Self-assessment as a self-regulated learning approach in English oral presentations: College students’ choices and perceptions

Abstract Recently, alternative assessment (AA) has gained huge attention in oral ‎communication studies. An area that has progressively received momentous concerns in ‎the EFL/ESL literature is the employment of the self-assessment method. Despite this concern, ‎the empirical data on the college of engineering students’ willingness to implement self-assessment, their ‎perceptions towards it, and the impact of factors on their attitudes remain scant. Therefore, in ‎an attempt to contribute to this research-based, this study tries to investigate the engineering students’ perceptions towards self-assessments on developing their ‎oral presentation skills in an engineering scope. To accomplish this aim, the study recruited ‎‎110 participants. The study delved into the engineering students’ perceptions of ‎self-assessment strategy in two stages (pre-and post-questionnaire) in performing technical oral ‎presentations. A questionnaire was distributed to the students before and after ‎implementing the assessment. The findings revealed that the students possessed positive perceptions pertaining to self-assessment in both ‎stages, pre-and post-self-assessment.


Introduction
Self-assessment (SA) has frequently been implemented as an alternative assessment technique in recent years. Subsequently, this has basically brought a profound change in assessment procedures and aims (Alek et al., 2020;Yan, 2020). Two significant roles of academic assessment were pointed out: assessment of learners "intends to improve the quality of learning . . . and the accreditation of knowledge or performance" (Boud, 1990, p. 120  as summative and formative assessments. Summative assessment responds to needs derived from the external world, for instance, expectations of parents of how much their kid has learned during a period of time while formative assessment tries to understand learners' needs throughout a learning process (Wen & Tsai, 2003). However, some researchers have argued that tertiary classroom practices often neglect formative assessments and alternative assessment techniques, such as self-assessment, should be included to assist learners to become more dynamic, responsible and self-reflective and independent learners (Sambell & McDowell, 1998).
In spite of technology-driven societies, the ability to be a good presenter continues to be a significant skill for engineering students at university levels. Final assessments, the end-ofsemester examination of knowledge, usually have taken the form of written essays in higher education (Al-Nouh et al., 2015). Learning has improved due to several factors. Firstly, learners need, besides academic progress, to be prepared for the world of employment through the improvement of ample skills in technical oral presentations, for which alternative forms of assessment are required such as self-assessment. Second, students need to experience a variety of assessment methods that take into account of their different learning styles and that allow them also to demonstrate their technical oral presentation abilities in multiple ways (Irvine, 2012Yan et al., 2020. One way of assessing proficiency in oral presentation is through self-assessments. Self-assessment strategy or self-evaluation is a process where an engineering student marks his/her own oral presentations (De Grez et al., 2012;Salehi & Daryabar, 2014). A number of researchers have constantly scrutinized whether engineering students are able to perform an essential contribution to their own evaluation . Self-assessment also named self-rating, self-evaluation or self-appraisal has been often used to enhance tertiary student-centered learning. Many studies pointed out that self-assessment strategy was reliable Salehi & Daryabar, 2014). In this regard, assessment reliability refers to the consistency of the scores or grades made by a measurement instrument that could be defined in various ways. For instance, one study (De Grez et al., 2012) stated that language classes of EFL university students in the United States could effectively grade their own oral presentation skills. In addition, another case of success with self-assessment strategy implementation was revealed in Bachman and Palmer's (1989) research. The research examined a number of undergraduate students' skills with the French language in the USA, to approximate their own language presentation skills. It was realized that the general accuracy of self-assessment of students was remarkable. Furthermore, a number of scholars noted that the self-assessment strategy was a successful and effective technique among undergraduate students at tertiary levels. Thus, it is demonstrated that the self-assessment technique was a reliable method of augmenting students' competencies and abilities.

