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Assessing English reading comprehension by Chinese EFL learners in computerized dynamic assessment
Yanfeng Yang ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-0349-40481 &
David D. Qian2
Language Testing in Asia volume 7, Article number: 11 (2017) Cite this article
Predicated on Vygotsky's zone of proximal development (ZPD), dynamic assessment (DA) integrates teaching with assessment in a single activity by providing mediation to help learners perform beyond their independent functioning and simultaneously promote learner development. It advantages over traditional psychometric tests in that DA can not only reveal the learners' actual level of development from their independent performance as what the traditional tests did but also their potential level of development from the mediations the learners need during the mediator-learner interactions. However, the number of learners a DA assessor can help is limited due to the time demand of mediator-learner interactions. To overcome this weakness, researchers are turning to computerized dynamic assessment (C-DA).
The study aimed to find out the learners' difficulties in reading comprehension, the effects of C-DA and the learners' reflections on the C-DA program. Multiple choice questions in the reading comprehension section were adapted from CET4 (College English Test, Band 4). Two groups of students participated in the present study. In the pilot study, a group of students were asked to write down their thinking process after they finished a reading test, from which the students' difficulties in reading comprehension test were identified and mediations were worked out afterwards. The mediation levels and the scoring scale were also determined and put into the C-DA program devised for the main study. Another group of students were asked to do a reading test using C-DA. After the test, a learner profile capturing the students' performances in the test was generated from the program. Finally, a questionnaire was distributed to collect data for the students' reflections on C-DA.
It was found that the learners mainly encountered three difficulties in their reading comprehension test: (1) new words were the biggest barrier; (2) learners felt hard to locate on the relevant sentences in the original passage from the information provided in the question; (3) their inferential abilities are weak. The analysis of the data generated by the C-DA program indicated that C-DA far exceeded the traditional static assessment for its stronger diagnostic capacities and the deeper insights it provided for subsequent teaching. The results of the questionnaire showed that C-DA was greatly welcomed by the students and believed to be particularly helpful in building up confidence for those low achievers as identified in traditional static assessment.
The major contribution of the present study was to implement DA principles to larger scale study with the use of computer technology and gain valuable insights for future studies. However, limitations remained and future studies should try to address the issues discussed in the present study.
Predicated on Vygotsky's social-cultural theory (SCT) of mind, especially his proposition of the zone of proximal development (ZPD), dynamic assessment (DA) integrates teaching with assessment in a single activity by providing mediation to help learners perform beyond their independent functioning and simultaneously promote learner development. DA goes against traditional psychometric tests which hold a dualistic view of teaching and assessment. It advantages over traditional psychometric tests in that DA can reveal not only the learners' actual level of development from their independent performance as what the traditional tests did but also their potential level of development from the mediations the learners need during the mediator-learner interactions. Since what the learners need from the mediator during DA indicate how far the learners are from their independent functioning, the potential level of development is more significant for the subsequent instruction and learner development than the actual level of development. However, the number of learners a DA assessor can help is limited due to the time demand of mediator-learner interactions. To overcome this weakness, researchers are turning to computerized dynamic assessment (C-DA), i.e., using computer as the mediator, to administer a large-scale study (e.g., Poehner and Lantolf 2013; Tzuriel and Shamir 2002; Pishghadam et al. 2011). Despite valuable insights gained from the few C-DA studies, the effectiveness of C-DA sessions is still not very clear. Using Chinese EFL learners as the participants, the present study made a preliminary attempt to design a computer program to assess their reading comprehension. The main purpose of the study is to find out the effect of C-DA on L2 reading, i.e., whether it is more revealing of learners' reading abilities as compared to traditional testing. In addition, the study also considers the learners' difficulties in reading comprehension and their reflections on the C-DA procedure.
Theoretical background
According to Vygotsky and his colleagues, all forms of higher functioning are mediated during the interactions with the environment (Leont'ev 1981; Poehner 2008). At the initial stage, individuals rely on mediations to complete tasks. Later, these kinds of interactions are internalized and give rise to new cognitive development. In other words, it is the mediated interactions that enable individuals to complete the tasks independently which were once only possible through the help of others. Given this view of cognitive development, Vygotsky (1998) proposed that the assessment of individual's abilities should not only include those functions that have been fully developed through independent problem solving but also incorporate those that are in the process of developing. To better illustrate this notion, he put forward a famous proposition—ZPD. ZPD is "the distance between the actual developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers" (Vygotsky 1978, p. 86). Mediations therefore provide remarkable insights in revealing an individual's potential development. The major task of DA, then, is to observe an individual's actual level of development as well as gain insights into his/her potential development sensitive to ZPD.
Empirical studies on L2 C-DA
There are two major approaches of DA, interventionist and interactionist DA (Lantolf and Poehner 2004). They differ from each other in the form of mediation. In interventionist DA, the mediation prompts are pre-scripted and arranged hierarchically from implicit to explicit with a numerical value representing their position in the sequence (Davin 2013; Poehner and Lantolf 2013). In interactionist DA, the mediation is flexible and negotiated in mediator-learner dialogue (Poehner and Lantolf 2013). For C-DA, interventionist approach is appropriate since computers serve as the mediators instead of humans. However, sometimes researchers also implemented the interactionist approach as a complementary method in C-DA so as to better diagnose learners' abilities (e.g., Tzuriel and Shamir 2002). Since the focus of the present study is on C-DA, the following review mainly focus on those studies using the computer as the mediator, especially in the field of second language assessment or second language research.
Although Kozulin and Garb (2002) did not use computers in their experiment, their study influenced C-DA studies. They employed an interventionist sandwich format, in which mediation was conducted between the pre-test and the post-test, with a group of 23 adult EFL learners at risk who were immigrants to Israel and failed the high school English test. The purpose of the study was to test the feasibility of DA in curriculum-based areas such as EFL. The pre-test was a standard EFL placement test adapted by eliminating the items on vocabulary recognition, and producing for the completion of those items rely largely on prior knowledge. In this way, the aim of the test was to assess the cognitive strategies in the EFL reading rather than rote memory. Following the pre-test, a detailed guideline was designed and the learners were asked to correct their pre-tests on their own. The material used in the mediation phase was the pre-test, and two phases were involved. The first one was the manipulation of the items in the pre-test on lexical, grammatical, and structural knowledge, after which an "information page" providing information needed for the learners to complete this part was distributed to the learners for take-home study. The second phase involved four texts of increasing difficulty and the reading comprehension questions devised to test the learner's ability in using the text structure, cohesion devices, and background knowledge to extract meaning. After that, a post-test comparable to the pre-test was administered, and the changes between the scores of the two tests revealed the effects of DA conducted in the mediation phase. Results show that the students' performance increased considerably in the post-test, indicating that they indeed benefited from the mediation. As noted by the authors, the pre-test scores could only reveal "the learners' actual performance but not their learning potential" (p. 120).
Kozulin and Garb's study is limited in that it did not provide a detailed illustration of the mediation phase such as specific examples and protocols (Poehner 2005). However, the study is significant particularly in its devising of the learning potential score (LPS) to capture the learner's potential level of development. The following is the formula devised.
$$ \mathrm{L}\mathrm{P}\mathrm{S} = \left(\mathrm{S}\ \mathrm{post}\ \hbox{--}\ \mathrm{S}\ \mathrm{pre}\right)/\mathrm{Max}\ \mathrm{S} + \mathrm{S}\ \mathrm{post}/\mathrm{Max}\ \mathrm{S} = \left(2\ \mathrm{S}\ \mathrm{post}\ \hbox{--}\ \mathrm{S}\ \mathrm{pre}\right)/\mathrm{Max}\ \mathrm{S} $$
(Kozulin and Garb 2002, p. 121)
S pre and S post were the scores of the pre-test and post-test, respectively, while Max S referred to the maximum score, i.e., the full score of the test. LPS took into account not only the pre- and post-test scores but also the maximum score. The range of the LPS in Kozulin and Garb's (ibid) study was from .47 to 1.21, based on which the authors divided the students into three groups: high learning potential group (LPS ≥ 1), low learning potential group (LPS < .71), and intermediate learning potential group (.79 ≥ LPS ≤ .88). In terms of the validity of the LPS, no further studies can be found by Kozulin and Garb. However, the formula is interesting, and Poehner and Lantolf (2013) employed it in computerized dynamic assessment to further test its feasibility in predicting learning potential.
Tzuriel and Shamir's (2002) study is crucial in C-DA although it belongs to the domain of cognitive psychology. The study examined the effects of C-DA on young children's seriational thinking abilities as compared to DA with an examiner. For the C-DA group, the interventionist approach was adopted and the hints were provided from implicit to explicit by a multimedia program if the children's responses were not correct. In one sub-group of C-DA, teachers were present and provided help tailored to the children's needs when the computer program was not effective during the administration, which was similar to interactionist DA. Results showed that intervention through C-DA supplemented with a teacher's help was the most effective in bringing about cognitive changes, followed by mediation provided exclusively by the computer, and mediation with only an examiner turned out to be the least effective.
Enlightened by Tzuriel and Shamir (ibid), Poehner and Lantolf (2013) took an initial step to capture L2 development using the interventionist DA in a computerized setting. The participants were second language learners of Chinese and French. The tests consisted of L2 reading and listening comprehension items in multiple choice format. Each test incorporated non-transfer and transfer items, the difference of which was that the latter were more difficult than the former. Transfer items were provided after non-transfer ones and aimed to find out to what extent the learners could integrate the knowledge they gained from the previous non-transfer tests when the context changed, i.e., in the more challenging transfer test. Before C-DA, the items were adapted by adding one distractor to the original four in order to provide more chances for the learners to learn in the C-DA process. To establish the appropriate levels of mediation, a pilot study was conducted for each item in a one-on-one interaction between a mediator and several individual learners. The mediations that proved to be effective in the pilot were then written into the C-DA program.
The scoring system was different from the traditional test for which either full score or 0 score could be gained. In C-DA, the student's score decreased as his/her attempts increased for the item. If the student's first attempt was correct, s/he would gain a score of 4 for the item. If a second response was correct, a score of 3 would be earned and so on until the correct answer was provided by the program at which time no points would be awarded.
What the C-DA program generated were the learner profiles that consisted of a series of numbers recording the learner responses in their attempts for each item. Three scores were generated for the non-transfer items: actual score, mediated score, and LPS. The actual score was the score the student gained in their first attempt for each item, and as such, it was either 4 (correct response) or 0 (incorrect response). It represented the students' actual level of development, i.e., their independent performance without mediation. The mediated score was the summed score gained in the initial attempts and those for the meditated responses. LPS was calculated using Kozulin and Garb's (2002) formula. Another score not generated by the program but mentioned by Poehner and Lantolf (2013) was the gain score. It was calculated by subtracting the actual score from the mediated score, which indicated the extent to which the student had benefited from the mediation.
Statistical analysis of the actual and mediated scores showed that learner performance improved significantly under mediation, which indicated that the mediations provided during C-DA were helpful for the learners. To uncover evidence of learning, Poehner and Lantolf (ibid) compared several individuals' actual score, mediated score, and LPS they earned for the non-transfer items with those for the transfer ones and came to a conclusion that they "caution against assuming a direct mapping across all scoring categories" (ibid: 335), which may cast doubt on the reliability of the LPS formula proposed by Kozulin and Garb (2002). Significance was also found in the correlation coefficients between LPS and the actual score of the transfer items for both the Chinese reading and listening tests but not for the French reading test. Poehner and Lantolf (2013) concluded that "LPS has promise as a predictor of learning" (p. 336).
In a follow-up report of the same project, Poehner et al. (2014) provided a more fine-grained analysis on what was generated for the non-transfer items in the Chinese reading and listening tests. The procedures for the quantitative analysis in this report were similar to those in Poehner and Lantolf (2013), but the authors expanded the discussion on the results found, especially in explaining and illustrating the factors affecting LPS. As noticed by Poehner et al. (ibid), LPS is determined by the actual score, the mediated score, and the maximum score concurrently. In order to have a more complete picture of the learner abilities, one should analyze the actual, mediated scores and LPS collectively rather than focus on one single score. Another significant part of the report not found in the previous publication is that the authors demonstrated what could be gained from the learner profiles generated by the C-DA program and the implications it could provide for future teaching and learning. Through grouping the learners by mediation levels and by language constructs, the authors demonstrated a more fine-grained diagnosis of the learner difficulties, which formed the basis of the suggestions provided for subsequent teaching and learning.
