Iuliu Rațiu

Teaching Self-Assessment in Business English Classes

Teaching Self-Assessment in Business English Classes 

Iuliu Rațiu

Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, Romania

The purpose of the presentation is to analyse the role of student self-assessment in group projects. The author intends to emphasise the importance of peer learning and self-assessment of individual and group work and to offer recommendations to instructors willing to improve their students’ self-evaluation skills. For students themselves, self-assessment is a much-needed skill they could later use in the workforce when they could negotiate a wage raise, an end-of-the-year bonus, or ask for a promotion. As a tool for critical thinkers, self-assessment allows for contextualising one’s strengths and weaknesses within a group, improving communication among group members, and building trust. The presentation is informed by Business and Economics students’ work on three group projects over three semesters in the courses of Business English the author teaches at Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. 

Keywords: group work, peer learning, self-assessment, student reflections  

Biography

Iuliu Rațiu is an assistant professor of English teaching Business and Communication classes in the Department of Modern Languages and Business Communication, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania. He earned his PhD in American literature from SUNY-Albany, Albany, NY (2012) and an MA in English and Writing from Kent State University, Kent, OH (2006). He specializes in nineteenth-century American literature, with an emphasis on antebellum literature and the works of Henry D. Thoreau. His research interests include sustainability studies, intercultural communication, and assessment of students’ work.