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5. Alternative Assessment in EFL
Classrooms: Why and How to
Implement It!
Marwan Saeed Saif Moqbel
Ibb University – Yemen
E-mail: marwan_s1977@yahoo.com
I. Introduction
Assessment is an essential component of the teaching and learning
process. Its importance emerges from the fact that assessment can improve
Abstract
Assessment is an essential component of the teaching and learning process. Due to
the limitations of traditional assessment and the shift from teacher-centered to
student-centered EFL teaching approaches, alternative assessment was proposed.
Alternative assessment is diagnostic in nature. It is carried out continuously over a
period of time rather than restricted to the end of a course or a semester. It can help
teachers to identify what EFL students can do in English rather than what they know
about English, which is the case with traditional assessment. The current article shed
light on the limitations of traditional assessment, referring to the reasons for the shift
towards alternative assessment. It also explained how to implement alternative
assessment methods in EFL classrooms, supporting that with examples of different
language skills and of various proficiency levels and highlighting the benefits that
may be obtained from implementing this type of assessment in EFL classrooms.
Generally, the article provided a simple and practical guide to using the common
methods of alternative assessment, recommending EFL teachers to experiment with
them in their classrooms.
Keywords: Assessment, alternative assessment, methods of alternative assessment, performance
assessment, performance-based task, portfolios, self-assessment, peer assessment

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teaching and can affect students’ learning negatively or positively. Its importance
also emerges from the purposes it can serve: helping educators to set up
standards, assessing students’ progress and motivating their performance,
providing diagnostic feedback, etc. (Herman, Aschbacher, & Winters, 1992, p. 2).
In EFL classrooms, assessment should be diagnostic, helping teachers to
monitor students’ progress and learning and to identify the difficulties that their
students encounter or have. It should provide the necessary information and
feedback to adapt and redirect instruction to ensure that students can meet
outcomes (North Carolina State Department, 1999, p. 14). It should also involve
identifying what students know and what they can do in the language (i.e., their
real ability to use the language), which the forms of traditional assessment fail to
provide (Richards & Renandya, 2002, p. 336). In addition, assessment should
focus on students’ performance rather than on their ability to manipulate the
English language in discrete items taken out of context. Moreover, it should
provide a total picture of the students’ ability in the English language rather than
the isolated snap shot provided by the tests (North Carolina State Department,
1999, p. 11).
In recent years, the shift from teacher-centered to communicative student-
centered EFL teaching approaches and methods has called for shifting from
traditional assessment methods to alternative assessment methods which are
more student-centered (Grabin, 2007, p. 2). Another factor behind the shift
towards alternative assessment might be the limitations of traditional assessment
which have led to a growing dissatisfaction with traditional assessment methods
and which has made teachers, educators, and researchers start thinking about a
more effective and friendly means of assessment, namely alternative
assessment. It was hoped that such a shift towards alternative assessment
would result in improvement in assessment, which, in turn, could result in
improvement in learning (Black & William, 1998, p. 7).
Reviewing the literature, the researcher found that traditional assessment
has several limitations. In EFL classrooms, traditional assessment often fails to

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meet the interest of teachers in identifying what their students can do in the
language (Richards & Renandya, 2002, p. 336). It usually measures students’
ability to recognize or recall (Grabin, 2007, p. 11) but not their ability to use
English holistically in real-life situations. It often masks what students really know
or can do in English (Huerta-Macías, 2002, p. 338) and its results are often not
true indicators of students’ performance, ability, or progress (Gottlieb, 2006, p.
100). In addition, most of its techniques, such as multiple-choice items and
Yes/No items cannot represent real-life language (Brown & Hudson, 1998, p.
659) and may facilitate cheating (Hughes, 2003, p. 78). They also focus mainly
on the discrete skills or elements of language (Stoynoff, 2012, p. 527) rather than
the overall language proficiency.
Moreover, traditional assessment is restricted to the end of a course or a
semester (Hughes, 2003, p. 5; North Carolina State Department, 1999, p. 14)
and there is no feedback provided to students in this type of assessment as
Bailey (1998) stated. This means that assessment is seen as an end in itself
rather than as an integral part to instruction. Besides, traditional assessment
gives rise to stress and anxiety in students (Huerta-Macías, 2002, p. 338), which
can affect their performance and achievement negatively.
II. Alternative Assessment
Alternative assessment refers to strategies that are utilized to ask students
to show what they can do (Grabin, 2007, p. 11). According to Huerta-Macías
(2002), alternative assessment refers to situations in which “students are
evaluated on what they integrate and produce rather than on what they are able
to recall and reproduce” (p. 339). In EFL contexts, alternative assessment
directly evaluates students’ English skills and shows their ability to use it (Opp-
Beckman & Klinghammer, 2006, p. 105). Although alternatives to traditional
assessment are referred to by different terms, such as alternative assessment,
authentic assessment, performance-based assessment, and direct assessment;
most alternatives share some common characteristics. They ask students to

