The negotiation of scales for collaborative evaluation

A case study with North American high school students

Abstract

The research was conducted on six groups of students attending a secondary school at level one of Spanish foreign language. The goal consisted on the design of a rubric, by process of negotiated categories that were based on errors pair of students found in two compositions while revising. The results of the research concluded that: First, students based their revisions, mainly on form rather than on content. And second, the nature of pair interactions was determined by the student's level of linguistic competence, and by student's individual factors. Also, it was concluded that negotiations of errors for the purpose of designing a rubric that involves students, promotes student's individual awareness on three main aspects: Knowledge about written errors, linguistic competence and quality of global and local L2 learning. Additionally, it is an important formative strategy that would create a space to elicit feedback, generate regulation processes and self corrections in the L2 classroom.