This entry was made possible thanks to a collaboration between Diego Belmar, Alexis Inostroza and Kimberley Puentes
For EFL teachers, finding motivating and effective assessment tools and materials to measure the students’ progress and knowledge can be a huge challenge. This happens mainly because English can be assessed from numerous perspectives and with many different purposes. However, if the focus of the teacher is on measuring the students’ progress throughout a given period of time, there is a very effective and popular material that can be applied: these are Student Portfolios. The purpose of this entry is then to go over some important concepts and definitions in regards to portfolios and also to narrate a meaningful experience working with this type of materials.
Before going any further, it is important to understand where the concept of portfolio comes from. According to Moya and O’Malley (1994), the term has been adopted from the field of fine arts, where artists use portfolios to represent their works and they serve as a reflection of the depth and breadth of their artistic capacities in general. Likewise, teachers have started to implement portfolios as tools to measure the students’ academic capacities and abilities in particular fields.
Through the lens of education, student portfolios are defined as a compilation of academic work and other forms of educational evidence accumulated for different purposes. According to Venn (2000), some of these are:
As it can be seen, in their most basic sense, the objective of portfolios is to compile, review, and evaluate students’ work over a respective period of time, since this will eventually provide a deeper, richer and more accurate picture of what students know and are able to do. It is also worth mentioning that portfolios can come in many formats, such as notes, notebooks, graphics, etc., and nowadays they can be applied either on paper or on e-format (electronic form).
In relation to the EFL classroom, these type of tools have gained an important reputation. Tannenbaum (1997) defends that portfolios have become a “fundamental learning tool”, as they are an alternative assessment that can measure the linguistic abilities of EFL learners. Along the same lines, it has been proved that portfolios have a certain degree of superiority over traditional methods of assessment because they employ strategies that ask the students to show what they can do rather than just testing what students integrate and produce (Tannenbaum, 1997). Portfolios then offer the possibility for students to be able to recall, reproduce and reflect on their pieces of work. In relation to this, Hung (2009) claims that portfolios provide learners with instances to “monitor their own progress and take responsibility for meeting goals” (p.113).
It is certain then that using portfolios can be really beneficial for EFL students, yet implementing them entails either advantages and disadvantages. This is why it is important to go over some of them, because knowing the benefits and investigating the challenges can be quite helpful for finding ways to use portfolios effectively:
Advantages and Disadvantages of Student Portfolios:
There have already been mentioned several advantages of EFL portfolios throughout this entry, though there are still some of them that are relevant to bring out. For example, Aydin (2010) states that portfolios enhance learners’ autonomy; the capacity for independent learning. Little (1991) describes autonomy as a key component of the learning process, because, once students become autonomous learners, they can make critical reflections, take wise decisions and follow independent courses of action. Besides, Aydin (2010) explains that portfolios in EFL classrooms can “encourage student empowerment, help learners analyze texts, write in a variety of styles and demonstrate awareness of the target language nature” (p.477).
This sense of responsibility and awareness is one of the main advantages of portfolios, because it gives students control over what and how they learn. Crabbe (1993) states that these factors enable students to learn from their own successes and failures, transforming them into more efficient learners in the future.
In terms of threats, there is some criticism and debate around portfolios since they can be seen as burdensome. Some teachers and students might see this tool as an unnecessarily overwhelming measure rather than a vital strategy for learning and assessment. According to Barrett and Knezek (2003), portfolios can also be perceived as negative if they are poorly designed or executed. The latter is extremely relevant and is directly related with the importance of aligning portfolios with the requirements of the students’ curriculum. If educators do not consider this, there is a high probability that the portfolio will bring more negative outcomes than positive ones.
Besides, Barrett and Knezek (2003) explain that creating, maintaining and assessing student portfolios can be a time-consuming endeavor. In this sense, some critics defend the idea that these tools should not be applied in large classrooms, as it would be too cumbersome and exhausting for the teacher to assess such massive amounts of pages.
Having reviewed some important concepts and briefly analysed some advantages and disadvantages of portfolios, we will now narrate one meaningful experience working with these materials as EFL assessors.
From Theory to Practice (Personal Experience):
In this section, we are going to go beyond theory and explain how portfolios can be effectively applied into the EFL classroom. For that, we will reflect on an experience we had this semester regarding the English workshops sponsored by the university, which were intended for elementary and high school students from different institutions. For this, we had the pleasure to work with an excellent group of pre-service teachers and a very participative group of 8th graders.
