Construction and Validation of Self-Assessment Inventory for English for Academic Purposes: A Case of Iranian Tertiary Students

Self-assessment helps learners to acquire self-confidence and gives them insightfulfeedbacks. There is no valid self-assessment inventory for learners of English foracademic purposes (EAP). This study aimed at developing an academicallyappropriate instrument to measure tertiary students’ English in academic situations.The study used both qualitative and quantitative methods in developing the selfassessmentinventory (SAI). Sixty students were interviewed for the qualitative partof the study. For the quantitative phase, 600 students were selected throughmultistage random sampling. Qualitative data were analyzed by a constantcomparative method. In addition, a questionnaire survey was used to assess thevalidity and reliability of SAI. A 41-item SAI was developed, the content validity,construct validity, and reliability of which were ensured by expert review, factoranalysis, and internal consistency. This scale constitutes a validated self-assessmentinventory of EAP.