Abstract TEFLIN International Conference (Dec,2009)

Teacher Paper for TEFLIN 2009
Peer Assessment as an Alternative Assessment to Assess Students' Ability in Learning English
By : Lisa Rosaline

Summary

This paper intends to describe and analyze the use of peer assessment in ESL (English as Second Language) for Junior and Senior High School Students. For that purpose, it discusses the research conducted in August 2009. The setting was at Smart Ekselensia Indonesia Junior and Senior High School, Bogor.
Based on KTSP curriculum, students have to be active in the classroom. They have to be able to do exploration and elaboration stages when they are learning English. The students who study English have to master four skills which are reading,writing, listening and speaking. This research focused on peer assessment for writing and speaking skills.
The result of the study shows that by doing peer assessment on the speaking and writing skills, the students are able have a chance expressing their ideas by analyzing their friends' mistakes and giving some critics and opinion directly. The students are able to develop their confidence. Students can also benefit from using rubrics or checklists to guide their assessments. At first these can be provided by the instructor; once the students have more experience, they can develop them themselves.
However, to make the evaluation works effectively, the learning environment in the classroom must be supportive. Students must feel comfortable and trust one another in order to provide honest and constructive feedback. Instructors who use group work and peer assessment frequently can help students develop trust by forming them into small groups early in the semester and having them work in the same groups throughout the term. This allows them to become more comfortable with each other and leads to better peer feedback.
A problem which can appeal in reflecting this method is that sometimes the students did not assess based on the criteria given (Cheng and Warren,2005). So, one way to make sure students understand this type of evaluation is to give students a practice session with it. The instructor provides a sample writing or speaking assignment. As a group, students determine what should be assessed and how criteria for successful completion of the communication task should be defined. Then the instructor gives students a sample completed assignment. Students assess this using the criteria they have developed, and determine how to convey feedback clearly to the fictitious student.
Key words: Peer assessment, writing and speaking ability, KTSP curiculum
Name : Lisa Rosaline
Institution : SMART Ekselensia Indonesia Senior High School, Bogor
Position : Teacher
E-mail : lisa_rosaline@yahoo.co.uk