Theoretical model for self-assessment strategy
The theoretical model for self-assessment by Rolheiser (1996) justifies the way self-assessment contributes to learning. Research indicates that self-assessment plays an important role in raising a learning upward cycle. Based on his framework, self-assessment encourages students to set goals, which result in requiring personal efforts. The integration of goals set by students and the personal efforts equal achievement. The achievement results in self-judgment, such as a student contemplating the question, "Were my goals met?" The result of the self-judgment is self-reaction, or a student responding to the judgment with the question, "How do I feel about that?" According to Rolheiser (1996) "Goals, effort, achievement, self-judgment, and self-reaction all can combine to impact self-confidence in a positive way", as indicated in Figure1.
In the student-centered learning framework, Rolheiser (1996) has suggested that the increase of the interest in students' self-assessment strategy among researchers stem from the recognition of the potentially positive role that self-assessment plays both in learning and in the development of professional competence of the students. This interest must be realized in the light of the altering goals of higher education where the emphasis is no longer about making students knowledgeable within the spheres of their study, but also to equip them with transferable skills for successful functioning in professional life. The enhancement of students' skills in assessing their own performances in ways applicable in the future profession is a valuable skill (Stefani, 1994). It has been asserted that self-assessment strategy is inevitable for successful learning and a critical technique for learning beyond the university context. Furthermore, making an accurate sense of their own strengths and weaknesses of their own performances, and the ability and willingness to use knowledge of their own achievements to orientate their study into productive directions are essential characteristics of successful students (Boud, 1989).

Self-assessment in self-regulated learning framework
In self-regulated learning, self-assessment strategy has been associated with moves towards developing greater student responsibility and autonomy in learning. Numerous authors hold that processes of self-regulated learning would enable students to direct and regulate their actions pertaining to goals of information acquisition and self-improvement in the performance of their oral presentations (Lew et al., 2010). Self-assessment technique has also been related to the term authentic assessment and the expansion of metacognitive skills. According to Ritchie (2016), one of the main purposes of self-assessment is to encourage learners to become more actively engaged in reviewing their learning process (oral presentations), particularly when they are assigned to perform technical oral presentations. Self-assessment strategy is the key aspect of the assessment of both the products and the processes of daily learning so that learners learn in order to reflect on their own works and to evaluate their efforts, perceptions towards the self-assessment, and accomplishments they could achieve via the self-assessment, not merely their past grades. Ritchie (2016) has also stressed that as self-assessment strategy includes both reflection and evaluation of one's work, self-assessment helps to develop autonomous and responsible students who are able of regulating their own learning. These features of students' learning are considered significant in assisting them to become independent and autonomous learners who are capable of controlling their performances in delivering technical oral presentations and enhancing their non-verbal and verbal (language) communication skills when they are tasked to deliver the oral presentations in their classes, at the workplace, or to pave the way for their viva voce presentations.

Goals Efforts
Self-confidence Self-reaction Self-judgment Achievements Self-evaluation

Research questions
The present study aims to answer the following research questions as follows: (1) What are the perceptions of the engineering students before and after experiencing self-assessment technique in the context of delivering English oral presentations?
(2) How do engineering students perceive their eligibility and self-awareness in selfassessing their English oral presentation skills?

Self-Assessment training among engineering undergraduates students
The engineering undergraduates were assigned to attend a workshop pertaining to selfassessment strategy. The workshop was held at the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Earth Resources. It was performed by the authors of the study as experts from the department of English. The workshop lasted for about 6 hours training the students on how self-assessment should be conducted and the effective way that could be taken into consideration for them to have a useful comprehensive background in implementing self-assessment in their performances. The trainees were so interested in asking questions and raising inquiries about self-assessment. At the end of the training, the students were keen to use this technique in their future academic and professional performances to boost their abilities.

Pre-and post-questionnaire
Quantitative data was obtained via a set of questionnaires. A five-point Likert-scale questionnaire was used to investigate engineering undergraduates' perceptions toward self-assessment. The questionnaire was adapted from the questionnaires of Wen, Tsai, and Chang (2006), Peng (2010), Kovač, and Sirkovic (2012).The questionnaire was checked by two academic experts from the English Language Department in order to ensure clearness and face validity of the questionnaire. The questionnaire comprises two main sections: Section A and section B. Section A contains the demographic background of the participants, which includes age, gender, matric number, and study major. Section B comprises 18 items that reveal the participants' perceptions regarding selfassessment strategy in performing technical oral presentations.

