Implementing Self-Assessment to Improve Students’ Speaking Skill

Abstract

Self-assessment is an element of the educational process since it involves the student's commitment to their learning process and their achievements. Student’s self-assessment strengthen, review, or reorient their goals and needs and develop metacognitive skills. This process is also necessary to analyze and evaluate the previously established objectives. Preparation and planning are the first steps when implementing self-assessment. Within this context, the teacher must establish the objectives and evaluation criteria that students must know. Besides, this entire process must be carried out based on dialogue or negotiation. When students are already immersed in self-assessment, teachers must guide them so that they can properly apply the instruments and techniques. On the other hand, speaking is a skill that consists of transmitting messages through verbal language according to the needs of the listener. The development of this skill is a process that must be strengthened with the application of various strategies so that students can develop their communication skills. For example, communicative teaching introduced numerous forms of interaction with the classroom and language practice in natural or authentic situations. Furthermore, students at an A2 level should already be able to describe their experiences, events, wishes and aspirations, as well as briefly justify their opinions or explain their plans. However, some factors limit the students' oral participation in class, ranging from lack of oral practice to incorrect pronunciation of unknown words, or even fear of criticism. Therefore, the objective of this study is to determine the impact of self-assessment on the improvement of the speaking skill in EFL students.