Another study assessing L2 reading in C-DA is Pishghadam et al. (2011). Using the interventionist approach, Pishghadam et al. (2011) investigated the effect of C-DA procedure on EFL reading comprehension by Iranian students at an intermediate level of English proficiency. The comparison between the non-dynamic scores and the dynamic scores reveals that the C-DA procedure was effective in differentiating learners' reading abilities. Moreover, low achievers benefited more than high achievers as categorized according to their non-dynamic scores. Different from Poehner and Lantolf (2013), the format adopted by Pishghadam et al. (2011) were open-ended items.
Whereas the studies mentioned above carried out the C-DA procedure in one single session to assess reading comprehension, Teo (2012) used C-DA as a teaching method to promote Taiwanese college EFL students' inferential reading skills. The study took a "sandwich" format of interventionist DA, i.e., the mediation phase through C-DA was sandwiched between traditional pre-test and post-test. The whole study lasted for 10 weeks and the mediation phase 8 weeks. For each mediation session, three passages followed by one inferential question for each were provided and mediations were offered from implicit to explicit if the responses were not correct. Similar to most of the C-DA studies, the items were in multiple choice format. Results indicated that students made significant progress through the intervention of C-DA as their scores in the post-test outperformed those in the pre-test. In addition, qualitative analysis of students' written reflections in their working portfolio showed that C-DA procedure also promoted students' metacognitive reading strategies in making inferences. However, as noted by the author, the main limitation of this research was its within-group design, i.e., one targeted group throughout the study, which made it less confident to determine whether the improvement was caused by the frequent practices or the C-DA intervention. Therefore, future studies should take a between-group design in order to find convincing evidence to support the effects of C-DA on promoting reading comprehension abilities.
From the above scant literature on C-DA and second language assessment or second language research, more studies are needed in this line. As noted by Poehner and Lantolf (2013), "we are in the beginning stages of what promises to be a lengthy and challenging process" (p. 337). Inspired by the previous studies, the present study attempts to apply C-DA to Chinese EFL learners. The main purpose is to find out the advantages of C-DA over non-dynamic assessment and the students' feedbacks on the procedure. Since reading comprehension is the subject matter, the students' difficulties in English reading comprehension test will also be revealed.
The present study was conducted to answer the following research questions.
What difficulties do the students encounter in their English reading comprehension test?
Is the C-DA procedure more revealing in diagnosing learners' abilities in L2 reading comprehension than the non-dynamic assessment?
What is the students' feedback on the C-DA procedure?
Two studies were involved: the pilot study with one group of participants (Group 1) and the main study with another group of participants (Group 2) comparable to Group 1. The pilot study was used to identify the difficulties the students encountered in their English reading comprehension test, which would help the researchers to work out the mediations for the students. Since the two groups of students were comparable, the results of the pilot study were applicable to the students in the main study. In the pilot study, the students were asked to write down their thinking processes for each item, which were then analyzed to determine whether they had a full understanding of each item. The criteria included the understanding of the item question, the correct location in the key portion of the original passage, a full understanding of the located sentence(s), understanding of the options, and correct choice of the answer. If the students failed to meet any one of the criteria, difficulties were identified for the item. The results of the pilot study were used to answer the first research question.
Based on the students' difficulties found in the pilot study, the mediational prompts were written for the main study and the mediational levels for the prompts were arranged from implicit to explicit down the range. That was, with the increasing demand of the mediations, the prompts became more and more explicit until providing the answer and the explanation in the last prompt. The scoring system followed Poehner and Lantolf (2013). After the test, a learner profile was generated by the program, including the actual score for the students' independent performance, the mediated score showing how much help they needed in the test, LPS calculated using Kozulin and Garb's (2002) formula, the gain score which indicated the extent to which the student had benefited from the mediation and was calculated by subtracting the actual score from the mediated score following Poehner and Lantolf (2013), and the record of the students' choice(s) during their attempts for each item. MS Excel and SPSS were used for statistical analysis, the results of which were used to answer the second research question.
After C-DA, questionnaire was used to collect data about the students' feedbacks. Three questions were asked: (1) students' beliefs of the helpfulness of C-DA and the reasons, (2) whether students like or dislike C-DA and the reasons, and (3) students' suggestions on improving C-DA (see Additional file 1: Appendix C). The results of the questionnaire were used to answer the third research question. The following sections were a detailed description for the research design.
Two parallel classes participated in the study. Based on their English scores in the Entrance Exam to College, the students' overall English proficiency levels were similar. One class consisting of 52 students (Group 1) participated in the pilot study and another class consisting of 50 (Group 2) in the main study. Since four students logged on to the website twice in the main study, they were excluded from the study. Finally, 46 students (26 male and 20 female) were left for further analysis. They were 20 years old in average and had learned English for about 10 years.Footnote 1 All the students were freshmen majoring in industrial design in Lingnan Normal University in mainland China. They came to the university in September, 2013. During the study in the university, they had 2-h English classes every week in regular classrooms without computers for the students and another 2-h English classes once every 2 weeks in the language lab where computers were available for everyone. According to the normal practice of the university, students were encouraged to take CET4 (College English Test, Band 4), a widely recognized national English test for college/university students in mainland China, at the fourth semester,Footnote 2 and around 80% of the students passed the exam according to the statistics calculated based on the students' performance in CET4 in the past 3 years. Since the students were in their second semester, CET4 should be a challenge to most of the participants.
Instruments and procedures
Reading comprehension items in multiple choice format were selected as the focus of the present study because it was the most common format in reading comprehension tests and accounted for the largest proportion in the reading section of CET4. In DA, what is most important is to work out an appropriate test sensitive to the learners' ZPD. That is, the test should be neither too easy nor too difficult. The difficulty level of CET4 is around the participants' ZPD because they are supposed to pass the exam in the near future.
According to Vygotsky, to provide mediations sensitive to learners' ZPD is crucial in DA. In the present study, ZPD should be the group's ZPD rather than the individual's because the latter is difficult to access in large-scale studies. As noted by Poehner (2007), mediating the group "not only moves the group's ZPD forward but also promotes the development of individuals" (p. 338). In order to better diagnose the group's ZPD and identify appropriate meditational prompts, a pilot study was administered (see Additional file 1: Appendix A). It was a paper-and-pencil test consisting of one reading passage followed by five multiple choice questions taken from CET4 administered in June, 2012. Apart from writing down the correct choices, the students were asked to write down their thinking processes in completing the task. From the students' thinking processes, their difficulties in reading comprehension were identified. Since the students could not express themselves freely in English, they could use Chinese to complete the task.
Main study
Several steps were involved in the main study, including the selection and adaptation of the test, preparation of the mediations and setting the scoring scales, preparation of the C-DA program, design of the questionnaire, and administration of the test. Two reading passages consisting of 10 questions (five for each passage) were selected from the past official CET4 administered in December, 2012. Since the C-DA procedure was time-consuming, only three questions out of five were chosen for each reading passage in order to insure that all the students could finish the two reading comprehension texts and the follow-up questionnaire in the language lab. Only the first, the third, and the fifth questions for each passage were chosen considering that the revealing of the answer and the explanation to one question in C-DA might influence the students' selection of the answer to the question immediately following it since the relevant portions of the texts concerned to answering the two questions were close. Finally, the questions numbered 57, 59, 61, 62, 64, and 66 in the original test were selected. Following Poehner and Lantolf (2013), one distracter was added to the traditional four-option MCQs in order to maximize the prompts. The adding distracters were written by the present researchers and checked by a teacher majoring in curriculum and assessment. What should be noted was that the adding of the distracter aimed to provide more chances for the learners to learn in C-DA because the ultimate purpose of C-DA was to promote learner development by integrating teaching and assessment.
In preparation of the mediations, the present researchers made full use of what the students had provided in the pilot study and referred to the detailed explanations of the answer to each question in CET4 published by Enbo Education Publishing Company if necessary. The meditational hints were strategy-based for different types of questions and arranged hierarchically from implicit to explicit according to the principles of DA.
The scoring scale follows that of Poehner and Lantolf (2013), i.e., the student's score would decrease as his/her attempts increase for the item (also see the "Empirical studies on L2 C-DA" section). The students were allowed to make four attempts at responding to each question. If the student's first attempt was correct, s/he would gain a score of 4 for the item. If a second response was correct, a score of 3 would be earned and so on until the correct answer was provided by the program and no points would be awarded. The following information would be generated from the program: actual score, mediated score, LPS, gain score, and the record of the students' selections through the process. The actual score was the score the student gained in their first attempt for each item (either 4 or 0), representing their independent performance without mediation. The mediated score was calculated by adding the actual score for the independent performance (either 4 or 0 for each item) and the score gained with the help of mediations (3, 2, 1, or 0 for each item). The gain score is calculated by subtracting the actual score from the mediated score, which indicates the extent to which the student has benefited from the mediation (Poehner and Lantolf 2013). LPS was calculated using Kozulin and Garb's (2002) formula.
The C-DA program was written by one of the research team members, a computer programmer. Following a detailed description of the functions intended to be achieved in the C-DA program written by the present researchers, he wrote the coding and tested the program several times before its real use.
To answer the third research question, another questionnaire including three questions was designed (see Additional file 1: Appendix C). The first question asks about the students' belief on the helpfulness of the C-DA in improving their reading abilities, while the second question concerns the students' preference for this kind of testing format. The third question encourages the students to provide their suggestions to improve the C-DA procedure. For the first two questions, the students were asked to write down their choices as well as the reasons for the choices. The students were encouraged to complete the task in Chinese.
The main study was administered in the language lab by another research collaborator on April 14, 2014, 1 month after the pilot study. She was the English teacher of the participants. During the administration of the test, she followed the procedures the first researcher wrote for her and discussed with her prior to the test. Because this form of test was new to the students, a short training to familiarize them with the process was necessary. The English teacher spent around 10 min in describing and presenting a demo of the test to the students (Additional file 1: Appendix B). After that, the students began the test by logging on to the website provided by the teacher with their names and student IDs. The procedures went on smoothly. Most of the students finished the test in 25 min or so. Once the students finished the C-DA tests, the teacher distributed the questionnaires to them. The whole test took about 45 min. After that, the teacher collected all the questionnaires and mailed them to the first researcher for data analysis. The data generated by C-DA were packed by the technician of the language lab and emailed to the first researcher.
After data collection, MS excel and SPSS were used to process the data for statistical analysis. For the data collected from the questionnaire, they were inputted into excel file and categorized for the qualitative analysis. The following reports the results of the present study.
Diagnosing learner difficulties in reading comprehension
The results of the pilot study served to answer the first research question. The numbers of the students' first attempts were found to be basically normally distributed (mean = 2.62, SD = 1.248, maximum = 5, minimum = 0). After careful reading and classification of the students' thinking processes, the following difficulties were identified as the main obstacles in reading comprehension. Firstly, new vocabularies in the reading text constituted the biggest barrier for most of the students. A few students even could not understand the meaning of the question (7/52). Secondly, some students could not locate the relevant part of the original text from the key information embedded in the question. Thirdly, some students could locate the relevant information in the original text, but they still made an incorrect response because of wrong inference. A few students made inference based on their own common knowledge rather than on the original passage.
Considering the above difficulties and the principles of DA, the following framework was developed for the meditational prompts, including the main contents and their arrangement in the hierarchy. In order to ensure that all the students understand the prompts, they were written in Chinese (see Additional file 1: Appendix B for an exampleFootnote 3).
Prompt 1: It was the same for all questions if the initial response was incorrect. The content was "Sorry, the answer is wrong. Please try it again."
Prompt 2: It would be provided if the second response was not correct. The main purpose of this prompt was to guide the students to locate the relevant paragraph(s) of the text from the key words in the questions.
Prompt 3: It would be provided if the third response was incorrect. This prompt would explain what the question meant and narrowed the search space down to one or several sentences.
Prompt 4: If the fourth try was not correct, the correct answer and the explanations would be offered.
Advantages of C-DA
To answer the second research question, the data generated by C-DA were analyzed. Table 1 is a general description of the actual, mediated, and gain scores of the test.
Table 1 A general description of actual, mediated, and gain scores
