Self-assessment Influence on Improving Speaking Skills

Abstract

There are days in which students are just to give up when speaking in a different language it is about. “It seems impossible to speak in English”, they say. Most of them may even think about giving up against that fear. However, with appropriate guidance and the use of techniques that motivate their learning that idea can be changed. Instead, students will pursue the goal of speaking a different language and show how resilient they are. There were common problems and issues noticed on the participants speaking performances. They were a volunteer group of students whose ages ranged from 6 to 11 years old. Their English proficiency was A1 level, according to the CEFR. Their performances were not good since they did not correctly apply many of the words they knew. They also had difficulties when pronouncing some words and using the correct tone of voice in oral presentations. Additionally, interaction with classmates and the teacher during their speaking performances were poor. They had noticed these difficulties before, but they did not have the chance to receive feedback to overcome them. The main purpose of the research was to determine if the speaking skill of a group of children who faced problems while performing oral activities in English could be improved by using self-assessment.