Use of Self-Assessment with the Support of a Technological Tool to Improve Writing Skills

Abstract

Writing needs to be measured constantly, and it is very difficult for the teachers to give feedback to all the students in every activity, for this reason self-assessment helps students in each stage of their productive skills (Febriyanti et al., 2018). Therefore, it is necessary for students and teachers to have another tool, a mechanism in which students can check their progress, identify the mistakes, correct them, edit the file and go on. Higher Education students in the city of Babahoyo find it hard to write, even in Spanish, much more in English. Self-assessment is the first step in any process, whether people want to create something new, develop a new product, start a company or learn a new language, people need to continually self-assess themselves. Wong and Mak (2019) said “Self-assessments are instructional tools with the potential to enhance self-regulatory and language-learning processes in students in the writing classroom.” (p. 183). This statement encompasses the importance of self-assessment, and the author’s thoughts about self-assessment in the writing process. The use of a technological tool serves students to improve their different skills. The use of a tool that helps them to improve their tasks before be graded, makes students feel more confident with their process (Lievens, 2018). In this case, the Hemingway app allows students to check and also edit their compositions, indicating when they have solved the problem and if it is correct in its context.