As Table 1 shows, the mean mediated score is higher than the mean actual score and the standard deviation decreased from the actual to the mediated score. Paired sample t test revealed significant difference between the two scores (t = 12.315, df = 45, p = .000, Cohen's d = 1.22), indicating that the students' performance improved considerably under the mediation. As noted by Poehner et al. (2014), the aim of C-DA is not to increase the students' scores but to capture the learner's ZPD, i.e., to attempt to diagnose the learner's actual and potential level of development. Since the actual score only tells about the learner independent performance, leaving his/her potentials for future instructions unknown. According to Vygotsky, the learner's responsiveness to mediation can reveal his/her ZPD which is more informative for subsequent instruction. In this way, the mediated scores generated by the C-DA can be used to signal the learners' potentials for future learning. This is one of the advantages of C-DA over the traditional static assessments.
Indeed, what is important in the C-DA is the interpretation of the scores gained from the program and its relevance to the concept of ZPD. In terms of the relationship between actual, mediated, and gain scores, correlational analyses revealed that the mediated score experienced a strongly positive correlation with the actual score (r = .849, p = .000), indicating that the learners generally benefited from the mediation, whereas the actual and the gain scores were negatively correlated (r = −.771, p = .000). As noted by Poehner et al. (2014), as the learners performed well in their independent problem solving, less room was left for improvement in completing the same task, i.e., the ceiling effect. That is why the higher the actual score, the lower the gain score is. The above findings are consistent with those found in the previous L2 C-DA studies (e.g., Poehner and Lantolf 2013; Poehner et al. 2014; Teo 2012).
Another advantage of C-DA is the information provided by the learner profile, i.e., a set of scores generated from the program for each learner. For illustration, some learners' scores were compared and analyzed (Table 2).
Table 2 Some learners' scores in the learner profile
As Table 2 illustrates, students who got identical actual scores did not necessarily map onto the same mediated scores. For example, Learners 1 and 2 did not get any answer correct in their initial responses, i.e., in their independent performance, for which the two learners would be identified as at the same level of development by traditional static assessment. However, through mediation, the two learners performed quite differently. Learner 1 got 6 points and the LPS is .50, falling into the low range of LPS according to Kozulin and Garb's (2002) category, whereas Learner 2 earned 10 points, raising his LPS to .83, towards the upper end of the mid range of LPS (.79 ≤ LPS ≤ .88). In other words, the two learners, who were grouped into the same group as indicated in the static assessment, were found considerably different according to their mediated performance. In that way, dynamic assessment is more revealing than the traditional static assessment.
Another point worth mentioning is the interpretation of LPS. Kozulin and Garb's (2002) intention in devising the formula was to use it to indicate how much support the learner requires to move his/her abilities forward. However, the stakeholders should not depend on one single score to interpret the outcome of C-DA but consider all the scores collectively (Poehner et al., 2014). Generally, the LPS increases with the gain score. However, it is not always the case. For example, Learners 1 and 7 both gained 7 points under mediation, but the LPS for the former is only .5 while the latter amounts to 1.0. The reason is that the actual score, the mediated score, and the maximum score collectively influence the LPS according to the formula by Kozulin and Garb. Similarly, Learners 4 and 9 gained 2 points in the C-DA procedure, respectively, but the latter's LPS is higher than the former's (1.0 > .67) because Learner 9 got a higher actual score than Learner 4. In terms of the predictive validity of LPS, further studies are needed. One way is to incorporate transfer items after the DA procedure, for which Poehner and Lantolf (2013) have attempted in their study, but the result is not very clear as discussed in the previous chapter. Another way is to conduct research investigating the teaching effect on the different groups of learners categorized by their LPS. If the learners of high LPS outperform those of lower LPS, LPS is valid in predicting learning potential; otherwise, its validity is questioned.
Participants' feedbacks
Participants are the test takers. To know about their reflections of the test is important in evaluating and improving the test, especially when the test format is new to the test takers such as C-DA. Table 3 is a general description of the students' choices in the first two questions.
Table 3 Crosstabs of students' choices in the questionnaire
The first question asks about the students' belief on the helpfulness of the C-DA in improving their reading abilities. Forty-two participants out of 46 (i.e., 91%) thought that the testing format was beneficial in improving their reading abilities, while 4 students held a negative view. The reason why the four students thought the procedure was not helpful is mainly because they could not read the questions first in the procedure, which they thought hindered their pace in completing the task. One student wrote that "To read more is the most important in improving reading abilities [regardless of what kind of format it is]."Footnote 4 For those who were positive towards the C-DA format, the reasons can be classified into five categories—increase of reading pace and better concentration, usefulness of mediations, vocabulary learning, convenience for reading, and others. The first two categories dominate students' reflections, accounting for 93% of all the reasons. Forty-eight percent (20/42) of the students reported that the C-DA format, especially the time reminder showing how much time left for each item, can help them better concentrate on the test and increase their reading pace. Forty-five percent (19/42) of the students thought that the mediations are useful facilitators, which, as they further explained, guided them to locate the key information in the original passage where the correct answer can be found, helped them find out the reasons why they made mistakes, motivated them to think actively during the process, and gave them chances to try again. One student wrote that "When I was prompted that I was wrong, I did it again and found some details I missed in the first try. I got it right then. This kind of experience gave me a happy feeling of gains." Another student explained that "The mediations and the explanations of the correct answer can assist me to clarify my misunderstandings of the text immediately and guide me to think on the right track, through which I think I won't make the same mistakes next time." For the other reasons, students indicated that this kind of format was interesting, convenient for reading, and useful for vocabulary learning.
The second question concerns about the students' preference of the test format. As Table 3 shows, a majority of the participants (35/46, 76%) favored the C-DA procedure. Similar to the results found in question 1, students liked the test format mainly because they could get immediate assistance from the prompts when mistakes were made and the reminder of how much time left helped them be more attentive in the test. One student shared that "The mediations arranged from implicit to explicit are helpful for those students of low English proficiency like me." Another student wrote that "It is encouraging because I can get points easily, not like the previous reading comprehension tests in which responses result in either full score or zero." From the students' reflections, it seems that the C-DA procedure is of great benefits to low achievers as categorized by their non-dynamic scores because it can help them establish confidence in learning. Some students viewed this format from another angle. They reported that the way of using computers to test reading comprehension instead of printed hardcopies was easy to operate and helped protect the environment. They thought this kind of format can trigger their interest in learning English and improve their reading abilities. Interestingly, two students who did not think the procedure was helpful in response to the first question showed their preference for the format because it was environment-friendly and interesting. However, eight students who held a positive attitude towards the first question did not like the procedure simply because they could not read the questions before the passage nor could they mark on the reading text. Two students indicated that they were not used to doing the test through computer.
The third question encourages the students to put forward their suggestions to improve the C-DA procedure. What the students were concerned about mainly fell into five categories: the outlook of the procedure, quantity and arrangement of the mediations, the number of passages, time limit, and the co-occurrence of the passage and the questions. Some students suggested making the window of the C-DA procedure more attractive and reader-friendly, for example, setting a background and augmenting the font of the words. Some advised that the choices for each item should be narrowed down to four instead of five and specific mediations should be provided other than ask the test taker to try again when the first response was not correct. In terms of the number of passages, a few students thought that more passages and other types of questions should be included. Several students suggested that the time limit should be adapted in accordance with the difficulty level of the reading texts. Corresponding to the reasons why some students did not like the format in question 2, they hoped that the procedure could provide a marker for them to underline the key information during reading.
To sum up, qualitative analysis of the questionnaire shows that a majority of the students favored the C-DA procedure and were positive towards its usefulness in improving their reading abilities. More importantly, the procedure promoted the students' learning interest, especially those low achievers who lack confidence. However, the program needs improvement by making the window more reader-friendly, adding the marking function, and presenting the passage and the questions concurrently.
The present study tried to apply C-DA into L2 English reading comprehension test by Chinese EFL learners. It was found that the learners mainly encountered three difficulties in their reading comprehension test: (1) new vocabularies were the biggest barrier, (2) learners felt it hard to locate the relevant sentences in the original passage from the information provided in the question, and (3) their inferential abilities were weak. The analysis of the data generated by the C-DA program indicated that C-DA far exceeded the traditional static assessment for its stronger diagnostic capacities and the deeper insights it provided for subsequent teaching. The results of the questionnaire showed that C-DA was welcomed by the students and believed to be particularly helpful in building up confidence for those low achievers as identified in traditional static assessment. A majority of the students believed that C-DA should be helpful in promoting their reading comprehension abilities.
The major contribution of the present study is to implement DA principles to a larger scale study. However, limitations remain and future studies should try to address the issues. Firstly, the reading passages and questions are relatively few. Future studies can incorporate more passages and questions in the study. Secondly, transfer items are not included in the present study. According to Vygotsky, transcendence or transfer is an important feature of DA, which unfolds whether or not learners can control a more complex and difficult task that builds upon the tasks in the original assessment (Poehner and Lantolf 2013). Future study should incorporate transfer items to reveal learners' abilities of transcendence in conducting the tasks. Thirdly, the questions in the present study are in multiple choice format. Future study should try to implement the C-DA procedure to the other formats such as open-ended questions. Fourthly, the C-DA procedure is only implemented in one single session in the present study. Future studies can expand the scope to a longer span of time in several sessions and test the effects of C-DA on promoting learner development, which may be of great significance to uncover the evidence of transfer since the learners need time to internalize what they have learned during the process. Finally, between-group design is also needed to test the effect of C-DA in promoting learner development compared with that of the traditional teaching/assessment.
Three students did not provide the information of how long they have learned English.
There are altogether eight semesters during students' 4 years' studies in the university.
The materials in Additional file 1: Appendix B are for demo, not for the real test.
All the quotations in this section were translated from Chinese to English by the first researcher.
Davin, K. J. (2013). Integration of dynamic assessment and instructional conversations to promote development and improve assessment in the language classroom. Language Teaching Research, 17, 303–322.
Kozulin, A., & Garb, E. (2002). Dynamic assessment of EFL text comprehension of at-risk students. School Psychology International, 23, 112–127.
Lantolf, J. P., & Poehner, M. E. (2004). Dynamic assessment: bringing the past into the future. Journal of Applied Linguistics, 1, 49–74.
Leont'ev, A. N. (1981). Problems of the development of the mind. Moscow: Progress.
Pishghadam, R., Barabadi, E., & Kamrood, A. M. (2011). The differing effect of computerized dynamic assessment of L2 reading comprehension on high and low achievers. Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 2(6), 1353–1358.
Poehner, M. E. (2005). Dynamic assessment among advanced L2 learners of French. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA.
Poehner, M. E. (2007). Beyond the test: L2 dynamic assessment and the transcendence of mediated learning. The Modern Language Journal, 91, 323–340.
Poehner, M. E. (2008). Dynamic assessment: a Vygotskian approach to understanding and promoting second language development. Berlin: Springer Publishing.
Poehner, M. E., & Lantolf, J. P. (2013). Bringing the ZPD into the equation: capturing L2 development during computerized dynamic assessment (C-DA). Language Teaching Research, 17, 323–342.
Poehner, M. E., Zhang, J., & Lu, X. (2014). Computerized dynamic assessment (C-DA): diagnosing L2 development according to learner responsiveness to mediation. Language Testing, Special Issue, 1-21. doi:10.1177/0265532214560390.
Teo, A. (2012). Promoting EFL students' inferential reading skills through computerized dynamic assessment. Language Learning & Technology, 16(3), 10–20.
Tzuriel, D., & Shamir, A. (2002). The effects of mediation in computer assisted dynamic assessment. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 18, 21–32.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: the development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1998). The problem of age. In R. W. Rieber (Ed.), The collected works of L. S. Vygotsky: child psychology (pp. 187–206). New York: Plenum.
The article was supported by the Youth Research Project of Humanities and Social Sciences Sponsored by the Ministry of Education in China (Project No.: 15YJC740118) and the research project sponsored by Lingnan Normal University (Project No.: YW1503).
YY (first author) made substantial contribution to the study and the writing. DDQ (second author) reviewed the manuscript, revised, and made adjustments if necessary. Both authors read and approved the final manuscript.
School of Foreign Studies, Lingnan Normal University, No. 29 Cunjin Road, Chikan District, Zhanjiang City, 524048, Gudangdong Province, China
Yanfeng Yang
English Department, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong
David D. Qian
Search for Yanfeng Yang in:
Search for David D. Qian in:
Correspondence to Yanfeng Yang.
Appendix A: Pilot study. Appendix B: Demo of the C-DA procedure. Appendix C: Questionnaire. (DOCX 17 kb)
Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
Yang, Y., Qian, D.D. Assessing English reading comprehension by Chinese EFL learners in computerized dynamic assessment. Lang Test Asia 7, 11 (2017) doi:10.1186/s40468-017-0042-3
Socio-cultural theory
Zone of proximal development
Dynamic assessment
Computerized dynamic assessment