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perform, produce, or do something; use tasks that represent meaningful
instructional activities; invoke real-world applications; and focus on processes as
well as products of learning (Herman et al., 1992, p. 6). According to Opp-
Beckman and Klinghammer (2006), alternative assessment has some
characteristics, including being based on course objectives, evaluating actual
student performance, involving students in the evaluation process, and having a
set of criteria that describe the desired achievement and that students should be
aware of (p. 107). In fact, setting criteria in alternative assessment is essential to
guide judgments and to help students to complete the activities on which they are
to be judged as Hamayan (1995) stated.
1. Reasons for using alternative assessment methods in EFL
classrooms
Although there are some issues, including reliability and validity, raised
against alternative assessment, the use of alternative assessment in EFL
classrooms is increasing. This is may be due to the benefits and advantages that
this type of assessment has for students and teachers as well. Reviewing the
literature, the researcher came out with some reasons that may stand behind
that. Actually, traditional assessment failed to provide teachers with what
students can do in the English language. Because of this, alternative assessment
methods have been proposed. As the alternative assessment methods replicate
real-world communication contexts and situations outside the classroom, they
measure students’ ability to use English holistically in real-life situations. Besides,
alternative assessment is a diagnostic tool that is carried out continuously over a
period of time rather than restricted to the end of a course or a year. In this, it can
offer a comprehensive and accurate picture of students’ overall competence in
English. In addition, alternative assessment is student-centered. This helps
students to be more involved in their learning and gives them a sense of control
for their own learning (Richards & Renandya, 2002, pp. 335- 336).

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Moreover, alternative assessment methods, such as self-assessment and
peer assessment train students to assess their performance and monitor their
own learning progress, which enables them to take some responsibility of their
own learning as Opp-Beckman and Klinghammer (2006) stated. In contrast with
traditional assessment, which shows students' knowledge about the language
rather than what students can do in the language, different types of alternative
assessment such as presentations show students ability to use English for an
actual purpose. With alternative assessment, students can demonstrate what
they have actually learnt and how well they can use what they have learnt (Opp-
Beckman & Klinghammer, 2006, p. 105). Further, alternative assessment offers a
wide range of assessment possibilities to address students’ different learning
styles. For example, some students might choose to demonstrate their
understanding by writing about something while others might prefer to perform or
to display visually. In contrast with traditional assessment, which focuses mainly
on products by evaluating results and outcomes of learning, alternative
assessment focuses on processes as well as products (North Carolina State
Department, 1999, pp. 26-27). According to Huerta-Macías (2002), alternative
assessment provides information on the strengths and weaknesses of each
individual student (p. 339). This can direct teachers and students to the areas
that need improvement.
2. Principles of effective alternative assessment
Apart from the common principles of validity, reliability, etc. which are
fundamental cornerstones of traditional assessment, Grabin (2007) referred to
eight other principles which can contribute to the effectiveness of alternative
assessment. The first principle is related to the purpose of assessment.
Alternative assessment should aim at improving learning. Therefore, teachers
should provide students with opportunities to practice tasks and activities of
various areas of performance, which can help them to acquire a variety of
important skills and to improve their learning. The second three principles are
related to the nature of alternative assessment tasks and activities and the

