Self-AssessmentBritish Council Malaysia

PDP 4 ELTB1 Groups

Unit 4

According to Penny Ur in her book A Course in Language Teaching: Practice and Theory (1996), self-assessment takes place when “the learners themselves evaluate their own performance, using clear criteria and weighting systems agreed on beforehand.”

Information on Self-Assement

According to H. Douglas Brown in his book Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy (Second Edition – 2001), the advantages of self-assessment are “speed, direct involvement of students, the encouragement of autonomy, and increased motivation because of self-involvement in the process of learning.”

Jeremy Harmer in his book The Practice of English Language Teaching (Fourth Edition – 2007), says that “involving students in assessment of themselves and their peers occurs when we ask a class ‘Do you think that’s right?’ after writing something we heard someone say up on the board, or asking the class the same question when one of their number gives a response. We can also ask them at the end of an activity how well they think they have got on – or tell them to add a written comment to a piece of written work they have completed, giving their own assessment of that work. We might ask them to give themselves marks or a grade and then see how this tallies with our own.”

He also mentions that “self-assessment can be made more formal in a number of ways. For example, at the end of a coursebook unit we might ask students to check what they can now go, e.g. ‘Now I know how to get my meaning across in conversation/use the past passive/interrupt politely in conversation’, etc.”

References:Brown, H. Douglas. Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy. New York: Pearson Education, 2001 – 2nd Edition. Harmer, Jeremy. The Practice of English Language Teaching. Harlow: Pearson Education, 2007 – 4th Edition.Ur, Penny. A Course in Language Teaching: Practice and Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.