| China’s Standards of English(CSE)provides learners with a tool for assessing their English ability.As an important constituent of CSE,Self-Assessment Scale for Interpreting Ability(SASIA)is designed to facilitate interpreting teaching and learning.However,whether it is an effective self-assessment tool for interpreting learners needs more empirical evidence.This study aims to validate SASIA from learners’ perspectives by investigating whether the descriptors in SASIA can help learners effectively measure their interpreting ability.To achieve this research goal,two course instructors’ assessment based on students’ interpreting performance are collected to represent students’ interpreting ability,which is then compared with students’ self-assessment which is carried out by means of descriptors in SASIA.The following three questions are to be discussed:(1)How does interpreting learners’ self-assessment correlate with their interpreting teachers’ assessment?(2)How does interpreting learners’ self-assessment deviate from their interpreting teachers’ assessment?(3)What are the underlying factors that trigger the correlation and deviation?In order to solve the research questions above,quantitative questionnaires composed of descriptors in SASIA are adopted to collect students’ self-assessment data.In addition,qualitative in-depth interviews are conducted in order to explain the results of the first two research questions.Results show that:(1)Significant correlation is found between interpreting learners’ self-assessment and their teachers’ assessment.(2)Some individuals’ self-assessment obviously deviate from their teachers’ assessment.(3)The underlying factors triggering the correlation and deviation are inaccuracy of descriptors in SASIA and learners’ own factors,the former including: descriptors run contrary to the reality,concepts in the descriptors are ambiguous,descriptors lack preconditions,the same descriptor includes typical activities of different difficulty,some indicators in the descriptors are not quantified,while the latter including learners’ psychological characteristics and their interpreting experience.Through criterion-related validation of SASIA,this research is expected to offer suggestions for the revision of interpreting ability descriptors in SASIA and in other CSE interpreting ability sub-scales as well as to provide advice for the improvement of interpreting teaching and learning.In doing so,autonomous learning of interpreting can be promoted. |