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instructions given. Alternative assessment should be based on authentic and
real-world tasks and activities in terms of getting students to deal with meaningful
situations similar to those of the real life. This can enable students to apply what
they learn to real-life situations. In order to help students to achieve assessment
tasks and activities successfully, teachers should provide students with clear
instructions, criteria, and guidelines. Besides, alternative assessment should be
feasible. This requires teachers to consider students’ knowledge, level, ability,
and the available time and resources when creating tasks and activities.
Assessment methods should be practical and its cost should be acceptable as
well.
Two other principles are related to the nature of assessment. Alternative
assessment should be a continuous process. This requires teachers to assess
students and monitor their progress and learning over time rather than at the end
of courses or semesters. Alternative assessment should also be connected with
the curriculum, the learning outcomes, and daily instruction and the assessment
methods should be related to what teachers are teaching in the classroom. The
last two principles are related to students. As alternative assessment was a result
of the shift from teacher-centered to student-centered teaching approaches and
methods, it is student-centered. Thus, alternative assessment methods should
work to facilitate and evaluate students' learning and assessment tasks and
activities should be built around topics and issues of interest to students. Further,
alternative assessment should be fair. Fairness in assessment involves
considering students’ individual differences in terms of familiarity, level, interest,
and motivation. It also involves having all students equal access to resources.
Taking these principles into account, EFL teachers can make assessment more
effective and successful, achieving the real purpose of assessment in EFL
classrooms, i.e., measuring students’ skills and knowledge and what they can do
with English.

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3. Common forms of alternative assessment
Alternative assessment is not limited to one single method, strategy, or
form. In EFL context, the term alternative assessment is used to refer to a variety
of different forms of assessment procedures (Opp-Beckman & Klinghammer,
2006, p. 105) that share some common characteristics as stated earlier and that
most of them aim at obtaining a holistic integrated representation of a student's
language (Hamayan, 1995, p. 218). This article sheds light on the most common
forms, namely performance assessment, self-assessment, and peer assessment.
3.1. Performance assessment
Performance assessment is an assessment in which the teacher observes
and makes a judgment about a student’s ability to create a product or perform a
task (North Carolina State Department, 1999, p. 265). It requires two things,
namely a task to perform or a product to create and some criteria for rating
performances and products (Opp-Beckman & Klinghammer, 2006, p. 107).
According to Gottlieb (2006), the criteria of assessment should be well-articulated
and shared with students through rubrics or scoring guides. Gottlieb thought that
the criteria can allow teachers and students to monitor and profile students’
language learning (p. 86). Besides, performance assessment should be
connected to the desired learning outcomes and directed towards achieving them
(Herman et al., 1992, p. 24). What is special about performance assessment is
that it is integral to the classroom instruction and the learning process. It is
authentic and can provide students with opportunity to express their learning in
direct ways that reflect real-life situations (Gottlieb, 2006, p. 111).
Performance assessment has several forms, such as performance-based
tasks, portfolios, journals, diaries, projects (Grabin, 2007, p. 56). In this article,
the focus will be on the two main forms, namely performance-based tasks and
portfolios. Performance-based tasks are “tasks that require students to employ
the knowledge and skills they have acquired by creating a product or delivering a
performance” (Grabin, 2007, p. 56). Using performance-based tasks to assess

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EFL students, teachers should consider some principles. According to Grabin
(2007), tasks or activities given to students should be authentic and directed with
specific objectives. Grabin also emphasized the importance of specifying some
criteria (whether in the form of a rubric, a rating scale, or a checklist) to guide
students in the development of their products or performances. In addition, when
assigning tasks to students, teachers should consider students’ interest and
individual differences to ensure fair assessment, selecting tasks that are
appropriate to students’ level and age as Yildirim and Orsdemir (2013) stated.
Yildirim and Orsdemir argued that in performance-based tasks, teachers should
consider not only the product but also the process itself and that tasks should
develop not only grammatical and vocabulary knowledge of a language but also
its skills (p. 565).
The process of creating and implementing a performance-based
assessment task in EFL classrooms has to pass some steps as North Carolina
State Department (1999) indicated. In the light of these steps, the following
example shows how to carry out a performance-based assessment task for
English speaking skill in elementary EFL classroom. The teacher, first, specifies
what language skill to evaluate (speaking skill) and decides what to assess (i.e.,
the assessment objectives which include assessing a student's ability to
introduce him/herself in English to the class; stating name, age, family, where
one lives, subjects, and hobbies; and closing). Then, the teacher chooses the
task (providing oral self-introduction) to get students show the target skill. Here,
the teacher should think about the administration of the task, i.e., whether the
task is done individually or in small groups, the time required for doing the task,
and how to collect responses. To be specific about what to observe, the teacher
defines the assessment criteria, namely pronunciation, fluency, information,
vocabulary, and grammar. In the light of the criteria, the teacher constructs a
rubric (i.e., the assessment instrument) which indicates what constitutes
excellent, good, or poor performance for each criterion. For example, regarding
the criterion pronunciation, if a student consistently pronounces words correctly,

