Students’ Self-Assessment of English-Speaking Performance Using Flip

Abstract

Self-assessment has been found to increase self-regulation, empower learners, enhance performance, and develop confidence. Due to the benefits of self-assessment as a learning and teaching tool, information on how learners self-assess and what they address in self-assessment can offer language teaching practitioners an insight into learners’ strategies and gains over time through the process. To examine the nature of learners’ self-assessment, the current study investigated learners’ self-assessment of their oral performance while using Flip, an online video discussion and sharing tool. The students’ were asked to self-assess their English-speaking performance twice (week 8 and week 15) during a 15-week semester course. By collecting self-assessment data from students at a college-level English speaking course, this study examined how the use of Flip can influence students’ perception of their overall English-speaking ability and the types of self-feedback strategies employed by students during self-assessment of their English-speaking performance using Flip. There was a statistically significant increase in students’ overall perception of their performance between mid-semester and end-of-the-semester self-assessment ratings based on the results of a paired t-test. Furthermore, students’ self-assessment became more explicit and detailed at the end of the semester. By the end of the semester, students were able to provide more detailed and categorized observations related to their goals and propose methods to achieve such goals. Findings showed the potential of Flip in language classrooms as a technological platform to review students’ work and keep track of their performance.