. It confirms that dynamic assessment promotes the students’ learning potential (see Chapter 2 section 2.2.3) especially in reading abilities. It also supports the classroom observation session in which the teacher taught and guided the students while they were reading the passages (see Chapter IV section 4.1.2.2). Moreover, it also supports the test results in which the students had improved their reading comprehension performance (see Chapter IV section 4.2).

Then, when the students were asked about the effects of dynamic assessment in one of the reading skills namely using context clues to predict the meaning, it revealed that they had problems with vocabularies. The students said predicting the meaning of the words is difficult. It is caused since they confused to determine the clued to predict the meaning of the words. It can be seen in the following excerpt;

Difficult vocabularies make me lazy to read the English passage. Teacher’s

assistance in determine the context and predict the meaning of vocabularies make me easier to understand the text without looking up the dictionary (Fifi)

I felt confused sometime when I have to predict words meaning using context clues. The instruction and assistance from the teacher helped me to determine the clue to understand the words. (Luthfi).

These comments show that one of the problems that make the students felt lazy to read is the lack of vocabulary. This is relevant to the part of the importance of vocabulary stated by Anderson (1999, p. 22), vocabulary plays an important role in reading and comprehension which it is the fuel that ignites the fire of it. Confronting the problem above, the teacher’s assistance helped the students to use context clues to predict the meaning of the words since vocabulary comprehension is important in order to catch the meaning of the words and to comprehend the text better.

In conclusion, identifying the problems is also effective for the teacher and the students. It is effective for the teacher since the teacher can determine the reading problems that the students faced and she can determine the instruction and guidance to overcome those problems which are explained more in Chapter IV. It is also effective for the students since they can know their own problems and try

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to solve it by using the teacher’s instruction and guidance like have been explained in Chapter IV session 4.1.2.

c. Overcoming the problems

Overcoming the problems is the function of the mediational strategies namely providing clues, offering a choice, and translation. These mediational strategies aim to provide the students with some instruction and guidance that are relevant to their problems. The overcoming the problems has significant relationship with the intervention given during the reading practices in the classroom.

The interview revealed the students’ opinions on the teacher’s intervention during answering the reading tasks. Most of the students said that the intervention was very helpful. This intervention helped them provide ideas and direction to complete the reading tasks. Sometimes, the students did not know how to relate their ideas with the texts and they were confused and obstructed to solve their problems. As stated by Riana, when she got trouble in solving the reading problems, the teacher’s intervention was helpful to guide her to complete the reading tasks. This statement is in line with the basic principles of dynamic assessment namely intervention. Intervention of dynamic assessment happens when the students need feedback and guidance to answer the tasks and solve their reading problems (Grigorenko & Sternberg, 1998 p. 75). It also confirms the observation data in which the teacher provided clues; choices and translation to help the students to solve their reading problems (see Chapter IV section 4.1.2.2).

In relation to the reading skills, such as identifying main idea and reading for details, the students revealed and gave various opinions on the implementation of dynamic assessment and the mediation program in reading comprehension classroom. Regarding the skills namely identifying main idea of the passage, all of the students said that the teacher’s assistance and instruction facilitated and guided them ito find the main idea of the texts. It can be seen from Luthfi’s and Verdy’s statements below.

The teacher helped and guided me in identifying the main idea of a text. Sometimes, I was confused to determine the main idea of the text (Luthfi).

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When the teacher questioned and instructed me to identify the idea of a text, I did not need to read a whole paragraph since the teacher instructed me to read the part of the text which contained the main idea (Verdy).

The comment that the student felt confused in determine the main idea of the text confirms that identifying main idea is a difficult skill in reading comprehension (Duffy, 2009 p. 138; Jitendra & Gracia, 2011 p.199). Jitendra & Gracia (2011) state that one of the problems faced in comprehending the text is constructing the meaning which is in this study refers to identify the main idea. It supports the data of classroom observation in which the students got difficulties to identify the main idea of the paragraph whether it is stated or implied (see Chapter IV section 4.1.2.2).

In relation with reading for details, the students said that they did not need the teachers’ assistance in answering the question because they have already known to use and apply scanning and skimming skills. The teacher only explained and proposed the key to the students which aimed to make them become easier to find the details information of the texts. It is mentioned in the following statement below.