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his performance is considered excellent; if a student generally pronounces words
correctly and makes some inconsistencies in pronunciation that do not impede
understanding of the words, his performance is considered good; but if a student
frequently pronounces words incorrectly and his pronunciation impedes
understanding of the words, his performance is considered poor. The teacher
should share the rubric with students to make them aware of the assessment
criteria. While the students do the task (i.e., they introduce themselves), the
teacher listens to them to assess their performance in the light of the rubric,
giving them feedback on their performance.
Using performance-based tasks to assess EFL students is beneficial and
advantageous. Performance-based assessment tasks require students to be
engaged in tasks that mirror real-life situations, which create opportunities for
them to produce authentic language (Grabin, 2007, p. 141). This means that
performance-based assessment tasks can indicate clearly what students know
and can do in English. Besides, they involve sharing rubrics with students and
communicating standards of assessment to them, which may increase students’
confidence due to their familiarity with the standards of assessment. In addition, it
makes students more engaged in learning (Griffith & Lim, 2012, p. 3).
The second main form of performance assessment is portfolios. A portfolio
is a practical way for assessing a student work throughout the entire year or
semester (Lotfi, 2012, p. 95). It is “a collection of student work over a period of
time” (Opp-Beckman & Klinghammer, 2006, p. 106). According to Paulson,
Paulson, and Meyer (1991), a portfolio is “a purposeful collection of student work
that exhibits the student's efforts, progress, and achievements in one or more
areas” (p. 60). This purposeful collection can usually give the teacher a clear idea
about students’ achievements, skills, efforts, abilities, and contributions to a
particular class (Brown & Hudson, 1998, p. 664) over a period of time and in one
or more learning areas.
To use portfolios for assessment three things should be considered: the
purpose of assessment should be defined, the criteria for determining what to put

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into the portfolio should be explained, and the criteria for assessing students’
work should be identified (Herman et al., 1992, p. 72). The criteria can even be
discussed with students (Zhang, 2009, p. 100) to make them more aware of them
and more involved in the process of assessment. To ensure an effective use of
portfolios, portfolios should be built from class assignments and matched with the
curriculum and its objectives as Zhang (2009) stated.
In portfolios, students can include whatever they believe to be important
for their learning process. They can include information, samples work, and
evaluations that serve as indicators for their performance. They can also include
samples of written work (written stories, essays, etc.), tapes of oral work (role-
playing, presentations, sketches, etc.), and checklists of tasks and performance
(Lotfi, 2012, p. 95). Moreover, students can include criteria of selection and
reflections (learning logs, journals, etc.) on their works (Paulson et al., 1991, p.
60),
Portfolios can be in a paper form or in an electronic one. In the electronic
portfolios, students use web 2.0 tools, such as wikis and blogs to upload their
works on the four skills of English or their reflections on their performance. Three
main types of portfolios can be considered for classroom use: assessment
portfolios, showcase portfolios, and collections portfolios. Based on Fiktorius
(2013), Lotfi (2012) and Zhang (2009), an assessment portfolio consists of items
that a student chooses to include according to certain assessment criteria. The
items included in this type of portfolio are scored or evaluated. While a showcase
portfolio contains students’ best pieces of work for each objective, a collection
portfolio, which is also called a working folder, is a collection of all the pieces of a
student’s work during a certain period of time.
According to Rao (2006), there is no single way for developing or
implementing portfolios. Rao proposed three portfolio categories which represent
a scheme for developing portfolios, namely collections, reflections, and
assessment; stating that each category represents a distinctive stage of the
portfolio development and has its own criteria that reflect its function. Regarding

