Complementary Relationship between Dynamic Assessment and Traditional Testing

There have been different approaches to assess students’ learning in language teaching classes. Traditional standardized testing and dynamic assessment have been used in language classes. While traditional testing is considered a product-oriented approach, dynamic assessment is believed to focus on the process of learning and assist it. Existing literature is replete with different definitions of dynamic assessment. However, different attempts in defining dynamic assessment mainly contrast it with traditional testing. This has resulted in the conception that these two approaches are contradictory and their complementary relationship is not well acknowledged. This article, taking a postmodernist perspective, in general, chaotic/complexity view point in particular, and advocating a relativistic perspective, is an attempt to highlight the complementary relationship between these two approaches i.e., traditional testing and dynamic assessment. In so doing, it deals with defining and comparing these two approaches and considers two views on their relationship including their contradictory and complementary relationships.