ABSTRACT
T&I programmes aim to produce self-reliant graduates capable of judging their own work against agreed criteria and increasing their levels of competence over the course of their careers. An essential element to achieve this goal is student-centred assessment, i.e. ‘assessment as learning’ (AaL) (also known as ‘sustainable assessment’), which requires students to critically and actively analyse and reflect on their learning progress and thus to guide new learning. The purpose of this study is to examine the validity and washback of self-assessment (SA), a particular form of AaL. The participants were 54 undergraduate translation majors enrolled in a sight translation course and their instructor. The students conducted four SAs of their translation performance which were also assessed by the teacher using the same criteria. The results show: the students’ SA correlates positively with teacher assessment; their SA accuracy improved over time with regular repetition; and SA promotes positive learning attitudes among learners. The findings provide further evidence on the validity of SA as a learning technique and suggest positive washback associated with learning and learners. It is hoped that this study will increase awareness of the validity and positive washback of the use of SA in T&I classrooms.