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collections, decision about what to put in the portfolio is usually determined by
the purpose of the portfolio (Burnaz, 2011, p. 15). According to Rao (2006), it is
better to confine collections to one area, such as oral language development,
reading competence, listening comprehension, etc. Reflections - which can take
the form of a journal or diary, learning logs, self-assessment checklists, etc. - can
be on strategies of learning, students’ reactions (Rao, 2006, p. 116), problem
areas and difficulties, what has been learnt and what has still to be learnt, and
plans for improvement (Burnaz, 2011, p. 39). The third category, i.e. assessment,
is usually determined by the purpose of the portfolio which should be defined
clearly. If the purpose is to demonstrate growth or progress, the teacher can
make judgments about the evidence of progress and provide those judgments as
feedback to students or make note of them for her/his own records. Similarly,
students can use the portfolio to self-assess and monitor their progress (Mueller,
2014). If the portfolio is to be used for assessment purposes, the teacher should
determine when and how it should be evaluated (Mueller, 2014) and set up clear
assessment criteria (Rao, 2006, p. 118; Zhang, 2009, p. 100). The reliability and
validity of the contents should also be established and maintained. In addition,
data collection should be systematic and in alignment with curriculum goals and
objectives. Moreover, each piece of evidence should be coupled with specified
criteria in the form of a rubric or a descriptive scale (Rao, 2006, pp. 117-118).
The following example, which is adapted from Charvade, Jahandar, and
Khodabandehlou (2012), shows how to use portfolio assessment in intermediate
or upper-intermediate EFL classrooms to improve and monitor students’ reading
ability. After presenting the idea of portfolio assessment and its purpose and
components to students, the teacher identifies the purpose of the portfolio
assessment (which is monitoring students’ progress in reading ability over one
semester) and defines the portfolios assessment objectives. The list of
objectives, which should be given to students, represents the reading skills and
sub-skills that the portfolio should provide evidence that the students have
mastered. For example, one of the objectives of the portfolio is I can scan a text

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for specific information. Regarding the portfolio collections, the teacher asks
each student to complete 10 reading passages of various genres, giving them
some guidelines for selection. For each passage, the teacher tells students to
use a self-assessment checklist (See Table 1) to refer to the reading strategies
that they use to comprehend and understand the passage and a reading log
(See Table 2) to monitor their progress, to reflect on their strengths and
weaknesses or challenges in reading, and to set their plans for improving their
reading skill.
As the portfolio is used for assessment purposes, the teacher should set
some criteria for evaluating the portfolios and should make sure that the students
understand them. The assessment criteria may include variety (the passages are
of various genres), completeness (students collected the ten passages and
complete a self-assessment checklist and a reading log for each passage),
growth (the work represents student’s growth and progress in reading ability),
organization (the contents are organized systematically), following directions
(students followed the teacher’s directions for selecting the portfolio pieces), and
neatness (student work is neat) (North Carolina State Department, 1999, pp.
196-197). The teacher should keep on monitoring students’ progress from time to
time (e.g. at the end of every month). He may even need to hold conferences to
discuss students’ progress. At the end of the semester, the teacher collects
students’ portfolios and evaluates them in the light of the stated criteria.
Table 1
Student’s Self-assessment Checklist
Please, tick each item to indicate the reading strategy you used to understand the
passage:
No The Reading Strategy Yes No
1 I use my background knowledge.
2
I use context as well as parts of words to work out the
meaning of unknown words.