In reading for details, the teacher helped me by giving the key clue to be found in the passage which is stated in the questions. By knowing the clue of the passage, I could find the details information without reading all of the passage. (Cindy) By doing scanning and skimming, I could find the details information stated in

the passage, but sometimes, I need teacher’s assistance to find the implicit

information in the passage. (Yanti)

These comments indicate that the teacher asked the students to do skimming and scanning in order to find out the details information stated in the passage. As suggested by Grabe & Stoller (2002 p. 13), skimming and scanning are important in reading comprehension in which the readers are going through a text quickly (Alderson, 2000 p. 96) and it involves a combination of strategies for guessing where important information in the text to form a general idea. Moreover, in relation to dynamic assessment in which the teacher gave clues to the students was suitable with the principle of dynamic assessment namely modifiability (see Chapter 2 Section 2.2.2). The students could perform a task with the teacher’s

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intervention which modified the assessment that affected to the students’ reading comprehension abilities. Yanti’s statement revealed that she could find the implicit information in the passage because of the teacher’s assistances and intervention.

As the conclusion, overcoming the problems reveals how the teacher implementing mediational strategies of dynamic assessment in the classroom to overcome the students’ problems in reading comprehension performance. The data from the interview reveals that the students have problems in identifying the main idea and reading for details which are also found during the observation session of the implementation of the mediation program of dynamic assessment. Teacher’s assistances and instructions help the students to overcome those problems.

d. Promoting language competence and reading skills development

Promoting language competence and reading skills development are the function of the last mediation typology namely requesting for re-answering the question and providing the correct response and explanation. Students’ opinions on this function of the mediational strategies are commonly positive. When the students were asked about the changes of their reading abilities after following the mediation program, some of the students stated that they felt their reading abilities were better and had improved. It can be seen from Yanti’s statement below.

My reading abilities improved after following these activities. I just knew that we need to identify the main idea to catch the meaning of the texts and we can use context clues to understand the meaning of difficult words. I felt lazy to read English texts because I do not know the meaning of the difficult words, but, when the teacher taught me how to use context clues, it became easier to understand and comprehend the texts especially English texts. (Yanti)

The data above show that the activities in the mediation program during the implementation of dynamic assessment has changed the students’ reading abilities. Yanti’s statement revealed that she did take advantages of the following activities which can be seen from her statement “when the teacher taught me how to use context clues, it became easier to understand and comprehend the English

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texts”. In this study, the researcher used a reading text with practices as a media of teaching. This is relevant with the basic principles of assessment namely washback where the teacher can create a classroom test that serves as learning devices (Messick, 1996 p. 243, see Chapter 2 section 2.1.2). Moreover, Yanti’s statement also confirms the classroom observation data where the students were taught about some reading strategies. It also strengthens the results of the textual analysis of the test where the students had improved their reading abilities.

When the students were asked about how the instructions and questions offered by the teacher influenced them to answer the reading practices namely making inferences, some students agreed that the activity was useful and helpful. The data are below;

I think, with the teacher’s instruction or guided question, I could more

comprehend the text and took a conclusion in making inferences. (Riana)

The teacher exemplified and corrected my answer helped me in making inferences. (Yanti)

These comments, that the teacher’s instructions or guided questions help the students to make inferences, indicate that dynamic assessment has similarity with scaffolding. Mediation, as one of the stages in dynamic assessment, is almost similar with scaffolding but it has a different purpose (Lantolf in Davin, 2013). The purpose of mediation is to develop the students’ potential learning whereas scaffolding aims to help the students to find the correct answer (Lantolf & Poehner, 2005).

Moreover, Yanti’s answer also revealed that the teacher explained and modeled how to make inference which indicated that in dynamic assessment the teacher could model and explain the lesson in order to develop the students’ learning potential. This is relevant with the concept of dynamic assessment (see Section 2.2.1) which proposed by Lidz & Gindis (2003, p. 99) who states dynamic assessment embeds instruction and assessment into one activity in order to lead the students to the higher level of thinking. The data above show that the teacher instructed and modeled the reading strategies which aimed to develop the students’ abilities in reading.

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In conclusion, promoting language competence and reading skills development have a positive effect toward the students’ reading comprehension performance that are stated and seen in their opinions towards the implementation of mediational program of dynamic assessment.

