Taras (2001) reported that the active participation of learners and teachers‟ experience will increase the process of self-assessment. In this study he used different types of assessments in a variety of subject areas in higher education in Britain. He stated that three key elements were very important in enhancing students ability to use self-assessment. First, the teacher should use summative assessment, second the teacher should inform students to identify their errors as a feedback before self-assessment.
The students should also receive their grades after self-assessment. In another study Brantmeir (2005a, 2005b, 2006) reported that the levels of selfassessment positively correlated with the level of enjoyment. The study also showed that selfassessment and enjoyment affected significantly the written recall, but in the case of multiplechoice questions the effect was low. The survey led to the hypothesis that selfassessment could be accurate as placement criterion. Carton (1993) argued that self-assessment was an important part of learning process. He mentioned that using questionnaires helped learners reflect on their learning. He also presented an approach that helped learners to be aware of their own cognitive processes. Other researches, such as Blatchford (1997), have shown that there is a significant relationship between self-assessment and achievement in both English/reading and mathematics. He reported that students‟ evaluation of their own ability was very crucial in their progress. He investigated the accuracy of self-assessment from 7 to 16 years old students and the effect of two factors on students‟ improvements over time: first school 28 subject, and second social comparison group ( the children at the same age or the students of the same class.
McDonald and Boud (2003) found that when students assessed their own learning, their achievements promoted to a high extent. They reported that training high school students on self-assessment could improve their performance. Teacher’s also trained in how students should use self-assessment skills. Experimental group received training in self-assessment while control group did not. So self-assessment training is believed to have a significant impact on students performance. Higgins, Hartley, and Skelton (2001) have reported that for development of selfregulation in learners both teachers‟ and learners‟ feedback on the learning process are needed and the ability of giving feedback must be promoted in both. Some studies have indicated that there was a high correlation between students, and teacher assessment, while other studies have reported low correlation between them.
A study by Matsano (2009) showed the relationship of self- and peer-assessments work and teacher assessments in university writing classes. It was concluded that self-assessment might have limited utility as a part of formal assessment. On the other hand peerassessment had a useful role in writing classes. Dlaska and Krekeler (2008) studied the reliability of self-assessment in pronunciation skills. They tried to understand the cause of difficulties. Participants were 46 German advanced learners who evaluated their own pronunciation of speech sounds against sounds produced by native speakers. In 85% of the cases the assessments of the raters and the selfassessment were the same. But the learners only identified half of inaccurate pronunciation of speech sounds which the raters believed to be wrong. The 29 results showed that even experienced L2 students might find it difficult to evaluate their articulation correctly. Some studies demonstrated that self-assessment is reliable. For example, Bachman and Palmer (1996) realized that some multilingual and multicultural members of the adult learners of English as a foreign language in the US could evaluate themselves reliably for their communicative language abilities. Alfallay (2004) studied the role of some selected psychological and personality traits of the learners of English as a foreign language in the accuracy of the self- and peerassessments.
Some of the traits, for example, were motivation types, anxiety, selfesteem, improvement and motivational intensity. Participants were 78 students of English as a foreign language. They took part in thirteen-week oral presentation tasks. In this period they were asked to evaluate their own performance and their peers . The findings showed that those students who had positive traits were more accurate than those who had its negative side. But students with high classroom anxiety were the exception. This study also demonstrated that long period of practice and adequate feedback had a positive effect on self-assessments. The results also showed that students with low self-esteem were the most accurate in assessment, while learners with instrumental motivation were the least accurate. He also realized that those learners with integrative motivation did more accurately than those with instrumental motivation in evaluating themselves. He also mentioned that language proficiency influenced on the correctness of self-assessment.
Students with high proficiency were more accurate than those with lower proficiency. High proficiency students underestimated their abilities, while low proficiency students overestimated them. 30 The study of Pierce, Swain, and Hart (1993) relied on school aged learners who were French immersion in Canada. Students assessed themselves based on two factors: first evaluated themselves to compare with native speakers, second reflected on the difficulty that they countered with everyday tasks in French. Then participants were examined for four skills based on a proficiency test. The results of self-assessment were compared with the test. The findings showed that self-assessment was not a reliable indicator of proficiency. However many of the students had little or no access to native speakers or target language outside the classroom. It would be difficult for them imagine how they would perform. Fallows and Balasubramanyan (2001) found that training and multiple ratings had many benefits. They also concluded that motivation had a significant role in the accuracy of selfassessment. Huang (2011) investigated the link between assessment and self-regulation.
Hence he examined two types of assessments, the more closed convergent assessment (CA) and the more open-ended divergent assessment (DA). He studied the effect o.f these two types of assessment on learners differently in terms of motivation and learning strategy. Participants were 105 college freshmen in Taiwan. They were selected in intact groups. They had the same instructor for one listening and two speaking classes. Each students experienced two types of assessment, a more traditional test (CA) and a group performance assessment (DA). After the assessments, students reported their task-specific motivation and learning strategies. Findings showed that students who performed CA were received high scores. Zimmerman (2008) explored the relationship between self-regulation and motivation. He believed that self-regulated learning (SRL) was considered as active processes which 31 helped students to acquire academic skills, such as setting goals, selecting and using strategies, and monitoring their effectiveness rather than impersonal forces that happens to students. In another study conducted by Kostons, van Gog, and Paas (2012) , the impact of training self-assessment and task-selection skills on self-regulated learning was investigated.
