English
German
French
LINDSAY WARWICK BELL CAMBRIDGE
Introduction
Over the last two years at my school, Bell Cambridge, we have been exploring the use of formative assessment tools to help our students’ progress. While researching this, I read the results of Black and Wiliam’s seminal meta-study Inside the Black Box (2001), which showed that formative assessment can have a significant, positive effect on learning and I very much became interested in knowing more. Further research revealed that Wiliam (2011:46) believes there are five key areas of formative assessment: discussion and tasks, effective feedback, the sharing of learning intentions and success criteria, learning from other learners, and students taking control over their learning. Appendix 4: Final questionnaire Dear student Thank you for taking part in my writing project. I would like to find out what you think about the project. Please could you complete the table below and write any extra comments in the space at the bottom. Fiona Strongly agree Agree Not sure Disagree Strongly disagree 1. The project helped me to notice mistakes in my writing. 2. The project helped me to understand my mistakes. 3. The project helped me to stop making the same mistakes. 4. The correction code was easy to understand. 5. Re-writing the same text, after I corrected the mistakes, did not improve my writing. 6. I would like to continue the writing project. What was the thing which you found the most useful about the writing project? (Please underline one only) • Using the correction code • Rewriting each task • Writing regularly • Keeping all my writing in a book • The teacher’s comments at the end of the writing • None of these Please explain the reason for your choice (you can write on the other side if you want to)
Four of these areas were clear to me but the term success criteria was not and I wanted to know more. I was interested to learn that it described a set of criteria given to students before a task that tells them how they can be successful in that task and ultimately achieve the intended learning objective. The criteria are regularly used in state schools and are also used for self- and peer-assessment after a task, but in my opinion they are not generally used in EFL lessons except perhaps in exam classes and to a loose degree General English writing lessons. Having rarely provided students with this kind of criteria myself, I was really interested to know if they could help my international adult students at a private language school in the UK. In particular, I wanted to examine the use of success criteria in relation to self-assessment and the development of speaking skills.
Background
Self-assessment is generally considered to be a positive influence on student learning and encourages students to develop metacognition. McMillan and Hearn (2008:48), having reviewed both theoretical and research papers, said that ‘when students set goals that aid their improved understanding, and then identify criteria, self-evaluate their progress toward learning, reflect on their learning, and generate strategies for more learning, they will show improved performance with meaningful motivation’. They also believe that self-assessment gives students the opportunity to internalise the criteria against which they can measure their own success.
Looking at ELT-specific research, there have been many small-scale studies into the relationship between criteria and the ability to self-assess and/or improve speaking performance. Much of this research has found that the relationship is a positive one. For example, Chen (2008) conducted a study with 28 university students taking oral training classes. Students self-assessed their speaking against criteria and completed an evaluation form and questionnaire. The criteria were created by teachers in collaboration with students and students were given training in how to use them for assessment. The study also incorporated teacher assessment and peer assessment. The researcher concluded that selfassessment is ‘both a viable alternative to teacher assessment of oral performance and a useful learning task’ (2008:255); as well as the fact that students undermarked themselves at first but their marks became more in line with those of their teacher and peers with practice and feedback.
A study by Babaii, Taghaddomi and Pashmforoosh (2015) found that when 28 university students had agreed upon assessment criteria before they completed the task and had some practice, the difference between their assessment and the teachers’ assessment was narrower. They also found that students perceived the use of self-assessment to be generally positive. Huang and Gui (2015:129) carried out a study among 61 college students in China, which showed that when those students received assessment criteria before they completed a speaking task, their speaking improved in terms of discourse length, organisation and linguistic flexibility, although the students did not improve in accuracy of pronunciation and grammar or range of tense usage. Students also believed that the criteria were a useful tool for self-assessment.
What exactly constitutes assessment or success criteria is a more complex area. In state schools in the UK, success criteria tend to comprise a list of instructions whereas in EFL an assessment rubric or scoring rubric is used, for example in IELTS. Litz (2007) defines an assessment rubric or scoring rubric as consisting of ‘a fixed measurement scale and a set of criteria that are used to discriminate among different degrees of quality or levels of proficiency’. A rubric is more in depth than a list of instructions with very clear guidance as to what is required by students to meet each criterion in each band.
Research questions
The purpose of my study was to find out if the use of assessment criteria could help students develop both their speaking skills and the ability to self-assess their speaking skills. As a result, my two research questions were:
1. Does the presentation of assessment criteria before a speaking activity help learners to self-assess their speaking skills more accurately?
2. Does self-assessment result in an improvement in speaking skills?
I wanted to focus on speaking activities that students may do at the end of a lesson or end of a series of lessons that give them the opportunity to use language they have studied during the lesson(s). These may be considered as production activities.
Participants
I carried out this action research project with a class of pre-intermediate (Level A2 on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR, Council of Europe 2001)) level students over a 7-week period. Nine students took part in the study, of which seven were Arabic speakers, one was a Chinese speaker and one was a Thai speaker. Eight of the students were male. They were aged between 18 and 43 and were studying English full time in the UK to prepare for an English-speaking university course or for their work. All students were given a letter outlining the details of the research and agreed to participate in the study. Four students completed all six speaking tasks; the other five completed five tasks. This was for reasons of illness, holiday or rolling enrolment as two students joined the class in week two of the study.