Assessing Confidence in the Chinese Learner

This short paper firstly examines the cultural issues of confidence-based assessment by observing a Chinese learner group completing a multiple choice test in English as a Foreign Language (EFL). The results show no indication that the Chinese students behaved differently from their UK counterparts. The second aim of this pilot study is to examine whether good confidence judgement is a measure, and so potentially a positive mediator of academic self-concept. Student responses to the confident-based test were compared with their responses to an academic self-description questionnaire. Scores from the ‘perception of ability & achievement in EFL’ scale show a positive correlation with the number of correct answers selected with high confidence. Initial results indicate that as a learning tool, confidence-based assessment may have a valuable role in the development of positive academic behaviours, for younger learners in particular.