Reliability of the instrument
In this study, a pilot study was conducted with engineering undergraduates to obtain the reliability of the questionnaire. According to Creswell (2012), a pilot study as a small-scale study administered before conducting actual study. Its main purpose is to reveal weaknesses in the research plan. Zohrabi (2013) posits that a pilot test is a small-scale preliminary study conducted to evaluate feasibility, cost, time, adverse events, and effect size (statistical variability) in an attempt to predict an appropriate sample size and improve upon the study design prior to performing a fullscale research project. It was conducted to ascertain that the questionnaire items were clearly understood by the participants. The sample of the pilot study consisted 30 engineering undergraduates; 15 female and 15 male engineering undergraduates who enrolled in the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Earth Resources.
According to Merriam (1998) the reliability of research instruments concern with the score or degree to which results are consistent during a period of time, and if the outcome of an investigation can be produced again, then the instruments are acknowledged to be reliable. The reliability coefficient of the pilot study is .806 Cronbach alpha as demonstrated in Table 1. It indicates that the questionnaire is satisfactory and reliable for the study goals. The data of the pilot study were computed using the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS), version 21. According to Creswell et al. (2003), the reliability of the questionnaire is that it should be 0.7 at least or higher.
In conducting the actual data, the participants of the study were asked to fill out the same questionnaire at the beginning of the semester (pre-questionnaire) and at the end of it (postquestionnaire); so that the comparisons between the questionnaires could be made. A five-point Likert scale was involved in the process of data collection of the study. (1 = strongly disagree, 2 = disagree, 3 = neutral, 4 = agree, and 5 = strongly agree). The scale was distributed to the participant in order to examine their perceptions of the self-assessment technique and the role it played in delivering technical oral presentations.
The questionnaire items of the current study are concerned with the perceptions of the engineering students towards self-assessment in delivering technical oral presentations. There are four components in section B of the questionnaire namely learning, self-eligibility and self-awareness, social interaction, motivation and speaking. The component of learning asked about the selfassessment in learning and realizing the requirement of the lecturers' assessment towards the task, for instance, "Self-assessment makes me understand more about lecturer's requirement in technical oral presentation". Furthermore, self-awareness and interaction seeks to identify the engineering students' social interaction, to increase engagement of the engineering students between their lecturers, for example, "Self-assessment helps me to develop a sense of participation". The eligibility and self-awareness of the students deals with the ability of the engineering students in evaluating their own performances, particularly when they have been assigned to deliver technical oral presentations, "I think students are eligible to assess their own performances". Motivation asks about the self-assessment strategy in helping the engineering students to be encouraged in delivering oral presentations, "Being graded by myself encourages me to participate more in technical oral presentations". The component of speaking deals with the engineering students' self-assessment of their speaking skills, particularly when they have been tasked to perform technical oral presentations, for instance, "Self-assessment creates more opportunities for me to evaluate my speaking skills".

Participants
The engineering students were the participants from the college of engineering, Department of Civil Engineering & Earth Resources (FCEER). They were in semester 7th of the undergraduate engineering study. The participants were taking degrees in various programs under the same faculty, the programmes included: Soil Engineering Structure, Environmental Engineering, and Highway, as detailed out in Table 2: The engineering students were randomly chosen to participate in an Undergraduate Research Project (URP) course which was an obligatory course requirement. In this course, the engineering students were also mandatory to perform oral presentations as a compulsory course requirement of the Faculty of Civil Engineering & Earth Resources.
To measure the perceptions of the engineering students on the self-assessment in the performance of oral presentations, 5 factors were included in the questionnaire namely: 1-Learning, 2- Self eligibility and self-awareness, 3-Social interaction, 4-Speaking, and 5-Motivation. The items were categorized based on these factors as demonstrated in Table 3 In order to simplify the statistical analysis, the perceptions of the engineering students were categorized under three main headings: low, average, and high, as demonstrated in Table 4. The headings and the engineering students' perceptions in pre-and-post SA implementation are as follows:

Data analysis
The researchers used Statistical Data of Social Sciences (SPSS) to analyze the questionnaire data. Descriptive statistics, which included Mean (M.) and Standard Deviations (Std.), were used in the current data analysis process. Descriptive statistics were used to identify the perceptions of the engineering students on self-assessment in developing their communication competencies in oral presentations.

