Developing An English Writing Self-assessment Instrument For High School Students

This thesis is an exploratory study of the instrument development for self-assessment.And this two-phase study aims to develop a self-assessment questionnaire based on the rating criteria of National Matriculation English Test(NMET)as well as students’ writing samples of 2010 NMET of Guangdong Province(NMET-GD).In the first phase of the study,the key dimensions of the rating criteria were generated from the rating scale of writing test in NMET and some related literature.After coding 52 authentic writing samples of 2010 NMETGD,specific language features reflected in different levels of students’ writing under the key dimensions were extracted,and the self-assessment questionnaire was developed based on these features.In the second phrase,the newly-developed self-assessment questionnaire was applied to English writing class of senior one,and this phase was designed to investigate whether this instrument is an applicable tool to guide students to do self-assessment and transform their perceptions of English writing through the use of it.65 senior one students from a middle school in Guangzhou participated in the self-assessment and responded to the questionnaires as well as two open-ended questions.Before the experiment,the students were supposed to write down their own thoughts and methods of writing.Then,the students wrote an article and conducted self-assessment with the aid of the self-assessment instrument.At the end of the study,all the students filled in a questionnaire and answered the second open-ended question.This study analyzes the writing samples of 2010 NMET-GD both quantitatively and qualitatively,and the results reveal that various language features are labeled from different levels of writing essays under the four dimensions,including language use,content,organization and mechanics.The most common and representative features are extracted as subcategories of each dimension,referring to required writing skills.Therefore,the self-assessment questionnaire was developed according to the results from the content analyses.While in the second phase of the study,the results of the questionnaire and the two open-ended questions showed that a majority of the students held a positive attitude towards self-assessment and the use of the instrument after the experiment.They believed that self-assessment and its instrument helped them become aware of some key dimensions and features reflected in the rating criteria of English writing section of NMET,organize their thoughts and helped them identify and consciously improve her weaknesses of English writing.Besides,they were willing to participant in self-assessment and some of them became more interested and confident in English writing after this kind of self-assessment practice.Besides,some theoretical and pedagogical implications are provided for the development and application of self-assessment instrument in Chinese English writing classrooms.Therefore,self-assessment can be embedded in English writing courses and teachers also can develop self-assessment instrument corresponding to students’ language proficiency.Meanwhile,still many drawbacks can be found in this study and future research is needed to further explore this topic.