Our workshop was called “The World Around Us” and encompassed the topic of culture, specifically of English-speaking countries (e.g. United Kingdom, Canada, Ireland, etc.). It is important to highlight that not only did we cover foreign countries, but also we linked the content to our national context. In this fashion, each session (8 classes) was divided into specific aspects of culture, for instance, foods, celebrations/festivals, music, sports, etc., so as to appreciate the richness of various countries.
Therefore, as the main theme of the workshop focused on countries, we wanted our students to feel like they were traveling around the world as they were learning. For that, to keep record of their learning process, we created “passports” (student portfolios) for every student. The passport was divided into 8 entries which corresponded to the amount of lessons.
The dynamics of the passports were the following: at the end of each lesson, students would be given their passports to answer questions related to the topic covered on that session. We have to denote that once all students had their own passport, they were free to customize them as they wanted; they could make their passports their very own “learning diary”. In this sense, we encouraged them to draw and personalize each entry as they wished. Once they were ready, they would give us their passports back, whereby we could provide them with feedback.
In this regard, we subscribed to Bao’s (2016) ideas about good materials: “materials need to provide learners with the opportunity to be true to themselves in the new language because being allowed to remain who one is gives learners comfort in learning” (p.200). Following this idea, the passports certainly gave students the freedom to be themselves as they had to access to their own linguistic resources to respond to the question and add their personal touch. This is also related to what Aydin (2010) mentions regarding the capacity for independent learning. What is more, we considered positive aspects such as giving conditions for flexibility and choice.
Furthermore, Bao (2016) also mentions that good materials care about learners’ feelings and bring learning enjoyment. Learners tend to find it easier to articulate their ideas when they feel emotionally involved and enjoy what is going on. Therefore, good materials must be inspiring enough to stir and enhance learners’ interests, needs and abilities as well as affective involvement. In this sense, the passport was a user-friendly tool that allowed the learning process to be both insightful and fun.
Moving on to the part of giving feedback, we were caught in the dilemma about whether to correct everything or not. We thought about the kinds of feedback we have learned throughout these years in order to decide which one to use. Eventually, we decided not to overwhelm our students by giving them too much comments, but instead to focus on correcting specific errors, giving recommendations and making positive comments. For that, direct feedback seemed like the most effective type of feedback.
In this sense, our goal by providing students with feedback was to help them to build awareness, knowledge, and strategic competence, so that they can develop skills to better monitor their own writing in the future (Bitchener & Ferris, 2012). For that, we emphasized on what students learned from the process of making their own passport rather than helping or requiring them to produce ideal or perfect, error-free entries.
Taking everything into consideration, we strongly believe that we could acknowledge the presence of learning as a process. In this regard, students monitored and reflected over their learning through their passports in a meaningful way. As the lessons passed by, we noticed that students considered and learned from the feedback we provided in their entries. For instance, they were willing to develop their ideas and customize their entries even more.
Finally, we would like to denote the importance of working with portfolios because they are promising tools for assessment in EFL classrooms. Based on our experience, we could tell that they are beneficial not only to the students but also to us, as future teachers, since they simplify the task of identifying the students' needs and learning statuses. These portfolios offered us valuable data about the improvement of our students and helped us realize about their gradual development of skills. Our "passports" served as a bridge that facilitated a significant connection between the students and us. We are very happy and satisfied with the results and, even though we understand that portfolios are not the easiest materials to implement, we recognize them as very effective tools that show meaningful outcomes. Porfolios, when applied consciously, can guarantee and foster a much better learning process and environment for the EFL learner.
References:
Aydin, S. (2010). A qualitative research on portfolio keeping in English as a Foreign Language Writing. The Qualitative Report, 15(3), 475-488.
Bao, D. (2016). Improvements in today’s ELT materials development. In M. Azarnoosh et al. (Eds.), Issues in Materials Development (pp. 193-205). Sense publishers.
Barrett, H., & Knezek, D. (2003). E-Portfolios: Issues in Assessment, Accountability and Preservice Teacher Preparation.
Bitchener, J., & Ferris, D. R. (2012). Written corrective feedback in second language acquisition and writing. Routledge.
Crabbe, D. (1993). Fostering autonomy from within the classroom: the teacher's responsibility. System, 21(4), 443-452.
Hung, S. (2009). Promoting Self- assessment Strategies: An Electronic Portfolio Approach. The Asian ELT Journal Quarterly, 11(2), 129-146.
Little, D. G. (1991). Learner autonomy: Definitions, issues and problems. Authentik Language Learning Resources.
