1. Introduction

This chapter discusses the rise of dynamic assessment (DA) as an alternative to static assessment and its potential to diagnose learners' difficulties and promote development. It emphasizes the need for expert mediation for secondary school students in economically disadvantaged rural areas in northwest China and the importance of English reading skills. The chapter also highlights the significance of the China's Standards of English (CSE) in providing a unified measure for foreign language teaching, learning, and assessment, particularly focusing on CSE3 for secondary school level learners.

2. Literature Review

This chapter discusses the concept of EFL reading and China’s Standards of English (CSE3), emphasizing the reading constructs and cognitive process levels. It also introduces dynamic assessment (DA) and its two approaches, as well as mediation typology and learner reciprocity typology. Additionally, it examines past DA reading studies and rural secondary students’ EFL reading challenges, setting the stage for the current study's aim to investigate how DA can improve the reading performance of northwest rural EFL learners. Specifically, the study will address the impact of CSE3-based mediation on students' reading performance and development, as well as the learners' perceptions of their mediation experience. The study seeks to fill the gap in researching disadvantaged rural secondary school learners' reading performance with and without exterior mediation.

3. Methods

In this chapter, the methods used in the study are described. Three stages, including instrument preparation, DA study, and feedback collection, were conducted. The participants and activities in each stage are detailed. The instruments used, such as reading passages and mediation typology, are explained. The data collection and processing methods, including the mediation sessions and interview analysis, are also discussed.

4. Results and Discussion

The findings of the study suggest that northwest rural secondary students have weak reading ability, with summarizing being the weakest skill. Although dynamic assessment (DA) did not significantly improve overall reading ability, it did lead to significant improvement in summarizing and inferencing for the experimental group (EG). The study also demonstrates the effectiveness of DA in improving higher level skills, particularly for rural learners who lack external support. The micro-genetic analysis of the EG's mediated performance (MP) indicates a decrease in MP, suggesting reduced need for mediation and expansion of learners' zone of proximal development (ZPD). The EG's MP showed a steady drop across sessions, even as the reading tasks became more difficult, indicating the internalization of mediation effects. Additionally, the EG's mediation reciprocity improved significantly from Session 1 to Session 5.

5. Conclusions

The study identifies 3 CSE3-based EFL reading constructs and finds that northwest rural secondary students are weak in all of them. The study uses the DA mediation model to address the issues and compared participants’ pre- and post-test performance. The results prove that the EG learners’ independent performance increased across the five sessions. The study adds to our understanding of how to mediate the northwest rural secondary EFL learners to improve their reading. The results prove that CSE3-based DA models provide valuable insights into their reading subskill development. The study is also significant methodologically. Although the participant’s collaboration is crucial for the one-on-one interactive mediation, some individuals were not responsive enough throughout the mediation sessions, which might account for the six dropouts or the lack of success in mediation. Future studies may address learners’ conceptual development at specific moments across sessions by analyzing their choice of words in mediation responses for micro genetic development in language and emotion.