In general, the students’ opinions are commonly positive to the implementation of dynamic assessment in reading comprehension classroom. The students seemed very helpful with the assistances and guidance of the teacher while they were doing the reading practices. The mediation program was assumed to be successful in revealing students’ problems in reading comprehension and in overcoming those problems. The students were aware with the reading strategies used during reading and comprehending the texts. It supports the findings discussed in the previous section of the mediational strategies given in dynamic assessment and the textual analysis of the students’ tests result (see Chapter IV section 4.1 and 4.2). It can direct to some benefits of the implementation of dynamic assessment in Indonesia in general and to English reading classroom in particular.

For better implementation of the mediation program in dynamic assessment, there are some issues of practical importance for further study which is indicated by the students’ suggestions on dynamic assessment. It will be discussed in the following section

5.2 Students’ Suggestions on Dynamic Assessment

The interview revealed that most of the students did not mention much suggestion toward the program implemented. They expressed their satisfaction of the program as mentioned below;

The program is good, I have no suggestion since I have gained more than enough in this program and I found that reading is easier if we know the main idea of it (Bagus).

Following this program is challenging and interesting for me because I had new

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However, three students proposed two suggestions regarding the mediation program conducted in the classroom. They were related to the instruction given by the teacher and the activities conducted in the classroom.

Dealing with instruction given by the teacher, the students suggested that the instruction should be simple with the choice of the words that they can understand. It would make them think and act faster in perceiving the instruction given during the dialogue and interaction to answer the reading tasks.

Regarding the activities conducted in the classroom, the students suggested to conduct some games in the classroom which aimed to make the class more fun and alive. Playing a small games would increase their motivation and make them feel relax to study. The class was offered in the afternoon where some of students felt tired and sleepy in following reading class subject.

5.3 Summary of Students’ Opinions on Dynamic Assessment

To summarize the data obtained from the interview, it was found that the students’ opinions on the implementation of dynamic assessment are commonly positive. The students felt the implementation of mediation program has affected their reading comprehension performance especially in the five skills. It can be seen from the mediational strategies functions namely managing the interaction, identifying the problems, overcoming the problems, promoting language competence, and reading skills competence. Students’ opinions on the teacher’s assistance in identifying the main idea indicated that it was useful to improve their knowledge and ability in finding the main idea. Moreover, they also said that they felt helpful when the teacher guided them in doing the reading comprehension practice. It is also stated above that the implementation of dynamic assessment helps the students to realize their problems and learning potential.

Moreover, students’ proposal toward the improvement of the program is related to the instruction given and the activities in the class. The students proposed that the teacher should include games in the class since the class was held at noon where the students felt tired and hungry. They also proposed that in this activity, the teacher could conduct a small classroom games in order to make

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them relax and motivate to study especially studying Reading for Academic Purposes subject.

5.4 Conclusion of the Chapter

This chapter has presented the findings from interviews which reveal students’ opinions on the implementation of dynamic assessment in reading comprehension performance. Overall, the students had given valuable suggestions for further implementation and improvement of the mediation program in the classroom. Some efforts should be taken to improve the mediation program and further research is required to scrutinize the effectiveness of the mediation program particularly in reading classroom and in different settings of classroom generally.

The following chapter will present the conclusion, the limitation of the study and ideas for future research. It will summarize the findings and arguments of previous chapter and describes probable future investigation either to replicate or complement this study.

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CHAPTER VI: CONCLUSIONS, LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE FUTURE RESEARCH

The previous chapter has described the students’ opinions on the implementation of dynamic assessment in reading comprehension and in the teaching reading. It has presented the findings and the discussion of the interview.

This chapter reports the conclusions, limitations of the study, and some recommendations for the future study. Conclusions are built up on the basis of data analysis as discussed in Chapter IV and V. Some limitations of the study are exposed to provide guidance and information to conduct better further research. Then, recommendations are addressed to those who are involved in developing students’ reading comprehension performance as well as those who are interested in conducting further research.

6.1 Conclusions

This research was conducted to investigate how the implementation of dynamic assessment affect student reading comprehension performance and to reveal students’ opinions through the implementation of dynamic assessment in the reading comprehension performance. Dynamic assessment was infused in the teaching reading to seek the effectiveness of this technique in improving the students’ reading skills. This research was conducted in one private university in Bandung and the participants were a reading class of fourth semester students of English Department. In this study, the researcher acted as the teacher (mediator). Based on previous data and discussions, some conclusions could be drawn as follows.