The East Africa Character Development Trust welcomes offers of support, or requests for information.
Please email or use the form opposite to contact us. We will be delighted to hear from you and we will personally respond to you as soon as we can.


PGA Golf Professional Brian Steinke is 1 of 60 Medicus Director's of Instruction for Purestrike 5 Simple Keys in the country and the only Director in MN. Brian has been teaching men and women beginners to amateurs to college level and professional golfers in MN, WI, and IL for over 25 years.
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Juniors will be paired in groups and play a 4 hole scramble format (everyone plays from the best shot). There will be Junior Tee Boxes and an instructor/volunteer will accompany each group to keep score and keep play moving. We will focus on having fun, playing order, keeping a good pace, comradery and sportsmanship. Golf should last 1 hour. Rainouts are not made up.


Getting wifi in Japan and legal marijuana in Jamaica: most would assume these would be slam dunks for tourists.
But despite reputations to the contrary, it's near impossible for tourists to get online in the "Land of the Rising Sun" (mostly because most locals use broadband). And ganja? That's illegal mon, no matter that everyone's smoking it.
But both situations seem poised to change. The Japanese government has announced that, in an effort to lure more wired visitors, it would be offering free Wi-Fi to all foreigners entering the country. All they have to do is show their passport at a special airport kiosk. Here's complete info on that.
And USA Today reported that Jamaican farmers and politicians are forming a coalition to push through the legalization of marijuana. Phillip Paulwell, a leading member of the Jamaican House of Representatives, declared "that ganja will be decriminalized this year for possession of small amounts of the drug." According to recent polls, 85% of Jamaicans are in favor of decriminilization for medical uses, and 65% admit to have smoked weed.
Good developments or bad? I'd love to hear your comments.