Results
The purpose of the study is to identify the perceptions of the engineering students pertaining to self-assessment in performing technical oral presentations. Mean and Standard Deviation of both pre-and post-questionnaire analyses have been shown in the following Table 5.
According to Table 5, the findings showed that the perceptions of the engineering undergraduates were based on the 5 aspects. It demonstrated high mean values in all aspects. The highest factors in Table 5 was speaking, which had a mean of (M = 4.03) followed by learning which had a mean of (M = 3.95). In addition, the scores of the three aspects, which are, self-eligibility and selfawareness, social interaction, and motivation were demonstrated as respectively (M = 3.81; M = 3.84; and M = 3.76). Generally, the engineering students pointed out high positive perceptions towards the implementation of self-assessment in developing communication competencies of oral presentations. Furthermore, the findings reveal that the participants have shown self-eligibility and self-awareness regarding self-assessment strategy in delivering oral presentation performances. This justifies that the engineering students realize the significance of the assessment in enhancing their oral presentation competences Similarly, the results shown in Table 5 revealed the engineering students' perceptions (postquestionnaire) after implementing the self-assessment technique in oral presentations. The result showed high mean values in all five aspects. The highest aspect in Table 5 was learning, which had a mean of (M = 4.03) followed by speaking which had a mean of (M = 3.99). In addition, the scores of the three aspects, namely self-eligibility, social interaction, and motivation were demonstrated   Overall, the findings indicated a high mean value for the pre-questionnaire and the postquestionnaire, however, the post-questionnaire scores revealed slightly higher grades than the pre-questionnaire (M = 3.87; SD = 0.85) and (M = 3.92; SD = 0.78) respectively as it is demonstrated in Figure 2. Slightly higher grades (in measuring their perceptions) may indicate that the participants could realize the value and the impact of self-assessments on their performances.
Perception refers to students' consciousness, mental image and feelings that shape their behavior (Bui & Intaraprasert, 2013). In the present study, perceptions referred to the feelings, awareness and opinions of engineering students towards the self-assessment strategy used in enhancing the engineering students' oral presentation skills. In other words, perceptions would be concerned with the impressions or dispositions of the students to respond favorably or unfavorably towards the assessment implemented in technical oral presentations. Positive perceptions in the current study referred to a willingness among the engineering students and their attention towards using the self-assessment strategy in delivering oral presentations. Additionally, negative perceptions referred to the opinions of the engineering students towards self-assessment strategy in developing their verbal and non-verbal communication skills in oral presentations.

Discussion
The result of the present study indicated that the engineering students revealed positive perceptions pertaining to the assessment in the stages (pre-and post-questionnaire). The present study was supported by Salehi and Daryabar (2014). They found that EFL undergraduates had positive perceptions about the self-assessment in performing their oral presentations. Furthermore, the findings of a study conducted by Benraghda and Radzuan (2018) concurred with the results of the current study. The researchers found that the perception of the engineering students toward the self-assessments was positive. The results showed that implementing self-assessment among Malaysian engineering students could be successful in overcoming students' presentation hindrances, particularly when they were tasked to perform oral presentations. Thus, the outcome of Benraghda and Radzuan's (2018) study had a clear implication. It supported the notion that engineering educators should use self-assessment among the engineering students as an opportunity for autonomous learning to lessen their apprehension and also to boost communication competencies of oral presentations of undergraduates in engineering workplaces. Similarly, the findings of another past study conducted by Elliott and Higgins (2005) corroborated the findings of the current study. Majority of the students (83%) in their study had considered selfassessment as a fair technique in assessing individual performance as well as an acknowledgment of students' contribution to the performance as most of the participants had strongly agreed with a statement that "self-assessment meant that my contribution to the performances was valued" (Elliott & Higgins, 2005, p. 43) and a considerably high percentage of the students (70%) believed it to be a fair method of awarding grades. Nevertheless, even though participants in both the past and the present studies perceived highly in favor of self-assessment, the medical students in the past study conducted by Elliott and Higgins (2005) did not share the same aim of using self-assessment as to the engineering undergraduates in the present study. Elliott and Higgins (2005) had employed selfassessment to promote the medical students' participation in group-work performance and delivery of group oral presentations on program project of nursing and midwifery studies which resulted in the "students made the recommendation to continue using this form of self-assessment for group work" (p. 43) while the researchers in the present study used self-assessment to view the engineering students' perceptions to enhance their individual technical oral presentation skills.
Furthermore, the findings of a more recent study conducted by  have been found to be highly consistent with those of the current study. Their study revealed that engineering undergraduates' perceptions towards the self-assessment had been positive (M = 3.95; SD = 1.17) which were similar to the present findings where the overall result of the engineering undergraduates indicated positive perceptions (M = 3.92; SD = .78; see, Table 6). Both studies discovered that implementing self-assessment as a strategy was not only perceived positively by the engineering students but also enhanced their verbal and nonverbal skills of oral presentations despite a having distinction in terms of the timing of the administration of the questionnaire among the students. In the former, the questionnaire was distributed after the students had been introduced to self-assessment while in the latter, the questionnaire was distributed before and after the students began to assess their own performances. Self-assessment is also referred to alternative assessment. For instance, De Grez et al. (2012) had explored the perceptions of the freshmen students pertaining to alternative assessment (i.e., self-assessment) in delivering oral presentations. It was revealed that the participants in their study had possessed very positive perceptions and opinions about the alternative assessment, which were highly similar to those of the current findings, albeit referred to as self-assessment. Furthermore, there had been a significant increase between the mean score during the first time of the administration of the questionnaire (M = 3.67) and that of the second (M = 4.11) with regard to positive perceptions towards self-assessment (t = 4.11;p = < .001;De Grez et al., 2012). Both the findings of the past and the present studies indicated that the process involved in employing the self-assessment strategy had an effect on perceptions in a positive way. It was likely assumed that the positive perceptions as revealed in the two studies (De Grez et al., 2012 and the current study) on self-assessment would influence the students' willingness to take into account the feedback generated by self-assessment and actually do something (i.e., make an effort) with their own feedback in delivering oral presentations (i.e., to enhance their presentation skills). The positive perceptions would also likely be reflected in the scoring of the instructional components as students declared that they learned most from the feedback.