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Table 2
Student’s Reading Log
Date:
My progress in reading comprehension Excellent – good - acceptable
I am good at
I need to work on
I can improve my reading ability by
Using portfolios in EFL classrooms to assess students is useful and
effective. According to Lotfi (2012), portfolio assessment promotes students’
autonomy and creates opportunities for them to take responsibility of their own
learning, to make choices and decisions about their learning, and to plan their
learning activities. It can also offer authentic information about students’
progress, helping them monitor and reflect on their own learning progress (Lotfi,
2012). In addition, portfolio assessment enables students to be involved in their
learning and assessment, promoting their motivation, and helping them to see
their weaknesses, strengths, and development in different skills and areas
(Burnaz, 2011, pp. 15-16). What is special about portfolios is that they can be
used in classes of any age or proficiency level (Opp-Beckman & Klinghammer,
2006, p. 106) and applicable to all language skills and systems (Charvade et al.,
2012, p. 137).
3.2. Peer assessment
Peer assessment is an arrangement for students to “evaluate each other’s
work, using pre-set guidelines” (Opp-Beckman & Klinghammer, 2006, p. 104).
According to Miller (2002), the basic idea behind peer assessment is to provide
3 I scan the text for specific information.
4 I skim the text to get its main idea.
5 I identify links between sentences.
6 I identify parts of speech in sentences.

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opportunities for students to evaluate themselves and their work more critically
(p. 10). To ensure effective peer assessment, students should use clearly
defined guidelines to assess each other’s work (Azarnoosh, 2013, p. 3). Thus,
teachers usually find it useful to provide students with checklists, rating scales, or
rubrics when implementing peer assessment. Besides, students should be
trained on how to give and use feedback and have a clear idea about peer
assessment.
The process of creating and implementing peer assessment in EFL
classroom has to pass some stages. Peng (2009) proposed an implementation
process scheme for peer assessment. The scheme involves three main phases:
Pre-implementation phase, implementation phase, and post-implementation
phase. Each phase has its own purpose and procedures. Based on the said
scheme, the following example, which is adapted from Peng (2009), shows how
to create and implement peer assessment for oral presentation of intermediate or
upper-intermediate EFL students. In the pre-implementation phase, the teacher,
defining the task and its purpose, asks students, in groups of five, to choose their
own topics for presentation. The teacher should give students enough time for
preparation. After discussing and setting with students the assessment criteria,
the teacher prepares the assessment tool (See Table 4). For better
understanding of the requirements, the teacher can provide students with a rubric
(See Table 3) which should be prepared in the light of the criteria of assessment
and the level of students. The teacher should provide students with copies of the
assessment tool and the rubric, giving them some time to work on.
In the implementation phase, the teacher, first demonstrates how to
conduct the peer assessment method to strengthen students’ confidence and
lower their anxiety. Then, he can ask the students to give their presentations.
While a group of students is giving their presentation, both the teacher and the
rest of the class assess the performance of the individual members of the group
by completing the peer assessment form in the light of the rubric. The teacher
should also monitor the peer assessment process and the quality of peer

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feedback. After carrying out the peer assessment, the teacher collects peer
assessment forms and reviews them, giving students constructive feedback on
their performance.
Table 3
Oral Presentation Rubric
Criteria 1 (Poor) 2 (Average) 3 (Good) 4 (Excellent)
Organization
There is no
sequence of
information that
audience cannot
follow
presentation.
Presenter jumps
around that
audience has
difficulty to
follow
presentation.
Presenter
presents
information in
quite logical
sequence that
audience can
follow.
Presenter
presents
information in
logical and
interesting
sequence that
audience can
follow.
Fluency
There is lack of
fluency with bad
intonation,
constant
hesitation, and
pauses.
Fluency is
inadequate with
intonation
problems and
frequent
hesitation and
pauses.
There are some
pauses and
hesitation but
complete
thoughts and
relatively
accurate
intonation.
Speech is
continuous with
very few pauses,
natural
intonation, and
little or no
hesitation.
Pronunciation
Most words are
pronounced
incorrectly.
Some words are
pronounced
incorrectly.
Most words are
pronounced
correctly.
All words are
pronounced
correctly.
Non-verbal
communication
Presenter never
makes eye
contact with the
audience. No
movement or
descriptive
Presenter
sometimes
makes eye
contact with the
audience. Very
few movements
Presenter usually
makes eye
contact with the
audience. He
makes
movements or
Presenter
always makes
eye contact with
the audience.
Movements
seem fluid and

