The Use of Self-assessment in Second Language Assessment

The current trends in learner-centered language teaching approaches, and a growing interest in “authenticity and interactiveness ” (Bachman & Palmer, 1996) have led to a greater interest in expanding the use of second language self-assessment (Bachman, 2000; Calfee & Hiebert, 1991; Hamayan, 1995). Many language testers have been inspired to investigate whether students are able to make a meaningful contribution to their own evaluation. It would be ideal if the findings of all the empirical studies on the effectiveness of self-assessment were consistent; however, they have produced varying results which have made test administrators and teachers skeptical about implementing self-assessment in the assessment of second language ability. Self-assessment One of the primary reasons for the contradictory empirical results may be explained by a lack of a consistent definition of self-assessment. The concept goes by a variety of names such as self-evaluation, self-rating, self-testing, and self-appraisal. Because self-assessment is a loosely defined term, a comparison of empirical results is problematic. Another problem may be that the definition depends on the purpose of self-assessment. Self-assessment can be used for a variety of purposes, including appropriate placement