This study aims to shed light on student interpreters’ self-assessment practic- es, the perceived effects of self-assessment on learning, the factors that influence these perceptions, and their pedagogical implications. To this end, the study utilized semi- structured interviews with 15 conference interpreting students, all native speakers of Chinese with English as their B language, from three graduate-level translation and in- terpretation institutes in Taiwan. The interview data was then analyzed qualitatively along with the participants’ self-assessment documents. The results of this study sug- gest that students generally hold a positive view of the effects of self-assessment, and are willing to perform such self-assessments. However, certain factors can affect how and whether they engage in self-assessment: namely, their understanding of self-assessment and the criteria to be used when conducting it, their self-awareness regarding their in- terpreting competence, their mindset when performing self-assessment, and their level of learner autonomy. Moreover, many interpreting students still require instructor guidance to gain a complete picture of their current level of performance; hence, self- assessment needs to be performed in conjunction with instructor feedback, especially during the early stages of training. The findings of this study have practical implications for instructors in terms of introducing students to self-assessment and will hopefully aid learners in developing their self-assessment skills.