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gestures. or descriptive
gestures.
gestures that
enhance
articulation.
help the
audience
visualize.
Verbal
communication
Presenter does
not speak
clearly. It is
difficult for the
audience to
understand.
Presenter
sometimes
speaks clearly
and at a good
pace. Most of
the time,
audience find it
difficult to
understand.
Most of the time,
presenter
speaks clearly
and at a good
pace. It is easy
for the audience
to understand.
Presenter
speaks very
clearly and at a
good pace. It is
very easy for the
audience to
understand.
Confidence
Presenter is not
confident at all.
He reads from
notes.
Presenter is
quite confident.
He sometimes
reads from
notes.
Presenter is
almost
confident. He
rarely returns to
notes.
Presenter is very
confident. He
never looks at
notes.
* The rubric is developed in the light of some rubrics from different sources,
namely NCTE/IRA (2004), STUDYLIB (2015), TextLab (2015), and Toth
(2015).
Table 4
Oral Presentation Form
Presenter’s Name: ............................................. Date: ........................
Please, use (√) to rate the oral presentation of your fellow student:
Criteria Poor Average Good Excellent
Organization
Fluency
Pronunciation
Non-verbal communication
Verbal communication
Confidence

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Integrating peer assessment into EFL classrooms can result in a lot of
benefits for EFL students. Peer assessment can promote students’ autonomy
and independence, increase their motivation, enhance their personal
responsibility, and improve their self-confidence as Peng (2009) indicated. It can
also improve interaction among students, help them to develop collaborative
skills and create opportunities for them to learn from each other, to talk in
English, and to get more feedback on their performance or products (Peng,
2009). Besides, peer assessment can play an important role in making students
more aware of the course objectives. According to Gottlieb (2006), peer
assessment promotes students’ involvement in their own learning and helps
them to monitor their own progress (p. 94). Gottlieb added that peer assessment
is an effective means for having students to practice language with each other (p.
145). Similarly, Azarnoosh (2013) stated that peer assessment gives students
opportunities for interaction which is important in the development of a language.
3.3. Self-assessment
Self-assessment is a process in which students actively evaluate
themselves, which may help them to develop self-awareness and better
understanding of learning outcomes (Miller, 2002, p. 8). It does not mean that
students assess themselves in the form of grades (Moheidat &
Baniabdelrahman, 2011, p. 51). It is just a reflection made by students on their
performance, ability, or progress. In EFL contexts, self-assessment can refer to
procedures by which the students themselves evaluate their English language
skills and knowledge (Bailey, 1998, p. 227). To ensure successful self-
assessment, it is essential to establish clear criteria for students to use when
they assess their own performance or product.
Like peer assessment, the process of creating and implementing self-
assessment in classroom has to pass three main phases which represent a
scheme for implementing self-assessment in EFL classrooms: Pre-

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implementation phase, implementation phase, and post-implementation phase.
Each phase has its own purpose and procedures. In the light of this scheme, the
following example shows how to use self-assessment in EFL writing pre-
intermediate classroom. The teacher after teaching some aspects of writing,
namely punctuation marks and sentence structures wanted to assess students'
ability to apply the points and tips taught using self-assessment method. In the
pre-implementation phase of self-assessment, the teacher, defining the task and
its purpose, asks students to write a paragraph and apply the points and tips
taught. He provides students with an assessment tool (See Table 5) to use it to
assess their pieces of writing. Here, the teacher should encourage impartial self-
evaluation of the performance or product as Meihami and Varmaghani (2013)
stated.
In the implementation phase, the teacher provides students with a piece of
writing containing the aspects taught, demonstrating how to assess it in the light
of the self-assessment checklist. Then, he asks students to write a piece of
writing and apply the points and tips taught. Students do the task and then
assess their pieces of writing using the self-assessment checklist. The teacher
should monitor and help students (if they do the task in the classroom). In the
post-implementation, there should be a systematic follow-up in the form of either
a written feedback from the teacher on students’ work, a journal reflection, a
conference, or any other technique as Meihami and Varmaghani (2013) stated.
Therefore, after conducting self-assessment, the teacher collects the self-
assessment checklists and pieces of writing and gives students feedback on their
work.
Table 5
Self-assessment Checklist for the Piece of Writing
Please, tick each item to reflect on your piece of writing:
No Items Yes No
1 Are commas used where necessary?

