Using Portfolios for Teaching English

1. Using Portfolios for Teaching English (Nae Dong-Yang)

2. Portfolios • Collections of students’ work • Selected by the students • With the teacher’s guidance • To represent their learning experiences • A type of personal assessment • Related to classroom activities • Assessing learning processes

3. Advantages of Using Portfolios • Promote the use of metacognitive strategies • Motivate and enhance learning • Help future independent learning • Encourage collaborate learning • Show learning process and progress • Present learning results • Help affective factors • Others

4. Other advantages of Using Portfolios • Document students’ writing process • Provide records of activities in class • Raise students’awareness about • taking control and responsibility of their learning • the writing process • Reinforce what they have learned • Help students in self-reflection and self-assessment • Provide the instructor with students’feedback and valuable information for improvement • Serve the function of evaluation

5. Disadvantages of Using Portfolios • It takes a lot of time. • It is too much trouble, a burden to prepare. • Some students might complete it in a short time and cheat on some samples or fake the records. • Some learning results and methods are hard to present.

6. Problems to Encounter • Time management • Studying, preparing the portfolios • Learning attitudes • Laziness, procrastination, indetermination • Problems in keeping a record • Information management • How to select or organize work

7. Concluding Remarks • Most students usually have positive reactions toward using the portfolio. • It offers directions and chances for learning. • The portfolios reveal students’ learning process and results

8. From Traditional Portfolios to Web-based Portfolios

9. Web-based Portfolios Easy to manage files High efficiency User-friendly Easy to revise writing and check errors Save paper, environmental friendly Can upload anytime Can record learning easily and accurately Can read and respond to each other’s writing Paper Portfolios Have more ways to present the contents Provide an overview Show more details Good for eyesight Trouble in saving documents Web-based Portfolios vs. Paper Portfolios

10. References • Brown, J. D. (Ed.). (1998). New ways of classroom assessment. Alexandra, VA: Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Inc. • Farr, Roger and Bruce Tone (1994). Portfolio and Performance Assessment: Helping Students Evaluate Their Progress as Readers and Writers. Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt Brace College Publishers. • Wenden, Anita (1991). Learner strategies for learner autonomy: Planning and implementing learner training for language learners. Herfordshire, UK: Prentice-Hall International. • Yang, N. D. (2003). Integrating portfolios into learning-strategy-based instruction for EFL college students. International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, 41, 4, 293-317. • Yang, N. D. (2003, March). Incorporating Portfolios into the EFL Writing Classrooms. The proceedings of 2003 International Conference and Workshop on TEFL & Applied Linguistics. Compiled by Department of Applied English, Ming Chuan University (pp. 476-483). Taipei: The Crane Publishing Co., Ltd. • Yang, N. D. (2005, July). Building a Web-Based Learning Portfolio System. Paper presented at the 2005 World Congress of Applied Linguistics, Madison, Wisconsin, U.S.A., July 24-29, 2005.