Självbedömning av produktiva färdigheter i engelska i årskurs 4-5

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate the use of self-assessment of the productive skills in English with younger students by using the European Language Portfolio material. It also aims to see how the students’ self-assessment looks relatively the teacher’s assessment of the students 'skills as well as students' opinions about self-assessment. Furthermore the study attempts to highlight possible gender differences. The study has both a quantitative and a qualitative approach. Fifty-five students in grade 4 and 5 participated and assessed their skills in English by taking a position on the various "cando" statements from the checklists in a Swedish version of the European Language Portfolio. The students, as well as the teacher, assessed the students' productive skills, i.e. speaking and writing, three times during two years. In addition to the students' self-assessments and the teacher assessments, 8 interviews were conducted with gender homogeneous groups. The results of the study indicate that a majority of students assessed their skills relatively high in relation to the three levels of the checklists, and differences on a group level were small. The same pattern was seen in the teacher's assessments of the students' knowledge. There seemed to be a slight trend that weak students assessed their skills higher than the teacher did. Furthermore the results indicate relatively small or no differences between boys and girls. Students in the study were generally positive about using self-assessment, and they alleged that it affected their self-confidence positively and helped them to highlight their learning skills and progress.