Moya, S., & O’Malley, J. (1994). A portfolio assessment model for ESL. The Journal of Educational Issues of Language Minority Students, 13, 13-36.
Tannenbaum, J. (1997). Practical ideas on alternative assessment for ESL students. ERIC Digest.
Venn, J. J. (2000). Assessing Students with Special Needs (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill.
Participation: See the participation sheet here.
Before going any further, it is important to understand where the concept of portfolio comes from. According to Moya and O’Malley (1994), the term has been adopted from the field of fine arts, where artists use portfolios to represent their works and they serve as a reflection of the depth and breadth of their artistic capacities in general. Likewise, teachers have started to implement portfolios as tools to measure the students’ academic capacities and abilities in particular fields.
Through the lens of education, student portfolios are defined as a compilation of academic work and other forms of educational evidence accumulated for different purposes. According to Venn (2000), some of these are:
- To evaluate work quality, learning progress and academic achievement.
- To determine whether the students have accomplished the learning objectives or the requirements of a given course.
- To promote students’ reflections on their academic goals and progress as learners.
- To create a long-term archive containing work products, achievements and meaningful feedback.
In relation to the EFL classroom, these type of tools have gained an important reputation. Tannenbaum (1997) defends that portfolios have become a “fundamental learning tool”, as they are an alternative assessment that can measure the linguistic abilities of EFL learners. Along the same lines, it has been proved that portfolios have a certain degree of superiority over traditional methods of assessment because they employ strategies that ask the students to show what they can do rather than just testing what students integrate and produce (Tannenbaum, 1997). Portfolios then offer the possibility for students to be able to recall, reproduce and reflect on their pieces of work. In relation to this, Hung (2009) claims that portfolios provide learners with instances to “monitor their own progress and take responsibility for meeting goals” (p.113).
It is certain then that using portfolios can be really beneficial for EFL students, yet implementing them entails either advantages and disadvantages. This is why it is important to go over some of them, because knowing the benefits and investigating the challenges can be quite helpful for finding ways to use portfolios effectively:
Advantages and Disadvantages of Student Portfolios:
There have already been mentioned several advantages of EFL portfolios throughout this entry, though there are still some of them that are relevant to bring out. For example, Aydin (2010) states that portfolios enhance learners’ autonomy; the capacity for independent learning. Little (1991) describes autonomy as a key component of the learning process, because, once students become autonomous learners, they can make critical reflections, take wise decisions and follow independent courses of action. Besides, Aydin (2010) explains that portfolios in EFL classrooms can “encourage student empowerment, help learners analyze texts, write in a variety of styles and demonstrate awareness of the target language nature” (p.477).
This sense of responsibility and awareness is one of the main advantages of portfolios, because it gives students control over what and how they learn. Crabbe (1993) states that these factors enable students to learn from their own successes and failures, transforming them into more efficient learners in the future.
In terms of threats, there is some criticism and debate around portfolios since they can be seen as burdensome. Some teachers and students might see this tool as an unnecessarily overwhelming measure rather than a vital strategy for learning and assessment. According to Barrett and Knezek (2003), portfolios can also be perceived as negative if they are poorly designed or executed. The latter is extremely relevant and is directly related with the importance of aligning portfolios with the requirements of the students’ curriculum. If educators do not consider this, there is a high probability that the portfolio will bring more negative outcomes than positive ones.Besides, Barrett and Knezek (2003) explain that creating, maintaining and assessing student portfolios can be a time-consuming endeavor. In this sense, some critics defend the idea that these tools should not be applied in large classrooms, as it would be too cumbersome and exhausting for the teacher to assess such massive amounts of pages.
Having reviewed some important concepts and briefly analysed some advantages and disadvantages of portfolios, we will now narrate one meaningful experience working with these materials as EFL assessors.
From Theory to Practice (Personal Experience):
In this section, we are going to go beyond theory and explain how portfolios can be effectively applied into the EFL classroom. For that, we will reflect on an experience we had this semester regarding the English workshops sponsored by the university, which were intended for elementary and high school students from different institutions. For this, we had the pleasure to work with an excellent group of pre-service teachers and a very participative group of 8th graders.
Our workshop was called “The World Around Us” and encompassed the topic of culture, specifically of English-speaking countries (e.g. United Kingdom, Canada, Ireland, etc.). It is important to highlight that not only did we cover foreign countries, but also we linked the content to our national context. In this fashion, each session (8 classes) was divided into specific aspects of culture, for instance, foods, celebrations/festivals, music, sports, etc., so as to appreciate the richness of various countries.Therefore, as the main theme of the workshop focused on countries, we wanted our students to feel like they were traveling around the world as they were learning. For that, to keep record of their learning process, we created “passports” (student portfolios) for every student. The passport was divided into 8 entries which corresponded to the amount of lessons.
