Sustaining Learners’ Writing Development: Effects of Using Self-Assessment on Their Foreign Language Writing Performance and Rating Accuracy

Abstract

Although the benefits of using self-assessment on student writing performance have received wide recognition over the past two decades, minimal research is available on the effects of using self-assessment of writing on English as a foreign language (EFL) students’ writing performance, especially in the tertiary context of China, where such research is still in its infancy. To fill the abovementioned lacuna, the present study adopted a quasi-experimental approach to implementing a self-assessment-based intervention in Chinese tertiary EFL writing classes. Specifically, students were randomly assigned into either an intervention class that implemented self-assessment or a comparison class that employed peer assessment as classroom practice to promote students’ sustainable development of writing skills. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected, and the research findings indicated that the intervention group experienced a larger increase in their holistic writing performance and rating accuracy when compared with the comparison group. Furthermore, the qualitative findings reveal students’ enhanced rating accuracy after the intervention. This study contributes to research on self-assessment in the EFL writing domain as a basis for further deliberation on self-assessment in higher education, and it also provides much needed empirical evidence for the potential value of student-centred sustainable assessment approaches such as self-assessment. Findings also provide teachers with pedagogical implications for developing sustainable and capable self-assessors of writing.