Page 78 - The SpeakTeach method - Esther de Vrind

Chapter 4. Perspective of the students - adaptivity
appropriateness of their utterances. Low self-assessments as well as low correlations with more objective scores were especially reported for self-assessments of grammar and pronunciation (Blanche, 1988). Research has shown that feedback or instruction (about concrete rules for instance) helps learners to assess more accurately (see for example Lappin- Fortin & Rye, 2014; Jones, 1997; Dlaska & Krekeler, 2013). Blanche (1988) stated that self- assessments give information about the extent to which students can appraise their own speaking performance. With this information teachers can tailor their feedback or instruction. The self-assessments give insight into individual learning needs. Learners who can assess accurately enough, do not have to depend entirely on the opinion of teachers (Blanche, 1988) and teachers can gradually reduce their support.
For learners to benefit from instruction and feedback, they need to have the opportunity to gain evaluative experience in an iterative process (Dlaska & Krekeler, 2013; Sadler, 1989). Then learners’ ability to assess their speaking performances may improve over time (see for instance Couper, 2003; De Saint Léger & Storch, 2009; Lappin-Fortin & Rye, 2014).
Support can be provided by instruction and feedback but the self-assessment instrument itself can also support learners to assess themselves more accurately (Ross, 1998). Self-assessment instruments can focus the learners’ attention on more categories of the speaking performance than they might do without an instrument. Criterion-referenced self- assessment instruments which are tailored to course objectives are helpful for this purpose (Brantmeier, Vanderplank & Strubbe, 2012). Important factors which influence accuracy are being connected with specific curricular content (Brantmeier et al, 2012; Ross, 1998) and doing the self-assessments directly after completing specific tasks (Butler & Lee, 2006).
Furthermore, self-assessment instruments should not only focus on areas for improvement, but also on positive points. Research in positive psychology has shown that reflecting on positive points activates positive emotions that in turn are beneficial to learning (Voerman, Meijer, Korthagen & Simons, 2012).
In short, in order to notice different aspects of their speaking performance, students can be supported by allowing them time to reflect on a recording of their own speaking performance using a self-assessment instrument and by providing input (instruction) and feedback.
76
75