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Influence of Peer-Assessment to Enhance Speaking Skills Performance for EFL Students

Abstract:

Peer evaluation process is an axis that is still not usually explored in the classroom and sometimes it might be seen as a threat rather than a benefit (Levine, 2012). According to the author, this occurs when it is not well applied or there is “insufficient training” (p. 103) in how to apply it. In this sense, students sometimes do not really know how to do peer-assessment, and tend to get carried away by the feelings they have toward their classmates. It is essential to have clear that assessment consists not only in assigning a grade but also in taking students in to become real protagonists in their academic progress. In order to promote meaningful learning, and achieve classroom goals, it is correct to mention that peer assessment is one of the most useful strategies that can be applied to promote the development of lifelong learning since “Students can learn a lot through peer evaluations and by doing them they also automatically learn how to improve their own speaking” (Usman et al., 2018, p. 324). One very noticeable problem in the group of students who took part in the present innovation is that they tend to be more receptive rather than productive when referring to their skills. For instance, they were having difficulties with using the language in speaking activities due to a lack of confidence, and this problem occurred even though they belong to a bilingual school and their exit profile is B2 according to the Common European Framework of References (Council of Europe, 2018). In this sense, peer assessment was proposed in order to analyze its impact on the speaking performance of this group of participants.