"Financial Insurance Services Company" (FISC) (a pseudonym) is a major U.S. financial services company with thousands of representatives across the country. "Offsource" (a pseudonym) is a leading India-based company providing consulting and IT services to clients globally. This paper tells how their eight-year alliance has evolved. The relationship began as a simple pilot of offshore application development outsourcing, aimed at reducing development costs and supplementing in-house IT staff knowledge. It has evolved into a vastly more complex "cosourcing" model, where work is shared. To achieve cosourcing, the two firms had to resolve two major issues. The first was how to keep IT skills and knowledge from draining from FISC. This issue has been resolved by formally linking career development to project assignments and to outsourcer-to-client mentoring. The second issue is how to share work. It has been resolved by creating a dual project management hierarchy, where leadership at each level of a project can be either by FISC or Offsource, depending on the need. Their experiences provide five recommendations for others on structuring offshore outsourcing relationships: (1) understand where cosourcing is applicable, (2) define and develop the appropriate in-house IT competencies, (3) build trust but avoid building a binding relationship, (4) foster mutual understanding of ethnic and corporate cultures, and (5) map out a progression to cosourcing.
Kaiser, Kate M. and Hawk, Stephen (2008) "Evolution of Offshore Software Development: From Outsourcing to Cosourcing," MIS Quarterly Executive: Vol. 3 : Iss. 2 , Article 3.


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text:
Tata Motors Limited appoints CEO and Managing Director
Staff Writer February 19, 2021
Tata Motors Limited announced the appointment of Marc Llistosella to the role of Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of the company, effective 1st July 2021.
SEE ALSO : Alaïa appoints new Creative Director
Mr N Chandrasekaran, Chairman, Tata Motors Limited said: "I am delighted to welcome Marc to Tata Motors. Marc is an experienced automotive business leader with deep knowledge and expertise in Commercial Vehicles over his illustrious career and has extensive operational experience in India. Marc will bring this experience to take the Tata Motors Indian business to even greater heights."
Mr Llistosella was most recently the President and CEO of Fuso Truck and Bus Corporation and Head of Daimler Trucks in Asia. He was earlier the MD and CEO of Daimler India Commercial Vehicles Pvt Ltd.
Commenting on his appointment Mr Llistosella said, "I am delighted to become a part of the unique Tata family. Having been bonded to India for so many years, a new exciting chapter is now opened. We would jointly awaken the potential of Tata Motors."
Mr Guenter Butschek has informed his desire to relocate to Germany at the end of the contract for personal reasons. He has kindly accepted the request of the Board of Tata Motors to continue as the MD & CEO till 30th June 2021.
Mr Chandrasekaran added: "I would like to thank Guenter for leading Tata Motors successfully over the last 5 years."
Mr Marc Llisotsella is an experienced automotive executive with a long track record in greenfield projects, turnaround management and leading organizations as CEO and managing director. Marc passionately believes in mobility by data analytics, the importance of electrification and renewable energies.
He is currently the Board Member of Einride and prior to that he was associated for a long time with Daimler Trucks. Most recently he was the President and CEO of Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corporation between 2015-2018 where he worked on improving the profitability and sales potential of the business.
Prior to that, between 2008-2014 for an extended period he was based out of India as the Managing Director and CEO of Daimler Commercial Vehicles India where he built a greenfield organization and business unit to develop, produce and sell trucks and launched BharatBenz in 2012 and made it a successful brand in a short period of time.
SEE ALSO : Amer Sports appoints new CEO of Arc'teryx
Mr Llisotsella has extensive experience in leading business and running sales, marketing and network management as well as strategic planning. He finished his university education from the University of Cologne and is an accomplished automotive executive.
Tags appointment leadership mobile Tata Group
Fashion brand Esprit appoints new Chief Product Officer
Alibaba Group reorganises its e-commerce businesses
Key takeaways from Elevate 2021: How Asia brands are driving mobile success into 2022

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: verifying my understanding about pointers I just want to make sure if I understand the properties of pointers. So if I have something like this:
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

class Person
{
public:
  Person(){myBook = new Book(4);}
  void printPerson()
  {
    int i =0;
    while(i<n)
    {
        cout<<myBook[i].n<<endl;
        i++;
    }
  }

private:
   Book *myBook;
   int n;
};

class Book
{
public:
  Book(int num)
  {
      int n =0;
  }
  int n;
  };

Since the instance of Person class is a pointer, when I try to make a copy constructor and assignment operator=, I have to allocate a new Book for the new Person object. am I right? thx

A: There is a bug here:
Person(){myBook = new Book(4);}

allocates one Book object with num=4, if you mean to allocate 4 Book elements, do:
Person(){myBook = new Book[4];}

Otherwise when you access myBook[i] in while loop is undefined behavior:
while(i<n)
{
   cout<<myBook[i].n<<endl;
               ^^^ ouch
   i++;
}

Since the instance of Person class is a pointer, when I try to make a copy constructor and assignment operator=, I have to allocate a new Book for the new Person object. am I right?

Yes, make sure you follow rule of three
Other suggestions are, use std::vector instead of dynamic array, use smart pointers instead of raw pointers if you could.

