A review of an empirical study about language assessment

Antonio Alarcn
Teaching English to Young Learners
Assessment
March, 2016

The main aim of the study was to determine how influential self-assessment is among
elementary school children learning English as a second language (ESL), as well as its
validity in children. The participants were elementary school children learning ESL in Seol
(South Korea). The total number of participants was 70 fourth grade students and 81 sixth
grade students from similar socioeconomic backgrounds.
The objective was to detect whether there were differences in the validity of off-task selfassessments (off-task SA) and on-task self-assessments (on-task SA) when compared with
both teachers assessments and a general proficiency test. Secondly, they wanted to determine
whether different factors (e.g. age) influenced the students performance on self-assessments
or on teachers assessments of the students.
All the instructions were given in the native language of the participants (Korean). The study
used five main types of assessments: off-task SA, on-task SA, teachers assessment,
Cambridge Young Learners English Test (only the listening part) and a short survey aimed to
assess attitudes and personality factors. The students were also asked to evaluate their
performance on a 5-point scale. All the procedures took part in classrooms and the students
were told that none of their teachers would know the results of the tests.
It was revealed that fourth grade students met difficulties in self-assessing themselves whilst
sixth grade students performed slightly better. The study revealed that motivation, sociability,
social-interdependency, anxiety, and confidence were the most influential components.
The participants met several difficulties in accomplishing cognitive tasks which covered
abstract thinking and metacognition. Personality factors as well as attitudes had major
importance concerning off-task SA performance.
The activities performed at the school before the experiment might significantly influence the
results of the study. There are as well questions regarding self-assessment among young
learners of a foreign language which remain unanswered, such as whether the students can

improve their self-assessment as they acquire experience in the subject and whether it affects
the confidence of the students and learning ultimately.
The researchers concluded that focusing on the long-term effects of self-assessment should be
taken into consideration concerning future research on the topic.
Since the study is one of the first attempts to approach the topic, not enough research has been
carried out.

Bibliography
Butler, Y. G., & Lee, J. (2006). Ontask versus offtask selfassessments among Korean elementary
school students studying English. The Modern Language Journal, 90(4), 506-518.