The goal of this article is to explore the feasibility of the development and implementation of the dynamic assessment procedure in such curriculum-based areas as English as a foreign language (EFL). Vygotsky's notion of the Zone of Proximal Development and Feuerstein's concept of Mediated Learning Experience served as a theoretical base for the construction of the assessment procedure. The procedure included a pre-test, mediated learning phase and a post-test. It was applied with a group of 23 academically at-risk students who failed to pass the high school English exam. The results of the study indicate that dynamic procedure indeed provides information on students' learning potential over and beyond that which is available from the static test. This information can be used for the development of individual learning plans attuned to the students' special learning needs.

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The concept of activity is deeply ingrained in Soviet psychological theory, and exactly for that reason contemporary Soviet psychologists have found it extremely difficult to define it clearly. This concept was first suggested by Lev Vygotsky as a theoretical remedy for psychological systems that tautologically "explained" phenomena of consciousness through the concept of consciousness. Vygotsky' s disciples, notably Alexei Leontiev, departed from the original concept of their teacher. The demarcation line separating Vygotsky's theory from that of Leontiev occurred in the evaluation of the relative importance of semiotic mediation and practical actions for the development of intelligence. Currently there is a revival of interest in the problem of activity both in the Soviet Union and in the United States.

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One of the most radical changes occurring in our approach to learning and instruction concerns the agency of learning. Only recently an individual was perceived as a 'natural' agency of learning. Now this position becomes increasingly challenged on both theoretical and practical grounds. The concept of mediation plays the central role in this critical reappraisal. Two theories that have contributed most to the development of the mediational approach to learning is the Vygotskian sociocultural theory and Feuerstein's theory of Mediated Learning Experience (MLE). Both theories emphasized the importance of sociocultural forces in shaping the situation of a child's development and learning. Both pointed to the crucial role played by parents, teachers, peers and the community in defining the type of learning interaction occurring between children and their environments. Beyond their role as tools of theoretical critique, Vygotsky's and Feuerstein's systems have generated a number of applied programs offering new techniques for the enhancement of students' cognitive functions, development of metacognition and integration of cognitive elements into instructional practice.