A: (under the assumption, you meant instance of book, not of person)
In order to make a deep copy of a person, you need to create a new book instance as well.
Using a deep copy allows you to destroy the original person and its book while preserving the copy and the copied book.
There some use cases, where you actually want both persons to point to the same book object.
In such cases you need to keep track how many pointers are pointing at the book using somthing like a shared pointer.
Edit to clear it up:
If you have more than one Person with the same Book, and you have a valid destructor on the person:
class Person {
public:
  ~Person() {
    delete m_pbook;
  }
protected:
  Book *m_pbook;
}

class Book {
  int foo;
}

Person a = new Person();  // book pointer is something like 0x12345678
Person b = new Person(a); // book pointer is identical 0x12345678

// delete a yields
delete a; // memory in 0x12345678 is freed up
b->book;  // AccessViolation / Segmentation Fault, the memory in 0x12345678 does not belong to your program any more.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


These fried shrimp are as good and tasty as you'd get in any restaurant.
In a bowl, sprinkle peeled shrimp with red pepper and salt. Shrimp lends itself well to the taste of red pepper. Pour enough beer just to cover the shrimp.
Break an egg into the mixture and add enough flour to the mixture to make a batter.
For best results soak overnight in the refrigerator, although shrimp can be fried after an hour or two of soaking.
When ready to fry, add flour in a Ziploc bag and shrimp (without crowding) and shake to coat the shrimp with the flour.
Place shrimp in heated oil and cook just until they are a light golden brown and shrimp start to float in the oil.


The Grace of Cleopatra slot is made by the software company named EuroGames Technology. The game is a video slot game. The game has a total of 5 reels and with that it has not 5 but 10 pay lines to offer from.
A player gets the opportunity of winning free spins and a jackpot of 5000 and the multiplier is also involved as well. A player could put a maximum of 20 coins on each pay line on stake.
On the pay lines the player has to make high combinations of symbols that come in one row to win money. Moreover the combinations have to begin at the very first reel starting from the left side.
The game welcomes you with the animations of a gold statue of a cat, the famous scarab and commanders that are roman. There are the symbols of the cards in the game as well like the spade and hearts.
There is a special symbol in the slot game and that is the joker symbol. The joker acts as a substitute for any other symbol in the game except Scatter symbol and the Wild Symbol.
If a player gets to have three and more than three scatter symbols in a row then the player gets free spins as an award. To make things better during this combination the casino takes the bet from the player so that if the player loses he doesn't lose any money.
When a player gets free spins than the ordinary symbols have the power of increasing the wild. When the wild increases it acts like a substitute for all the other symbols.
In the Grace of Cleopatra slot machine game there are four jackpots.
There is a special round in the game which can be activated at any time when spinning so a gamer really does not have to do anything. In this round twelve cards can be seen which are faced upside down.
The player only has to pick the same card which has the same symbol to win.


