Learning a foreign language is, among other factors, based on the perception of one's own development and on undertaking strategies for greater communicative competence, which are founded in autonomous procedures that span the necessity for greater responsibility. As learning a language demands constant study, even after the school period--when there are no more teachers as mediators--the development of self-regulated learning skills becomes relevant. One option revealed in literature as a trigger for greater autonomy for learning, is the use of self-assessment. This study aimed at identifying and analyzing the potential of self-assessment for students to plan strategies and control their own actions, procedures which are part of self-regulated learning practice. The research adopted a qualitative approach in the form of a case study, and involved 25 students in the 8th grade of a public school in Northern Paraná, Brazil. Information from the instruments for data collection was subjected to thematic content analysis. The results reveal that self-assessment encourages the use of strategic planning and monitoring of one's own learning only if joined to teacher intervention and motivational strategies.