| In1980, Oscarson first proposed the concept of self-assessment. Since then,more and more researchers have tried to integrate self-assessment into EFL classroominstruction. Many abroad researches which are about the role of self-assessment inclassroom teaching come to positive results and find that self-assessment can play animportant role in language teaching and enhance students’ language proficiencies. Butin China, self-assessment may not accord with our culture, because teachers arelooked as the authority and center of the teaching, they also should be completelyresponsible for student’s evaluation.However, with the development of language assessment, in2004, EducationMinistry published College English Curriculum Requirements (Trial Edition), whichputs forward that cultivating students’ comprehensive ability should be looked as themain point of assessment. The important role of formative assessment should be paidmore attention and formative assessment need to combine with summative assessment.However, because of various factors and restricted conditions in English teaching,oral English teaching in college is the most difficult and weakest link. Nowadays, alot of college students’ oral proficiency are poor and have low self-confidence withtheir oral English; some of them even become “dumb English”. Therefore, this studytries to know the recent situation of self-assessment in college students and thepossible problems in using self-assessment in oral activities, specific researchquestions are as follow:1) How do sophomores self-assess their oral proficiency inoral activities?2) Do male and female students differ in self-assessment of oralEnglish activities?3) Are there any differences in self-assessment of oral Englishactivities among different majors? Two experienced teachers and ten college studentswho come from different majors and genders were interviewed. The results of the questionnaire from302students were analyzed using descriptive statistics,independence sample t-test analysis, and all the results of interviews were recordedand some statements which were representative would be chosen. Theserepresentative statements were classified and analyzed. The results show that:1) moststudents think that their performances are not quite good in oral activities and theygive quite low self-assessment to themselves, which indicates that most students thinkthat their performances in oral activities are not good;2) In terms of each question,the results of non-English major students are obvious lower than those of Englishmajor students. In four aspects of oral English skills, English major students thinktheir best performance is in ideas and organization and non-English major studentsthink their communicative strategies are better than the other aspect. Both of thesetwo major students think their weakness lies in pronunciation and delivery.3) Theresults indicate that there are statistic significances between male and female studentsin communication strategies, ideas and organization. Male students think they dobetter in communication strategies while female students are good at ideas andorganization. About a month after finishing the survey, ten students from two majorsand two experienced teachers were interviewed to learn more about the situation andeffect of self-assessment in oral activities of college English teaching. Most of thestudents stated that the new methods of self-assessment in oral activities can enhancedtheir interests and confidence in oral activities as well as controlled the process ofEnglish learning.In conclusion, sophomores know little about self-assessment in oral English,but most students believe that self-assessment is helpful to develop their learningautonomy, oral proficiency and oral communication ability. However, due to thelimitation of conditions, such as no experiment, low reliability and validity ofself-assessment, narrow range and small score of participants, etc. Thus, theimplementation of self-assessment has yet t be further researched. |
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