The study consisted of two experiments: In experiments 1, the hypotheses was examined and confirmed that observing a human model engaging in self-assessment, task selection, or both could be effective for secondary education students‟ acquisition of self-assessment and taskselection skills. Experiment 2 investigated and confirmed the hypothesis that secondary education students‟ acquisition of self-assessment and taskselection skills, either through examples or through practice, could improve the efficacy of self-regulated learning. Their first conclusion was that self-assessment and task-selection skills were highly instrumental in self-regulated learning and training such skills could significantly enhance the degree of knowledge that students could acquire from selfregulated learning in which they have freedom over the selection of their learning tasks. Another example of success of self-assessment was reported by Blanche (1990) where in the ability of adult learners of French as a foreign language who assessed their own speaking ability. He found that the accuracy of self-assessment is impressive. It is believed that self-assessment can influence receptive skills of EFL learners. In a study, Shahrakipour (2014) investigated wether self-assessment had the same effect on intermediate and beginner language learners. The participants were 120 Iranian language learners, selected through convenience sampling. The researcher grouped the learners into intermediate and beginner language learners. The experimental group received treatment in which they assessed themselves regularly. All groups received post-test and the data were analysed through ANCOVA. The results indicated that self-assessment had a powerful 32 effect on learners‟ receptive skills. Although self-assessment was more effective on reading skill in contrast with listening ability. The intermediate group also improved their abilities more in comparison with the beginner group. The impact of self- and peer-assessment in writing on the self-regulated learning of a sample of Iranian EFL students was studied by Fathi, Yousefi, and Sedighravesh (2017). To accomplish the purpose of the Study, a sample of 69 intermediate Iranian EFL students were selected. The students enrolled in a writing course which lasted for 12 weeks.
The sample of the study were students of three intact classes. They were randomly assigned to control and experimental groups. Self- and peer-assessment practices were carried out in the two experimental groups. The findings of the study revealed that the implementation of self- and peer-assessment in the writing course significantly related to the enhancement of EFL learners‟ self-regulation. From the pedagogical point of view, it can be recommended that the teachers pay more serious attention to alternative assessment including more selfand peerassessment practices in their language teaching methodology. It is also more useful if policymakers, textbook designers and material developers persuade to use them in their developed EFL materials and textbooks. Recently assessment moves away from a measurement model towards one of the learner empowerment one for lifelong learning. Hooshangi, Yousefi and Mahmoudi (2014) studied the effect of self assessment on Javanroodian foreign language learners‟ oral performance ability. An important clue that manifests the link between assessment and quality of learning is that of consequential validity. The assessment program included training, practice, video taping, feedback, assessment and discussion. 20 EFL learners participated in the study. They were divided into experimental and control groups based on the result of English oral performance pre-test.
The treatment was self-assessment checklists which consisted of the organization of the presentation, content, linguistic 33 factors ( vocabulary, grammatical patterns and pronunciation). As a matter of fact, the checklists were organized based on interviewing participants and their teachers and then concerning the results and reviewing available checklists in the literature. The data was collected for experimental group, assessing their oral performances in 6 sessions and teacher‟s evaluation of their performances. The research evidence suggested that selfassessment contributed to higher students achievements and participating in selfassessment process had positive effect on learners‟ oral performance ability. The results of the study are valuable in the Iranian context, with its long tradition of teacher-centered classes toward a more learner-centered educational system with more autonomous learners. Bing(2016) explored the effects of self-assessment on EFL students‟ writing. The subjects of the study full-time second year undergraduate non-English majors in a higher vocational college in Shandong province. A total number of 36 students were involved in the study. The instruments of the research included writing assignment, analytic scoring rubric, questionnaires and interviews. The results gained through quantitative and qualitative methods, suggested that self-assessment was an effective strategy. It could improve overall writing performance, especially in terms of content, organization and mechanics of their writing. However, for the category of content and vocabulary no significant difference of students‟ perceptions prior to and after the practice of selfassessment was found.
The practice of self-assessment had a positive influence on students‟ perception of their writing skills in organization, language use, and mechanics. Students personally believed that their writing skills especially in terms of organization, language use, and mechanics were better after using of self-assessment. Therefore a higher writing confidence was created among the students. Generally students gained a positive attitude towards the use of reversion in their writing. So as a kind of formative assessment, self-assessment can be a powerful and guiding factor in the learning and teaching process. 34 Learners‟ participation in self-assessment is of vital importance. It makes students selfaware of their work, motivating further revision. Since students get familiar with the criteria in assessing writing, they may use these criteria to revise their work.