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text:
Hallelujah - 30_hugs prompt
Jul. 1st, 2010 at 7:15 PM
Title: Hallelujah
Fandom: Dragon Age Origins: Awakening
Theme: #23; candlelight
Characters and Relationship: Nathaniel Howe/Moira Cousland, romantic
Rating: R, or M, whichever you prefer. Here there be sex.
Summary: Nathaniel and Moira play a game of "If you show me yours, I'll show you mine" with their scars.
Note: This chapter is probably the only one that would have pushed the story to an M rating over on ff.net, so instead of completely changing the rating there, I did a little bit of editing. This is the full version, in all its smutty glory.
"Blasted scavengers," Moira hissed under her breath, searching the contents of said scavenger's clothing. He didn't protest, mostly because he was dead. "Sodding rain."
"If I didn't know any better," Nathaniel said dryly, tossing his head to the side to get his hair out of his eyes, "I'd say I was traveling with the dwarf."
Moira snorted and jammed some more of the goods they had managed to salvage into her pack. "That can be remedied," she told him archly, shivering in her armor as rain pelted the two of them. "I'll just run back to the Keep while you keep watch here and tell him that we're going to need an extra hand carting all this back."
Nathaniel shouldered two satchels and shook his head. "That won't be necessary. Come on, we've saved everything that hasn't been ruined."
Moira's boots squelched in the mud and she had to brace her legs to regain her footing. "Somehow, I don't think we're going to make it back in this weather."
He reached out and held onto her elbow. "I think you're right. Luckily, we're close to town. A night at the inn sounds much more agreeable than trying to set up camp out here." He would have suggested his sister's home for shelter from the storm, but he didn't want to impose.
The summer thunderstorm had caught them both by surprise. The day had begun warmer than usual and hadn't held any promise of rain. Mistress Woolsey had requested that some merchant goods be retrieved before scavengers could claim them, and Moira had felt that it was a simple job for only two people. Nathaniel had volunteered to go with her, ignoring Oghren and Anders' snickers behind his back and muttered comments about wanting 'private time' with the Commander. While he and Moira had been discreet over the past fortnight about the change in their relationship, it seemed as if everyone in their group had caught on. While sneaking around and stealing covert kisses in darkened hallways had its appeal, it was also was a relief to know that should he want to, he could stride up to the throne room dais and kiss Moira senseless. Not that he ever would; he was far too private of a person to display that much affection in front of others, but he could.
As luck would have it, Amaranthine was only roughly twenty minutes of walking from the salvage site. By the time that they reached the front gates, the sun had gone down over the horizon. Both of them were soaked through to the bone and completely chilled, their clothes sticking to their bodies uncomfortably. Moira's hair was plastered to her scalp and her teeth were chattering together.
"Awful weather out tonight?" The innkeeper at the Crown and Lion commented, looking up at them from his spot behind the bar.
"Absolutely horrible," Moira agreed, warming her hands in front of the fire, a puddle of rainwater already starting to form under her boots.
"We're looking for rooms," Nathaniel said, going over to the bar. He pulled out his money pouch and fished out five sovereigns. "Anything private with a fireplace."
The innkeeper pocketed the money and slid a room key. "Last room on the right. I can have a spot of dinner brought up, if you'd like."
"It would be appreciated."
Moira arched her eyebrow at Nathaniel once they were alone in their rented room. "How much money did you bribe him with to get this one?" she asked, huddling in front of the fireplace once she managed to get a fire going. She shivered again and sneezed.
"Enough that we're not going to be bothered for the rest of the evening," he replied, thanking the maid who came in with a platter of roast beef and potatoes. She'd also included a kettle of tea and two mugs. "You're going to have to get out of those clothes if you don't want to catch cold."
"I would, but there's nothing to wear while they dry." She rolled her eyes when Nathaniel held up one of the blankets from the bed. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were using this as a chance to see me half naked." The past few weeks had been full of kisses and embraces that reminded her of eight years ago, and while she wasn't against the idea of throwing off all her clothes and tackling Nathaniel, it seemed as if he wanted to take things at a slower pace.
It was driving her practically insane, which was probably what he intended in the first place.
"I'll turn my back," he said, his tone teasing. "I promise I won't catch a glimpse of your frilly pink smallclothes."
Moira laughed, unbuckling the straps to her armor. "And what makes you think that they're pink?" she quipped back, setting the leather near the hearth. Hopefully the rain hadn't ruined the set – it was one of her favorites so far that she'd commissioned Wade to make for her. She'd found out that if the metalsmith wasn't given a regular challenge every once and a while, he grew bored, which made production of the armor he'd promised her troops slower than usual. A change of pace did him good and his productivity went up, much to her and Herrin's delight.
She took a breath before peeling the thin undershirt over her head. The white material had already been rendered transparent, which didn't leave anything to the imagination, but it was still an article of clothing to take off. She could practically feel Nathaniel's eyes on her back as she wrapped herself up in one of the blankets.
"Black," he murmured in approval, handing her a mug of steaming tea. "I wouldn't have guessed." He brushed past her and went about undoing the buckles to his own armor. He stretched his shirt and trousers on the hearth next to her clothing, his boots joining hers as well. He slung another blanket around his hips, grinning at the way Moira's eyes quickly darted away when she saw that he was aware of her watching him. "It suits you."
Brushing her still wet hair out of her eyes, Moira got up and lit the candles sitting on the bedside table. Her eyes went around the room and she couldn't help but notice that the bed was the only option they had for sleeping arrangements. She didn't have a problem with it, but she wondered what Nathaniel would think. "It seems as if I'm going to be taking you up on your offer," she said, pulling her blanket higher on her shoulders.
"You offered to show me the scars you had. I do believe you said they were in interesting places."
He shrugged. "Ah, yes. Those. I'm afraid to say that I probably exaggerated a bit when I said they were interesting." He turned and raised his arm, showing a thin white line that went from his left shoulder blade and curved down to his rib.
"Where did you get that one?" she asked, moving closer to him, her fingers tracing the mark.
"Sparing match. I was too slow." It had also been one of the first times he'd attempted to fight with two blades instead of one. He'd been uncoordinated and his opponent had easily bested him. They sat down next to the hearth. "Where did this one come from?" he inquired, his index finger brushing underneath her right collarbone. A small puckered scar peeked out from under her blanket, looking all the world like an arrow wound.
"In Ostagar. Alistair and I were sent to light the beacon to signal the cavalry to arrive, but the tower was overrun by darkspawn. The two of us would have died there if it hadn't been for Flemeth's rescue." She didn't remember much about the events that followed, mainly because she had cracked her head when she had fallen. "And this?"
Nathaniel smiled, looking down at his knee. It was old and hardly visible, but he felt the raised bit of skin with his fingers. "I'm surprised you don't remember. I believe that you caused that one, dear lady."
She gaped at him. "When did I…" she took a breath. "In the woods, when we were children."
"I seem to recall that we had been playing a rather frenzied version of 'Dragons and Knights' that day. I had the misfortune of being the dragon that turn."
Moira shook her head, remembering how she had swung at him with her sword, which in reality had been a tree branch. "We ran back to the castle as fast as we could. I remember crying the entire time, I felt so horrible." She reached out and gently stroked the mark. "You told Nan that you had fallen instead of telling her what had really happened. It seems that even then, you were looking out for me."
Nathaniel shivered. "Your fingers are freezing," he said as a way to disguise the fact that a mere brush of skin on skin contact had affected him so. He held her hand in both of his hand rubbed their fingers together.
Moira swallowed hard, staring at their joined hands. Both of them had little nicks and old cuts on their knuckles. She should have been embarrassed by the calluses caused by fighting with swords that made her palm and fingers rough, but she wasn't. She was more interested in the same calluses that littered Nathaniel's hands. They were in different places than hers, especially around his right index and middle fingers from years of archery.
Nathaniel glanced up from her hands, noting that her blanket had slid off her shoulders to puddle at her waist. The firelight illuminated her skin, showing him various old injuries from battling darkspawn. "What is this one from?" he asked, letting go of her hand to trace a scar on her side. It was larger than the rest and went in a neat line across her ribs. The center mass of it was thicker than the edges, as if whatever weapon had caused it had nearly struck something vital.
She drew in a sharp breath. "It's nothing," she said, standing up and moving away from him. "Just something that I should have avoided." She pulled the edges of the blanket together and bit her lip.
"It's not 'nothing'," Nathaniel argued, standing up behind her. Gently, he turned her towards him and tilted her head up so that she was staring at him. "Where did you get it?"
She looked away from him for a brief moment before looking him in the eye again. "Denerim."
He let out a breath. "My father did this to you." It wasn't a question.
"Yes." Rendon had baited her by describing just how he had stabbed her father and how cowardly Bryce had run away. It was stupid; she shouldn't have let her emotions control her, but it had been enough of a distraction for him to swing the hatchet he wielded, the blade piercing her armor. Wynne's magic had stopped the bleeding and knitted the majority of the skin back together, but Moira had been thrown into Fort Drakon before it could be completely healed, hence the scar.
"Moira…" She jumped when she felt Nathaniel's hands against bare skin, and she let out a strangled moan when he knelt, his lips tracing the worst of the scar, the silent apology making her knees buckle. She tangled her hands into his hair, hardly daring to breathe when his arms went around her hips and pulled her into his embrace. Stepping away from him, she cupped his face in her palms. Before he could question what she was doing, she bent at the waist and kissed him.
He rose from his knees, his mouth still against hers. Their blankets fell away and Nathaniel clutched her to him, closing his eyes tightly at the feel of her body against his. "Are you certain?" he asked, trailing his lips down to her throat.
Moira nodded, not trusting her voice. Reaching behind her, she found the fastening to the binding covering her breasts and began to unwind the fabric.
"Wait," he told her, his hands covering hers. "Let me." His mouth was hot on the curve of her shoulder, his tongue tracing the raised edges of yet another scar. Moira shivered, never thinking that the marks left over from a wolf bite would have made her feel as if she were burning from the inside out. The last of the binding slackened and Nathaniel tugged it aside, letting the fabric fall to the floor. "Beautiful," he murmured, his hands cupping her bared breasts, his thumbs brushing the stiffened peaks.
Moira cried out, her fingers tightening on his shoulders as she arched her back, silently begging him to continue. She all but sobbed out his name when she felt the faint rasp of his tongue against a nipple, his groan vibrating across her ribs. She threaded her fingers in his hair again, tugging his mouth up for a searing kiss, her tongue dancing with his as she slowly walked backwards toward the bed. Almost as one, they fell across the mattress, the bulk of his body covering hers. Moira twined one of her legs over his waist, moaning when he shifted his hips at the same time. "Do that again," she gasped, running her hands down his back.
"What?" he asked playfully, bracing his weight on his left forearm. "This?" He slowly thrust against her and stars danced behind her closed eyelids at the feel of him against her even through the thin barrier of their undergarments.
"Oh, yes, just like that." Her hands roved his waist, her fingers plucking at his smallclothes. "We're both wearing far too many clothes."
He laughed against her mouth. "Any time other than this and I would have to disagree, but I believe in this instance that you're right." He slid down her body, his lips trailing past her ribs and tracing the muscles at her abdomen. Moira sucked in a breath when he nipped at her hipbone, his teeth dragging the waistband of her undergarments down. She arched her hips off the bed to help him out, and soon she was naked.
"What are you doing?" she asked, breathless.
"Just admiring the view." She was beautiful. His mind flashed back to eight years ago. His bedchamber had been too dark then to take in the sight of Moira, flushed and nude underneath him, and he was determined to commit this moment to memory.
"Well, do less looking and more…" she gasped. "Oh!"
He grinned, his lips brushing against the back of her knee. "Interesting," he mused, pressing a kiss to the skin there and getting the same reaction a second time. "I never would have guessed you were sensitive there. I wonder where else…"
She clutched at the pillows behind her head as Nathaniel proceeded to drive her completely out of her mind. The back of her other knee yielded the same results, and she had to bite her hand to keep from shouting out his name when she felt his breath against the apex of her thighs. She couldn't keep quiet when he placed her legs over his shoulders, his mouth wringing out whimpers from her, his name spilling from her lips like a chanted litany. His hands held her hips in place, and she looked down the line of her body to see him settled between her thighs. He looked up at that same moment, and the intense stare he gave her coupled with a slow, deliberate lick was enough to send her over the edge, her back bowing off the bed and her hands clutching madly at the sheets.
He stayed there through the aftershocks, his mouth pressing little kisses over the skin of her inner thighs the entire time. "Hmmm," she hummed, weakly tugging at his shoulders to drag him up to eye level.
"I've thought of doing that for years," he confessed, his mouth brushing against hers. His hands stroked down her sides before impatiently pulling his smallclothes down until he could kick them off. His breath hissed out between clenched teeth at the feel of finally, finally being with Moira without anything between them.
"Is there anything that I can do?" she asked, her legs tangling with his. "Perhaps return the favor?"
He let his head drop to her shoulder and he groaned at the thought of her lips wrapped around his length. "Not this time," he said, his voice husky as he shifted against her, the move making both of them cry out at the sensation. His hands gripped the pillows at the feel of himself moving slickly against her entrance, almost, but not quite where they both wanted him to be. Nathaniel rested his weight on both his elbows and stared down at her. "Look at me, Moira," he rasped. Staring in each other's eyes, he moved down just as she tilted her hips up, and with the ease of an indrawn breath, he slid home. He looked away first, his eyes closing at the feel of her surrounding him, not only with her arms and legs, but with her inner muscles as well. Moira tilted her head back, panting as she felt herself stretch to accommodate his girth. This was better than the last time, when they had fumbled about in the dark, both of them unsure as to how to move. Sure, both of them had been aware of the mechanics necessary, but they had gone about the act as only those unfamiliar with anything could. Now, it was vastly different. Months of fighting together side by side had the other knowing just how and when the other would move, and Moira was thrilled to discover that the habit translated well to the act of lovemaking. They rolled across the sheets, clutching at the other until she wasn't sure where she ended and he began. She hitched her legs higher against his sides, crying out in pleasure when the angle let him drive that much deeper into her.
Somehow they had ended with Nathaniel on his back. His fingers dug into her thighs, his eyes transfixed at the sight of her above him, her breasts softly swaying with each movement of their hips. She had found a rhythm that pleased her, and he groaned aloud as she rotated her hips in a tight circle. He moved in the opposite direction, which caused her to pant out his name. She braced her hands on his biceps, but lost their pace unexpectedly. Falling across his chest, she cried out in frustration.
"Look at me," he whispered against her ear, rolling them over until she was underneath him again. He threaded their hands together, stretching their arms up past her head. Without looking away, he slowly withdrew and thrust forward. This couldn't have been what the men in the Free Marches had vulgarly talked of. The act was far too personal, too intimate to be so coarsely mentioned. He dragged his tongue against the line of her jaw, catching beads of perspiration that dewed up from her skin.
Moira cried out, her legs tightening over his ribs as her fingers clenched almost painfully tight against his. Pleasure radiated from her in waves and she felt Nathaniel quickly follow her, his mouth descending over hers in a messy approximation of a kiss. There was no finesse now; the carefully controlled movements turned into short, sharp thrusts of his hips, which felt so good that Moira thought she had reached yet another climax in such a small amount of time. With a final grunt, Nathaniel sprawled over her, his hands letting go of hers in favor of gathering her in his arms.
"Too heavy?" he asked, his voice slurring as he moved down her body, his head resting against her chest, listening as the frantic beat of her heart underneath his ear slowed down to a normal rhythm.
"Never," she replied, her fingers lazily sifting through his hair.
He let out a contented sounding noise and nuzzled the side of her breast, his lips pressing over her heart. "You're thinking," he mumbled, looking up. "You aren't regretting this, are you?" He rolled to his side, bringing her with him. The wax from the candle at the bedside table had lowered considerably, but there was still enough light to see her expression.
"Of course not," she told him, propping herself up on an elbow. She shivered when his hand moved over her side before curling around her bottom, tugging her closer to him than she already was. She leaned against his chest, her nose brushing his. "I was just thinking that despite how I originally felt about it, I'm so glad that we got caught in the rain."
Current Music:Meat Loaf - For Crying Out Loud
community: 30_hugs,
fandom: dragon age,
pairing: nathaniel/moira,
reconnoiterer
Jul. 2nd, 2010 01:06 am (UTC)
I'm glad I went for the full version!
I don't know what it is, but I never get tired of reading different people's interpretations of the 'show me yours, I'll show you mine' scar-touching scenes. But this is the first Nathaniel/Cousland one I've read - I love the little addition of the hatchet scar and the kissed apology. I also really enjoyed the little references to their previous time together.
iceprincessd
Thank you! The full version is about 1500 or so words shorter than the ff.net-friendly version. The hatchet scar idea started when I was doing that music meme earlier. My plot bunnies like to see my characters beaten up, it seems. :)
All the references I've been putting in have made me want to to a prequel to this story, especially now that I'm getting close to the end of my thirty themes. I'm still kicking ideas around, but I don't know.
I would be totally into a prequel story if you could ever be convinced to write it!
Actually, I was thinking the other day (and this is 3 AM "what in the world are you getting yourself into?" type thinking) about doing a prequel-to-a-prequel for this story. The first one is starting to sound like a childhood all the way to the in-game Cousland origin (this one probably won't be very long) and then the second one that follows picks up in Ostagar and ends right as Moira is about to enter the dungeons for the first time so that it ties in with the beginning of this story.
It's weird, but I think my plot bunnies like to work backwards.
A childhood-Cousland prequel could be so bittersweet! Which I love (obviously?) haha. So many youthful misadventures to be had! The second one sounds like it could be quite the epic, depending on how in-depth you follow through the game. But I like the idea of going into the dungeons as a finale that ties into this story.
nithu
Phew! I've come over all unnecessary ;)
Glad you liked it. :)
ssrobajo
Jul. 2nd, 2010 02:01 pm (UTC)
FINALLY! Totally worth the wait, says I :D
annikainen
Dammit woman, what is it with your writing that always makes me cry? Or then I'm just being over-emotional for some reason. I actually had to stop for a moment before I was able to continue. All I can say -
And it was so beautiful too. <3
Thanks! Hopefully the next few chapters won't be tear-inducing. I have 25 partially written and 26 all the way done, and after that, I'm going to have to fire up the game for a little so I can play through where I need chapters 27-30 to go.
And I think I broke my giggle habit! It wasn't until after I posted that I did the "Gawd, I just wrote what?!" moment. :D
auds1978
Jul. 3rd, 2010 02:01 am (UTC)
Very well done, love them together.
phoenixblaze
Aug. 1st, 2010 04:53 am (UTC)
Man, I can't believe I'm powering through all of these tonight.
Sexy time is sexy. ;-)
Wow, you're really doing a marathon reading, aren't you? This makes me incredibly happy. :)
reconnoiterer : (no subject) [+4]
nithu : (no subject) [+1]
ssrobajo : (no subject) [+1]
annikainen : (no subject) [+1]
auds1978 : (no subject) [+1]
phoenixblaze : (no subject) [+1]


