Self-assessment in Language Learning

Language learning is a complex process involving many different learning strategies and after finishing reading chapter 7 of Task Design, Implementation and Assessment written by Dr. Towndrow, I suddenly realized that self-assessment is a marvellous way of learning.

Simply finishing the task and waiting to be evaluated is a passive way of learning and sometimes the students do not care about the feedback from the teachers, whether it is good or bad, which part needs to be improved, which modality is not appropriate, etc. However, if the students are made to evaluate their own work, they have much more work to do. First, they need to fully understand the rubric, both the experiential and implied meanings. And then the rules of judgement should be applied to their work, which requires students to make correct judgement on their own work. It is a higher level of knowledge application, as "there needs to be a balance between description (what the student has done) and the critique and reflection." (Towndrow, 2007) It is not easy for students to realize the mistakes and problems in their own work and admit with no bias. Finally, they need to report the result of their self-assessment, either in written or oral forms, which can help practice writing or oral expression.

In my past teaching experience, I haven't adopted any self-evaluation strategy but peer-assess, assuming that students are not capable or willing to find their own mistakes. Well, if the rubrics and instructions are well designed, it's a great opportunity for students to benefit in a different way.