The dynamics of the passports were the following: at the end of each lesson, students would be given their passports to answer questions related to the topic covered on that session. We have to denote that once all students had their own passport, they were free to customize them as they wanted; they could make their passports their very own “learning diary”. In this sense, we encouraged them to draw and personalize each entry as they wished. Once they were ready, they would give us their passports back, whereby we could provide them with feedback.
In this regard, we subscribed to Bao’s (2016) ideas about good materials: “materials need to provide learners with the opportunity to be true to themselves in the new language because being allowed to remain who one is gives learners comfort in learning” (p.200). Following this idea, the passports certainly gave students the freedom to be themselves as they had to access to their own linguistic resources to respond to the question and add their personal touch. This is also related to what Aydin (2010) mentions regarding the capacity for independent learning. What is more, we considered positive aspects such as giving conditions for flexibility and choice.
Furthermore, Bao (2016) also mentions that good materials care about learners’ feelings and bring learning enjoyment. Learners tend to find it easier to articulate their ideas when they feel emotionally involved and enjoy what is going on. Therefore, good materials must be inspiring enough to stir and enhance learners’ interests, needs and abilities as well as affective involvement. In this sense, the passport was a user-friendly tool that allowed the learning process to be both insightful and fun.
Moving on to the part of giving feedback, we were caught in the dilemma about whether to correct everything or not. We thought about the kinds of feedback we have learned throughout these years in order to decide which one to use. Eventually, we decided not to overwhelm our students by giving them too much comments, but instead to focus on correcting specific errors, giving recommendations and making positive comments. For that, direct feedback seemed like the most effective type of feedback.
In this sense, our goal by providing students with feedback was to help them to build awareness, knowledge, and strategic competence, so that they can develop skills to better monitor their own writing in the future (Bitchener & Ferris, 2012). For that, we emphasized on what students learned from the process of making their own passport rather than helping or requiring them to produce ideal or perfect, error-free entries.
Taking everything into consideration, we strongly believe that we could acknowledge the presence of learning as a process. In this regard, students monitored and reflected over their learning through their passports in a meaningful way. As the lessons passed by, we noticed that students considered and learned from the feedback we provided in their entries. For instance, they were willing to develop their ideas and customize their entries even more.
Finally, we would like to denote the importance of working with portfolios because they are promising tools for assessment in EFL classrooms. Based on our experience, we could tell that they are beneficial not only to the students but also to us, as future teachers, since they simplify the task of identifying the students' needs and learning statuses. These portfolios offered us valuable data about the improvement of our students and helped us realize about their gradual development of skills. Our "passports" served as a bridge that facilitated a significant connection between the students and us. We are very happy and satisfied with the results and, even though we understand that portfolios are not the easiest materials to implement, we recognize them as very effective tools that show meaningful outcomes. Porfolios, when applied consciously, can guarantee and foster a much better learning process and environment for the EFL learner.
References:
Aydin, S. (2010). A qualitative research on portfolio keeping in English as a Foreign Language Writing. The Qualitative Report, 15(3), 475-488.
Bao, D. (2016). Improvements in today’s ELT materials development. In M. Azarnoosh et al. (Eds.), Issues in Materials Development (pp. 193-205). Sense publishers.
Barrett, H., & Knezek, D. (2003). E-Portfolios: Issues in Assessment, Accountability and Preservice Teacher Preparation.
Bitchener, J., & Ferris, D. R. (2012). Written corrective feedback in second language acquisition and writing. Routledge.
Crabbe, D. (1993). Fostering autonomy from within the classroom: the teacher's responsibility. System, 21(4), 443-452.
Hung, S. (2009). Promoting Self- assessment Strategies: An Electronic Portfolio Approach. The Asian ELT Journal Quarterly, 11(2), 129-146.
Little, D. G. (1991). Learner autonomy: Definitions, issues and problems. Authentik Language Learning Resources.
Moya, S., & O’Malley, J. (1994). A portfolio assessment model for ESL. The Journal of Educational Issues of Language Minority Students, 13, 13-36.
Tannenbaum, J. (1997). Practical ideas on alternative assessment for ESL students. ERIC Digest.
Venn, J. J. (2000). Assessing Students with Special Needs (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill.
Participation: See the participation sheet here.
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