The Effectiveness of Self-Assessment on the Writing Performance of EFL Students

Abstract

Self-assessment is one of the strategies used to help students improve their writing abilities. By including this self-assessment into the writing lesson, students will become more self-aware and encouraged to revise further. This study used a quasi-experimental design with a post-test to examine the difference in scores between students who self-assessed and those who did not self-assess. This study gathered data from seventy respondents. Thirty-three respondents were assigned to the experimental group, which received instruction via self-assessment, and 37 to the control group. Two types of tools were used to collect data: a writing exam and a self-assessment rubric. SPSS 24's non-parametric statistic, the Mann-Whitney U test, was used to analyze the data. The study's findings reveal that there are significant differences between students who are assessed by self-assessment and those who are not. The Mann-Whitney U test revealed that the Sig. 2 tailed is 0,000. This means that the p-value at the 95% confidence level (5%) was 0.0000.05. The null hypothesis (Ho) is rejected and the alternative hypothesis (Ha) is accepted based on the Mann-Whitney U result. This indicates that self-assessment is an excellent method for students to improve their writing ability. As a result, teachers are encouraged to incorporate self-assessment into their classroom instruction in order to develop their writing skills.