Impact of Metacognitive Awareness on Self-Assessment Skills of Lower-Intermediate Level EFL Students

This study focuses on the relationship between lower-intermediate level EFL learners’ metacognitive awareness and accuracy in self-assessment of a speaking test. We tried to raise the learners’ metacognitive awareness through practice in goal-setting and planning. To do so, 103 lower-intermediate level students took a pretest of speaking, completed a metacognitive awareness questionnaire, and had an immediate recall interview. Next, they were divided into 2 groups and attended a course in which the students in 1 group received goal-setting and planning treatments. After administration of the posttests, the findings revealed that the goal-setting and planning treatment led the learners to gain higher levels of metacognitive awareness, t(101) = 2.45, p =. 019, and this increased awareness could increase their accuracy in self-assessment. Such findings indicate that presenting the objectives of different tasks to learners and goal-setting can be applied in language learning classes to enhance their awareness and improve their self-assessment skills.