Self-Assessment in a Foreign Language Classroom

 

The article that I read focused on Self-Assessment and applying it to a Foreign Language Classroom, but I think it can be applied in any classroom with the right modification to fit your class and your teaching style. Through self-assessment students develop study skills and it also helps their motivation. Self-assessment also increases confidence in one’s own judgment. The students are very capable of self-evaluating themselves. “Research has found general correspondence between students’ ratings of themselves and teacher evaluation of these students” (858).

Learning a foreign language myself in a college classroom, I know that sometimes students themselves can see clearer how much they know compare to their peers, also, how well they know that material or comfortable with it. They might do well on a test, but in reality do not grasp the concept or vocabulary wholly. So, self-assessment can be an important tool to see if students need more time with the concept or more practice with vocabulary. Isn’t what assessment is all about, not just to give a student a grade, but to help them improve?

Now there is a huge focus on communicative competence when it comes to foreign language learning, so consequently, the rule of the teacher changes to a facilitator and a mentor, therefore, a new way to evaluate is also necessary. For the self-assessment to work, students need a clear guideline on how to grade themselves. They need a carefully designed rubric for each assignment, project, performance that students will use to evaluate themselves. It does feel like a lot of work, but you will not use self-assessment for every assignment.

 For instance, a good idea is to use self-assessment for in-class participation. My Spanish teacher did this and I found it to be useful. She had a rubric for participation and attendance, in which you decide how well you listened to others this week, how much you participated, and did you use Spanish the whole time or mostly English, and there is a ranging score for each part. So you can decide how low or high on a scale you truly were this week. Then she writes comments or adjusts the score if needed, mostly up rather than down. It was great to reflect on one’s self and it encouraged me to use Spanish more and participate in the class more often since I will grade myself. To wrap-up, self-assessment can be used poorly and well, so if you just using because you feel like you have to instead of figuring out a way to make it beneficial to the students’ learning, then it can be a waste of time. So, use it carefully!!!

The article was found on JSTOR.
Geeslin, Kimberly L., Student Self-Assessment in the Foreign Language Classroom: The Place of Authentic Assessment Instruments in the Spanish Language Classroom. Indiana University. 2003.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/20062958 .