There is increasing interest in the use of formative self-assessment in the language learning classroom. This thesis presents the design and development of a self-assessment checklist for pronunciation intended as a useful pedagogical tool for use by Bachelor of Aircraft Engineering Technology (BAET) students in an ESL Higher Education context in a private university in Malaysia. The emphasis on pronunciation arises from the importance attached to communications in minimising risk and maximising safety in the aviation industry, where most BAET students will work after graduating, and from the associated priority students and teachers give to pronunciation. Self-assessment is needed for students to become independent learners, a skill which they will need for developing themselves in their future careers. Self-assessment in this study is used in the sense of students developing their understanding of how to self-assess their pronunciation as opposed to self-grading their pronunciation.
A development research approach was adopted, consisting of three phases: design, calibration, and evaluation of the usefulness of the checklist. The approach was chosen to meet the research objectives which were: (1) to design a pronunciation self-assessment checklist, (2) to evaluate the pronunciation self-assessment checklist based on the feedback from teachers and students, and (3) to evaluate the usefulness of the pronunciation self-assessment checklist.
The checklist design was based on the literature review, with changes made after comments from teachers and students in addition to expert validation. In the calibration phase, the checklist was trialled with students (N=50), after which semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten students and two teachers to establish whether the checklist and the guidance it contained were sufficiently clear, and to investigate the feasibility of using the self-assessment checklist in the classroom situation, as measured by the reactions of students and teachers. In the third and final phase, the usefulness of the checklist was evaluated by administering questionnaires developed for this study and validated by experts to students and teachers who had participated in trialling the checklist. Usefulness was measured in terms of the impact, practicality, reliability and validity of the self-assessment checklist. Further expert validation was incorporated into the final design of the checklist.
Overall, the teachers found the checklist to be very useful, as did students (n=20) who returned valid questionnaires. There was evidence that some students had understood and were able to implement the self-assessment cycle; additionally, there was evidence of both knowledge and regulation of cognition. Some students wanted more explanation of the checklist, or wanted it to be simpler, while others suggested possible ways of embedding pronunciation teaching as well as the checklist into the Aviation English curriculum. Further work is needed to ensure effective implementation of the checklist in the classroom. The thesis offers a novel approach to self-assessment of pronunciation in an ESL context, focusing on students’ understanding of their own learning strategies, and highlights the benefits of a rigorous approach by teachers to the use of checklists.
