Abstract
With a growing interest in learner autonomy in the field of foreign language learning, there has been much discussion on the validity of self-assessment as an alternative to more objective measures in the evaluation of foreign language competence. Given that many of the past studies supported the usefulness of self-assessment, current research focus has been on factors that might enhance or mitigate its accuracy. This study investigated the influence of one such factor, experiential factor, on self-assessment scores, using the self-ratings provided by 357 company employees about their English abilities to perform 65 job-related tasks. More precisely, the research questions are (1) Does learners' experience with a task affect their self-assessments of the target task?, and (2) if so, how are task content and learners' language proficiency related to the experiential factor? Results revealed that in most tasks, the self-estimates given by the experienced were higher than those by the inexperienced and that the differences were statistically significant. This provides evidence that self-assessment is affected by the degree of learners' experience with the tasks self-rated. It was also found that when the tasks are complex or involve encoding/productive skills, experiential factors play more influential roles in learners' measurement of their ability to perform them. On the other hand, it was clearly shown that the higher the learners' language proficiency is, the less evident such effects are in their self-ratings. The findings suggest that the extent of learners' language experience should be considered in designing a self-assessment questionnaire and interpreting its results.
