Self-assessment with corrective training has been long seen crucial in helping learners improve their own work. This study investigates a group of 28 Englishmajored students' self-assessment of their Speaking performance at the end of a Speaking course at a university. First, the study explores their knowledge of the speaking test and then it provides them with 11 meetings of training on and practising using a speaking rubric which centres on the four grading criteria: Fluency and coherence, Pronunciation, Grammatical range, and Lexical resources. The participants' perception about their speaking performance after they took the speaking test is also explored. Finally, two examiners are employed to rate these students' speaking performance. The results revealed that the participants were found to be knowledgeable about the requirements in doing the test. Then, for their self-assessment on their test performance, they used the trained rubric to help them rate their work quite well, which highly correlated with the result of the teachers' rating which was also correlated with the average score of the two raters. The students' perceptions about their ability to perform these four Speaking grading criteria after taking the test also unveiled a strong connection to their overall selfassessment result.

<p>The purpose of the current study is to discover the factors that cause English-majored students’ difficulties in their speaking performance. To facilitate this investigation, the researcher recruited a group of 30 English-majored students who study English as a foreign language. Furthermore, the instrument of this study utilized the questionnaire method as the tool of data collection. Moreover, the participants were asked questions focusing on a series of 27 items put into the three categories of difficulties in speaking performance. These difficulties are related to linguistic, psychological, and environmental factors. The results of the analysis showed that the English-majored students had more difficulty in the psychological factor than the other factors, namely, linguistic and environmental factors. Similarly, most of the students had difficulties related to the linguistic factor such as a lack of vocabulary knowledge to orally produce ideas and arguments about many topics encountered. Meanwhile, in terms of the psychological factor, the students revealed that the difficulty they faced is their low self-confidence. Finally, the result also confessed that they lack the environment for practicing speaking outside the classroom which is seen as an environmental factor.</p><p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0938/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

This study aims to investigate difficulties faced by the English-majored students in doing listening comprehension tasks. To facilitate this investigation, the researcher recruited a group of 38 English-majored students who study English as a foreign language. A questionnaire was used to collect the data of the study. The participants were asked questions concentrating on a series of 20 items put in the three categories of difficulties in doing listening comprehension tasks. These difficulties are related to listening materials, the role of the listener, and the physical setting. The results of this study showed that most of the students had difficulties related to the listening materials when they contain many unfamiliar words including jargons and idioms, speed of the speakers’ speeches, and long-spoken texts. Meanwhile, in terms of the listener, the students revealed that such difficulties as colloquial languages and slangs, unknown words while listening, and reduced forms have caused them to lose while listening. Finally, the students also found difficulties related to the physical setting. For instance, when the tests are taking place in a deafening place.<p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0917/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>