Effects Of Teacher-Mediated Intervention In Continuation Task: An Interactionist Dynamic Assessment Approach

Wang Chuming put forward the continuation task(henceforth CT)in 2012 with the aim of solving the dilemma that traditional English writing teaching has shortcomings in stimulating students’ willingness to express in writing and in highlighting the role of context in regulating students’ appropriate use of language.Dynamic assessment(henceforth DA)emphasizes the process and developmental nature,allowing teachers to track the teaching process and provide timely feedback on students’ learning.As one of the merits of DA,teacher-mediated intervention can play a scaffolding role in the teaching of English writing,thereby exploring learners’ zone of proximal district(henceforth ZPD).Current researches in the field of CT have focused on its promoting effects and the factors that influence them,with relatively little empirical research focusing on the role of teacher-mediated intervention.Therefore,based on the advantages of teacher-mediated intervention in DA,this thesis attempts to explore the effects of this assessment tool on learners’ English writing by incorporating teacher-mediated intervention in CT and by observing the characteristics of teachers’ talk and mediated strategies during the intervention phase.Twenty non-English major sophomore students were selected for this experiment.The main purpose of this study is to investigate whether dynamic teacher-mediated intervention in CT has an effect on learners’ performance in English writing.During the six-week experiment,ten students in the experimental group received the teacher-mediated intervention during the moderated intervention phase,while the ten students in the control group received traditional CT instruction.Six weeks later,the author used a combination of qualitative and quantitative method to analyze the pre-test,post-test and interview results of both groups in an attempt to answer the following three questions:1)Does the teacher-mediated intervention facilitate writing in CT? If so,in what aspects does it manifest itself?2)What are the main ways in which dynamic teacher-mediated intervention in CT is presented and what are the characteristics?3)What are the students’ attitudes to the teacher-mediated intervention in CT?The analysis of the data from the pre-test and post-test,the teacher’s language and strategies and the students’ interviews gave rise to the following answers: 1)The teacher-mediated intervention had a positive impact on the students’ CT,as evidenced by the increase in the scores of vocabulary and grammar and structure.2)The three teacher’s mediation strategies: sharing behavior,goal seeking,setting,planning and achieving,and challenge were extracted.The teacher talk was characterized by four features: control of the interaction,speech modification,elicitation,and repair.3)Students had positive attitudes towards the use of teacher-mediated intervention during CT.In summary,this study demonstrates the possibility of using teacher-mediated intervention in the CT.It is believed that this thesis will provide valuable findings for the field of research on DA and CT.