Responding to students’ request for the use of equitable formative assessment practices, this project used a dynamic assessment approach that has been developed within the Vygotskian sociocultural theory of learning (Vygotsky, 1978). It explored the value of peer mediation in the context of academic writing skills’ development among undergraduate BA Business management and Human Resource Management students in blended learning. It aimed to include students as partners, develop their professional skills by promoting experiential learning, i.e., collaboration and intercultural awareness, improve students’ writing performance and favourable attitudes towards learning and support their well-being in HEI especially in the post-Covid-19 era (El Said, 2021). The importance of students’ using their L1 for assessment purposes has been confirmed by several researchers (Lewis et al., 2012). Baker (2011) claims that translanguaging provides many benefits to learners as it can enhance understanding of the subject matter and possibly promote the development of the weaker language (L2). The current translanguaging approach in assessment mirrors the multilingual focus of looking at the learner as a multilingual person who uses resources from their whole multilingual repertoire (both the L1 and L2) (Cenoz and Gorter, 2015).
50 final year students were asked to participate in this project as part of their module. Students were encouraged to use translanguanging (Cenoz and Gorter, 2015), that is words or phrases from their mother tongue to discuss the instructions of their assignments and plan their reports (written in English) with their fellow students working in groups. They then prepared and submitted their draft written assignment. The aim was to help students improve their work by raising their self-awareness, scaffolding, and responding to their individual needs (Poehner, 2018). Adopting a process approach to writing, the lecturer/researcher used three rounds of mediation.
• Round 1 (implicit) consisted solely of a scored and highlighted rubric, not identifying the location or nature of the erroneous parts, and was provided by randomly chosen peers) via Padlet to ensure anonymity and allow students to experiment with digital platforms. The lecturer supervised the whole procedure and made amendments if necessary. The lecturer provided training and continuous support to students and colleagues involved in the project.
• Round 2 (relatively explicit) consisted of narrative explanations of problems provided at the end of each participant’s report provided by peers and the lecturer via Padlet.
• Round 3 (most explicit) consisted of comment bubbles/specific comments that showed the student the location of the significant problems, explained the issues, and included recommendations for repair. The tutor provided this form of feedback.
Students also provided anonymous feedback via Mentimeter during the implementation to explore their perceptions of the benefits and challenges related to this intervention.
The overall aim was to decolonize the curriculum as multilingual speakers have to be judged on their own special qualities and not as failing monolinguals against an unfair yardstick (Kaufhold & Yencken, 2021). The current study aligned perfectly with the university and the school strategic aims and its ESJ/ESD frameworks as well as its focus on EDI as it enhances the creation of learning communities among students promoting tolerance and enhancing student collaboration. This project aims to foster inclusion of the increasingly diverse student cohorts due to globalisation, develop students’ digital, academic, and professional skills and innovate in tertiary education (HEA, 2020b, 2020c). As universities in the Anglophone world attend to operating on a global stage, linguistic diversity in the sector has intensified. Language-as-resource informed curriculum and pedagogy (Cenoz and Gorter, 2015) needs to attend to institutional practices that stratify linguistic diversity to avoid reinforcing a situation in which the multilingualism of students from professional and socially elite groups is reinforced while little is gained when it comes to the multilingualism of working-class international/BAME students. New holistic approaches in language policy and assessment need to replace old traditions in a globalized world.