Bridging assessment and achievement: Repeated practice of self-assessment in college english classes in Taiwan

Grounded on the notion of observational learning in social cognitive learning theory, this study evaluated the effectiveness of repeated self-assessment on English-as-a-foreign-language learners’ oral performance and the perceptions of the students and the instructor of this practice. Ninety-seven students from three classes in a Taiwanese college participated in this study. The classes experienced five trials of self-assessment in which they used cell phones to record their oral responses. Instead of simply rating their own recordings, the students were provided questions to guide their examination of key components of their own talk. The results show that the students’ oral performance and evaluation abilities both improved over time, and they highly valued opportunities to detect their errors and observe their real learning outcomes. The findings suggest that self-assessment bridged the gap between repeated practice and English learning by allowing the students to reflect upon their performance, find their weaknesses, adjust their following talk, and recognize their learning outcomes.