Journal of Languages for Specific Purposes (Mar 2020)
PEER AND SELF-ASSESSMENT IN A PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION COURSE: DOES TASK TYPE MAKE A DIFFERENCE?
Abstract
The extensive literature on peer and self-assessments, their outcomes and effectiveness in developing students’ critical thinking and objectivity cites numberless benefits. One such benefit is that they help pass on skills of evaluation and critical judgment to students. However, the effectiveness and limitations of peer and self-assessments have yet to be established in professional communication courses, where students get involved in several types of assessment tasks. Thus, this research tests and compares the use of assessment tools in a professional communication course for engineers at a private educational institution in the United Arab Emirates and reports the potential benefits and limitations of peer and self-assessments. Specifically, the focus of this research project was on the assessment practices of two distinct technical communication written genres- the resume and the internship application letter (IAL). Results indicate that there is a statistically significant difference between students’ self-assessments and peers’ assessments of resumes, indicating that students awarded themselves higher grades than their peers. Moreover, statistical analyses of marks given by peers and the course instructor on the initial drafts of the resumes demonstrate a statistically significant difference between peers’ assessment and the instructor’s assessment; that is, peers assigned higher grades to students than the instructor. However, results for the students’ self-assessments of the IAL and the instructor’s assessments of the same showed that students assigned themselves higher grades, but the difference is not statistically significant. This research contributes to growing studies on peer- and self-assessment by suggesting that the type of tasks being assessed may facilitate or complicate the assessment task. It also shows that students’ emotions may interfere in the assessment process. The study concludes with limitations and recommendations for further research in the area of professional communication.
