The Impact of self and peer assessment on EFL students essay writing skills
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Date
2014
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university of Oum-El-Bouaghi
Abstract
Current researches in the language assessment field have brought new methods of assessment that aim at improving the process of learning rather than documenting the progress of learning. One of the most debatable alternative assessments is known as "self and peer assessment". What enlightens this assessment procedure in our study is the problem found and experienced in most EFL classes. In other words, most assessment procedures used in this respect run against the purpose of improving learning since most students do not benefit from these procedures. This study attempted to investigate the effect of self and peer assessment on students' essay writing skills. In addition, it tried to examine the accuracy of this assessment procedure in comparison to the teacher assessment. On these bases, we hypothesized that self and peer assessment would improve the EFL student' essay writing skills in what relates to essay structure and grammatical accuracy. A quasi-experimental design was used to investigate the effectiveness of this type of assessment. This study enrolled a sample of forty EFL students representing the control and experimental group. The latter received self and peer assessment using an assessment checklist during the treatment period, while the control group followed only the traditional method of assessment. The descriptive and inferential analyses of the results reveal a statistically significant improvement in the experimental group results. Students' assessment in this regard has also shown great similarities with teacher assessment, which likewise leads us to confirm the accuracy of this assessment procedure. As a result, the teacher can make use of self and peer assessment in order to assess students' writing, to improve their learning, and to minimize the negative effects of traditional assessment.
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Teaching : english : EFL : writing