Abstract:

This study, based on the investigation in a middle school, aims to research the application of self-assessment and explore its role in classroom teaching in the middle school. The research was conducted in the form of a questionnaire to the  teachers of English. The results of the survey have shown that though the importance of involving students’ self-assessment in the evaluation system has been generally recognized by the majority of teachers, in reality, however, not many teachers would like to do that for various reasons. It is pointed out in the paper that self-assessment is a student-centered assessment that not only arouses and develops students' interest in language learning, but also enhances their motivation and attitudes and increases their confidence in language learning. Therefore, some suggestions for implementing self-assessment  are provided at the end of the thesis.

Key words: self-assessment; middle school English class; suggestions; language learning

摘要：

本文通过在某中学的调查，探究了自我评价实际应用的情况及其在课堂教学中的作用。研究主要从老师的角度，以调查问卷的方式进行。结果发现，尽管老师一般都能认识到自我评价在教学评价系统中的重要性，但在实际课堂中许多老师却因各种原因不太愿意使用这种评价手段。本文指出，自我评价是以学生为中心的评价体系，其作用不仅能激起学生学习语言的兴趣，更能强化学生的学习动机，提升他们的学习自信心。因此，在本文在最后提供了一些实施建议。

关键字：自我评价； 中学英语课堂；建议；语言学习

1. Introduction
According to Collins and O’Brien(2001), assessment is “any process that provides information about the thinking, achievement or progress of students”. Assessment, in the broad sense, means “any methods used to better understand the current knowledge that a student possesses” (Collins & O’Brien, 2003). For this reason, every teacher should assess his/her students’ learning regularly. However, some of the methods which teachers use to measure their students’ learning today are mainly written tests,  homework exercises and so on. Therefore teachers spend a great deal of time being engaged in one type of assessment or another in their class (Stiggins, 2001). What’s more, the assessment of students includes using a well organized system, namely tests, to make judgments about the students’ achievement (Gronlund & Linn, 1990). These tests usually bring students with anxiety, fear, or disappointment to students, which might negatively affect their language learning. Students might suffer from spending long hours of study and preparation for tests haunted by mixed feelings of hope and fear.