Interpreting students’ ability in self-assessment

Interpreting students need to be able to self-assess their performance during and after their education to effectively develop their interpreting skills for professional practice. Although there is a growing interest in self-assessment in interpreter education research, it is as yet an under-researched area, especially with regard to the interpreting students’ ability to self-assess. This thesis reports the results of a case study that examined interpreting students in a graduate program in Australia and its joint offshore program in Korea. Using a mixed methods approach, the students’ reflective journals, interviews with teachers, the students’ self-rated scores and teachers’ grades were examined with the aim of understanding students’ ability to assess their performance and the relationship between their self-assessment ability and interpreting performance gains over the course of their study. In addition, the impact of teacher instruction on self-assessment was examined. The findings of this research indicate that interpreting students’ self-ratings were different from their teacher-rated scores, with the majority of students underestimating their performance. In addition, their self-assessment was largely focused on the negative aspects of their performance and it appeared they might not be able to apply some of the scoring criteria adequately in making judgements about their performance. It is also apparent that teachers make assumptions about their students’ ability to apply rating criteria for self-assessment. Overall, the findings suggest that self-assessment is a complex task, that students cannot intuitively develop skills to self-assess while they are acquiring interpreting skills, and that their ability depends to some extent on the guidance they receive from their teachers.