Conclusion
Self-assessment as an alternative evaluation technique has been employed in the classroom as a strategy to increase tertiary student participation by actively involving the students in the assessment process for recent decades (Dolezal et al., 2018;Onah & Sinclair, 2017). Engineering students' perceptions in the pre-and post-self-assessment implementation were revealed to be the main aspect that hindered successful oral presentation performances as it is demonstrated by (Benraghda et al., 2015). Thus, this study examined the engineering students' perceptions towards self-assessment in technical oral presentations in an academic context. The engineering students' outcomes are basically determined by their perceptions, mainly when they are assigned to deliver an oral presentation (Radzuan & Kaur, 2016). Successful or unsuccessful accomplishments of university undergraduates were determined by their perceptions pertaining to the contextual positions which were experienced by the engineering students. The results of this research which demonstrated that engineering students possessed positive perceptions, could imply that these engineering students are ready to accept self-assessment method in their learning to improve their communication competencies of the oral presentations. In addition, the use of selfassessment method may help students in identifying certain areas where they possibly need support and assistance (Baecher et al., 2013;Murphy & Barry, 2016;Reitmeier & Vrchota, 2009;Stein et al., 2020;Tsang, 2017), once these areas are clearly identified, they may seek assistance from their engineering lecturers or their supportive mates. As an alternative assessment, the self- assessment strategy has the potential to transform engineering students' perceptions and awareness of their technical learning, and may inspire them to become better autonomous learners in engineering workplaces (Khonamri et al., 2021;Radzuan & Kaur, 2011;Suñol et al., 2016).

Pedagogical implications
The most realistic implications of the present findings of the study are for communication learning and teaching. Recently, there has constantly been an attempt to find more effective strategies and practices for communication learning (Eva et al., 2020). The following pedagogical implications are presented based on the findings and conclusions drawn from the current research study.
Self-assessment strategy can turn a class from a teacher-centered classroom to a learnercentered one. The teacher has to focus on the students' ongoing learning in the classroom by using this assessment as a way to improve the students' oral presentation skills. In addition, the teacher should help the students to monitor their own performances by awarding scores to their own performances by taking into account the verbal and non-verbal communication skills enhancements, particularly English language skills and delivery skills among the tertiary students.
Lecturers can employ the outcome of the current research to design activities, tasks, and assignments which inspire both lecturers and undergraduates (university students) to conduct self-assessment strategy. The activities that should be conducted by university lecturers with the students through self-assessment can be, but not limited to, for instance, group discussions, debates, and job interviews. An example of conducting a job interview activity is demonstrated as follows: A job interview is an interview consisting of a conversation between a job applicant and a representative of an employer which is conducted to evaluate whether the applicant should be hired. A job interview involves many candidates who compete for the same position. Students in this context can perform this activity by dividing themselves into different groups based on their numbers in the classroom. The members of each group should nominate an interviewer. The activity has to be video-recorded. The interviewer in these situations is interested in how the group mates (as candidates) respond to questions directed at each one of them and to what extent his/her communication skills are effectively powerful. Self-assessment strategy via videorecorded rehearsals in performing job interview activities in the classroom can demonstrate the students' weaknesses and help them to be hired in the near future.

Implication for practice or policy
• Engineering educators can employ self-assessment strategy as autonomous learning to lessen the engineering students' oral presentation apprehensions.
• Education decision-makers may integrate self-assessment strategy as an alternative way of assessment in university students' curricula.