Self-assessment accuracy is a condition of learner autonomy. If students can appraise their o w n performance accurately enough, they will not have to depend entirely on the opinions of teachers and, a t the same time, they will be able to make teachers aware of their individual learning needs. The purpose of this article is (1) to summarize the literature on self-evaluation of foreign language skills and (2) to show what it could mean to teachers and researchers. The conclusions of several self-assessment studies are somewhat contradictory, but these differences seem to support Krashen's Monitor Model/ Theory. Therefore, both teachers and researchers should keep in mind that foreign language learners' self-estimates may be influenced to a varying degree by the use of the Monitor. 313La nguage Learning Vol. 39, No. 3 in 1976. The topic of self-assessment (variously termed selfrating, self-appraisal, self-control, etc.) has apparently just begun to expand as a distinct field of interest in language testing and evaluation. The Modern Languages Project of the Council of E u r o p d e d i c a t e d as it is to promoting studentcentered, needs-oriented, and motivation-based learningseems to have played a crucial role in this development.Research reports dealing with self-evaluations of foreign language skills were produced in different parts of the world. Most of them involved high school or university undergraduate students and, in the majority of cases, students of English as a foreign language (other languages studied were French and, in one instance, Swedish in which the learners were adult migrants).Few reports were concerned specifically, let alone exclusively, with self-appraisal practices. Frequently, self-rating occurred only because student input was needed by course developers for a more general needs analysis; or else it was one component of a much more extensive research design.The studies that were reviewed are compared in Table 1. Each study is identified by the investigatods) who described it.The emerging pattern is one of consistent overall agreement between self-assessments and ratings based on a variety of external criteria. The accuracy of most students' selfestimates often varies depending on the linguistic skills and Several studies included quantitative comparisons between self-appraisals and more objective measures of proficiency, usually in the form of calculations of Pearson productmoment correlation coefficients. Values ranging from .50 to .60 are common, and higher ones not uncommon. What this means

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The benefits of year-round schooling are less than had been hoped.

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