The process of painting inner parts of the house is called interior painting. It is important to make certain that your household has good painting. This is because choosing the right color often offers good vibes in the house. In some cases one may prefer painting the house by yourself whereas some prefer using a contractor. It is recommendable to use an interior painting contractor as they know what they are doing. Although before picking the interior painting contractor it is best that you check on some factors.
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Instead of giant teeth and a menacing frame, the fishes that roam in the deepest parts of the ocean are small, translucent, bereft of scales — and highly adept at living where few other organisms can. The snailfish will be featured as part of the Challenger Conference 2018 which kicks off at Newcastle University from today and runs until Friday.
These crustaceans have small bodies, extraordinarily long legs and swim backwards and upsides down, propelling themselves with paddles on their ventral side – their 'tummies' – before righting themselves on the seafloor and spreading their long walking legs out like a spider.
"We don't know what species of munnopsid these are but it's incredible to have caught them in action in their natural habitat – especially the flip they do as they switch from swimming to walking mode," says Dr Linley.
The expedition to the Atacama Trench was funded by BMBF (for ship time) and the ERC project HADES (European Research Council Advanced Investigator Grant-Nr. 669947; "Benthic diagenesis and microbiology of hadal trenches"), the University of Southern Denmark and Max Planck Society and will be featured as part of the 2018 Challenger Conference being held at Newcastle University September 10-14.


Exploring Singapore is great and when you strike gold with a deliciously random and unlikely find, it makes it all the more fun…$5 manicures at Far East Plaza are top of the list for being my latest stumbled-upon-addiction.
There are a few things in life I love, but could do without: weird-sounding but quite wonderful eyelash perms (wear mascara instead), highlighting my hair (just tie it back and somehow it doesn't look too bad), even a pedicure (wear shoes) but ultra short manicured nails, slicked with ONE coat (one coat is key, not the usual two…two is too 'done' and too pink) of OPI's 'Passion' are my new beauty passion.
Oh and did I mention…nails must be very, very short. And round (death to the squared-off chav look with too much white showing…uuurgh). I feel a smile every time I type: there is no annoying naily clatter on my keyboard; just short, neat nails that no one notices except me.
Beauty to breed efficiency. It should be mandatory in most offices. And at $5 a go, I suppose it could be.


Gardai are investigating the death of a man on a Wexford farm that happened on Friday night.
The Health and Safety Authority is also investigating the incident, which is believed to have involved a 42-year old father of two.
The farmer has been named as Jack Pollard and it is believed he man drowned when be became trapped in a water tank.
The Wexford farm death is the second farm death in the Republic this year.
Earlier this year, well known Kilkenny man Johnny Ryan, father of the All-Ireland winning captain Lester Ryan, was the most recent farm death in Ireland this year.
Last year, 30 people were killed in farm accidents, including one on New Year's Eve night.
This was the first farm death of 2015 in the Republic of Ireland. Recently, a man in Co. Armagh died when a roof that he was working on collapsed.


text:
set -xe

# Start Apache with the right permissions
/app/docker/apache/start_safe_perms -DFOREGROUND

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


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Next week I will be attending, for the first time, Storage Field Day in San Jose! I've been a fan of all the previous SFD events hosted by Stephen and his team at Tech Field Day, so I'm very excited to be a delegate. It's a chance to connect with some familiar faces and meet a few new friends while discussing the latest in storage technology. I have met several delegates and engaged with many of the other delegates on social media, and can't wait to sit down with them and talk in more than 140 characters. Arjan Timmerman has written up a very nice round up of the entire delegate crew.
I've had a chance to meet Christopher Kusek at VMworld last year, and it turns out we may have met at a small conference in the 90s as well! He has given me some excellent advice in dealing with vendors during deal negotiations. He's seriously one of the funniest guys in the community, and I can't wait to connect in person again.
I first met Dave Henry at EMC World a few years ago. He was, of course, drawing on a whiteboard. Dave gave me advice early on in my blogging journey which has proven to be extremely helpful. Hanging out with Dave is always a fun and dangerous experience, as he tends to throw things at my head.
Last on list of delegates I've met face to face is Howard Marks. I've met Howard at EMC World, but more recently I had some questions about where my career was headed. Some of my questions seemed to parallel part of Howard's journey, and after a quick chat on twitter it was easier to just pick up the phone. We ended up talking for nearly an hour about his path, where I was in my career, and where I wanted to go.
One of the most amazing things about this community is how willing everyone is to take the time out of their lives to help each other. Having people who have helped pave the path you're currently walking take time to share insight and thoughts is what makes this community, our community, a strong one. The ability to collaborate, pitch in, learn, and support one another is the most valuable resources. A resource I am grateful to have and lucky to be able to give back to.
For more information on Storage Field Day you out the official event page, which will include live streaming video of the event as well as a list of presenters. Enrico Signoretti has done an excellent overview of each of the presenting companies. If you are looking for a larger preview, check out the detailed reviews being done by Keith Townsend.