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2 Is there a full stop at the end of every sentence?
3 Are all sentences and names capitalized?
4 Do all the sentences contain at least one subject and one verb
and express a complete thought?
5 Does your piece of writing contain a variety of sentence types
(i.e., simple, compound, and complex)?
* The self-assessment checklist is adapted mainly from Honsa (2013).
Many advantages can be gained from implementing self-assessment in
EFL classrooms. Self-assessment can help students to improve their English
language skills: writing (Meihami & Varmaghani, 2013), reading (Moheidat &
Baniabdelrahman, 2011), and listening and speaking (Shahrakipour, 2014). It
also encourages active participation of students in their learning and evaluation
(Shahrakipour, 2014, p. 1), which can increase students’ motivation and promote
their autonomy, independence, and life-long learning skills (Honsa, 2013, p. 50;
Shahrakipour, 2014, p. 1). In addition, it gives students more control over their
learning and increases their responsibility towards it (Gottlieb, 2006, p. 141;
Honsa, 2013, p. 49; Shahrakipour, 2014, p. 1), making them more involved in
their own learning (Gottlieb, 2006, p. 94) and more aware of the assessment
criteria and directing them to identify their weaknesses and strengths (Honsa,
2013, p. 50; Shahrakipour, 2014, p. 1) and to monitor their improvement in areas
of weaknesses. What is special about self-assessment is that it may lead to more
confidence as Shahrakipour (2014) indicated.
III. Conclusion
Assessment can be an integral part of instruction through the use of
alternative assessment methods. The current article tried to provide a simple and
practical guide for EFL teachers to use alternative assessment in EFL
classrooms. It presented examples of various proficiency levels and of different
language skills with a view to indicating that alternative assessment is

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appropriate for students of any proficiency level and that alternative assessment
in not restricted to one particular language skill; it is rather applicable to all
language skills and systems. The article also highlighted the advantages and
benefits of alternative assessment and how integrating it into instruction can be
beneficial and advantageous for EFL students and teachers.
Yet, the literature indicated that alternative assessment has some
disadvantages and obstacles, including the need for training teachers and
students on this type of assessment, the large amount of time and effort it takes
to create and administer assessment tasks and activities, the size of classes
which may not always help to implement it, students' resistance to participate in
self- and peer assessment due to their belief that they have not the right to
assess themselves or their peers or due to their belief that assessment is the job
of teachers only. Besides, there are some other issues, such as objectivity,
accuracy, and consistency that are raised against alternative assessment.
However, it is not fair to deal with alternative assessment only in the light of these
terms. Apart from grading purposes which the researcher does not recommend
using some of alternative assessment methods for, alternative assessment has
major functions and advantages in EFL classroom. Further, teachers can
maximize objectivity, accuracy, and consistency of this type of assessment
through more practice, training, setting clear assessment criteria, providing
feedback for students on their work, and considering students' level, interest, and
ability when creating tasks and activities.
As an advocate of using alternative assessment in EFL classroom, the
researcher has started to use some of its methods, namely peer assessment and
self-assessment, in his EFL classroom. It is true that the researcher did that on a
small scale and not for grading purposes, yet he found it useful for his students.
Thus, the researcher recommends EFL teachers to think seriously about using
alternative assessment in their EFL classrooms and report its effect on their
students and their learning. The researcher believes that once an EFL teacher
becomes willing to use alternative assessment in his/her classroom and familiar

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with the procedures and requirements of implementing it, has the necessary
skills and knowledge to use alternative assessment, and trains his students on its
methods; he/she will find it interesting and useful. Starting to use alternative
assessment in EFL classroom, teachers should be cautious about using its
methods for grading purposes, especially self-assessment, peer assessment,
and portfolios as this may not accurately reflect students' ability or knowledge in
English and may fix students’ attention on getting good marks only, which is not
the purpose of these alternative methods.
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