Self-assessment and motivational beliefs: applying CSE scales into a Chinese tertiary EFL self-regulated learning course

Abstract China's Standards of English Language Ability (CSE) is the country’s first standard reference for English learning, teaching, and assessment. This study aims to implement the CSE scales as a formative assessment tool into an online self-regulated listening course and investigates the scales’ effects on students’ motivational beliefs (task value beliefs, control of learning beliefs, and test anxiety). Two hundred and thirty first-year college EFL learners participated in the experiment. The eight-week CSE self-assessment intervention found no predictive effects of three factors of the scales, i.e., Listening for Gist, Listening for Details, or Connecting and Synthesizing Information on the experiment group’s motivational beliefs. Follow-up interviews indicated that self-assessment implementation fostered students’ positive emotions, enhanced metacognitive knowledge, promoted goal-setting and monitoring, and supported habit formation in the online listening courses. The study suggests incorporating structured self-assessment interventions and peer-regulation strategies into pedagogical practices.