Are Your Participants Multilingual? The Role of Self-assessment in SLA Research

This study addresses the issue of using self-assessments to evaluate the language proficiency of participants in SLA research. When conducting research in the field of SLA, it is important to analyze the linguistic background of potential participants; however, finding comparable assessment tests in multiple languages to satisfy the linguistically diverse backgrounds of the language learners as well as the difficulty in finding time to administer the tests to those with experience in multiple languages impedes the successful collection of this language background data. The results of this study support an alternate way of determining language learners’ linguistic background through the use of self-assessment, specifically with the use of the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) can-do statements. The results of this study provide empirical support for the use of self-assessment in SLA research