First, the implementation of dynamic assessment did affect the students reading comprehension performance which could be seen from the functions of mediational strategies namely managing the interaction, identifying the problems, overcoming the problems and promoting language development and reading skills competence. These functions were arranged from implicit to explicit based on the strategies given to assist and mediate the students in reading comprehension

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performance. These functions had been analyzed in order to reveal the students’ problems and development in reading comprehension skills and to promote the use of these skills. In the mediational typology, there were eight moves which are described and illustrated to portray the students’ problems and the use of each mediational moves of dynamic assessment in reading comprehension classroom. The implementation of dynamic assessment based on the mediational moves given showed the effect of dynamic assessment in the students’ reading comprehension performance.

Then, dynamic assessment was also infused in the teaching reading which was divided into three stages namely pre, while, and post reading activities. Dynamic assessment was mostly applied in while reading activities stage. The mediation provided during the dynamic assessment was focused on the five of reading skills including identifying main ideas, making prediction, making inferences, using context clues to predict the meaning of the words, and reading for details. The tests’ results indicate that dynamic assessments improved the students’ reading comprehension performances in those skills.

Moreover, based on the data from the interviews, the students showed positive opinions on the implementation of dynamic assessment in their reading comprehension performance. The students stated the mediation provided in dynamic assessment was useful and helpful for them. The mediation revealed their reading problems to comprehend the texts especially English texts and the students also stated that following the mediation added their knowledge of the reading strategies. However, there are some suggestions made related to the improvement of the mediation program applied such as the simplicity of the instruction given and adding games in the activities.

6.2 Limitation of the Study

Several limitations need to be acknowledged and addressed with respect to the present study. They are related to the object of the investigation, the length of the study, and the role of the researcher.

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The first limitation of this study is related to the object of the study. This study investigated reading comprehension performance which focused only on the five skills namely identify the main idea, making prediction, using context clues to predict meaning of words, making inference and reading for details. There are many reading skills which were not included in this study such as outlining logical organization of the text, identifying genre of the text and its purpose, and recognizing writer’s purpose, attitude and tone. Besides, this study was focused on assessing reading based on the skills which were limited. The result of this study would be much better if all of reading comprehension skills and levels are included. In addition, this study only investigated students’ opinion on the implementation of dynamic assessment reading comprehension performance and in the teaching of reading especially excluding the teacher’s perceptions. The result of the study could be much better and comprehensive if the teacher’s opinions were also investigated.

The second limitation concerns with the length of the study. The time allocated in the mediation program was indeed inadequate as the duration of the mediation students’ development in the reading strategies which is in this study was conducted only for eight meetings and 90 minutes for each session. Some of dynamic assessment practitioners state that dynamic assessment needs lots of time in tracking the students’ development and it is time-consuming (Deutsch & Reynolds, 2000, Ableeva, 2010 p. 368). Moreover, since the implementation of dynamic assessment only for eight meetings, not all of the students had given mediation in order to develop and improve their reading comprehension skills. The result of the study could be more portrays the students’ development if it was conducted in longer periods in each session of the mediation program.

The last weakness of this study is related to the role of the researcher who acted as the teacher as well. In this study, the researcher involved in studying and applying her own teaching and assessing, which could affect the interpretation of the data. Moreover, teacher’s role as the interviewer in the interview session revealed another limitation of this study. The interviewees’ tendency not to offend

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the interviewer who was also the teacher seemed to be greater, and this to some extents has great impact to the results of the study.

6.3 Recommendation for Future Research

Based on the findings of this study and the previously mentioned conclusions, the following recommendations are proposed for future study:

1. That this study is replicated including more reading strategies and skills to more clearly identify students’ problems in reading and promote their learning potential especially in reading. It is also recommended to take the teacher’s opinions into the study. Teacher’s opinion and experience on the dynamic assessment could determine the classroom application.

2. That this study should be conducted in a longer time of mediation program to deeply understand and investigate students’ development in reading comprehension performance.

3. That this study should be conducted quantitatively which involved large number of participants or consisted of two classes, control and experiment class, in order to statistically test its effectiveness in promoting students reading potential.

4. That this study is undertaken in various contexts and levels of education to seek its effectiveness in helping students to promote their English as well as their reading abilities and also its applicability as one of classroom assessment.

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