Luận văn a study on the impact of using portfolio assessment on english reading comprehension ability of the first year english major students at ha nam teachers’ training college

HERRERO IORI AIOE RIOR EOCENE TRAN THỊ PHƯƠNG THẢO ASTUDY ON THE IMPACT OF USING PORTFOLIO ASSESSMENT ON ENGLISH READING COMPREHENSION ABILITY OF TIE FIRST - YEAR ENGLISH MAJOR STUDEN

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, DANOT UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

HERRERO IORI AIOE RIOR EOCENE

TRAN THỊ PHƯƠNG THẢO

ASTUDY ON THE IMPACT OF USING PORTFOLIO ASSESSMENT ON ENGLISH READING COMPREHENSION

ABILITY OF TIE FIRST - YEAR ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS

AT HA NAM TEACHERS’ TRAINING COLLEGE

NGHIÊN CỨU VẺ ÄNH HƯỚNG CỦA VIỆC SỬ DỤNG PHƯƠNG PHÁP

ĐÁNH GIÁ TUYẾN TẬP BÀI LÀM ĐÓI VỚI KHẢ NĂNG ĐỌC HIỂU TIỂNG

ANH CỦA SINH VIÊN CHUYEN NGÀNH TIENG ANH NĂM THỨ NHẤT

TRUONG CAO DANG SU PHAM HA NAM

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME TIESIS

Ficld: English Teaching Methodology

Code: 60140111

Hanoi, 2014

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, DANOT UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

HERRERO IORI AIOE RIOR EOCENE

TRAN THỊ PHƯƠNG THẢO

A STUDY ON THE IMPACT OF USING PORTFOLIO ASSESSMENT ON ENGLISH READING COMPREHENSION

ABILITY OF THE FIRST - YEAR ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS

AT HA NAM TEACHERS’ TRAINING COLLEGE

NGHIEN CUU VE ANH HUGNG CUA VIEC SU DUNG PHUONG PHAP

DANII GIA TUYẾN TẬP BÀI LAM DOL VOI KITA NANG DOC IEU TIENG ANH CUA SINH VIEN CHUYEN NGANH TIENG ANH NAM THU NHAT

TRƯỜNG CAO ĐẰNG SỬ PHAM HÀ NAM

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111

Supervisor: Dr Trần Thị Tuyết

Hanoi, 2014

DECLARATION

I hereby certuiy that the thesis entitled “A study on the impact of using portfolio assessment on English reading comprehension ability of the first year English major students al Ma Nam Teachers” Training College” is the resull of my own research for the Dogros of Master of Arts al University of Languages and International

Stukes, Vietnam National University, and that this thesis has not been subunited

for any other degrees

Signature:

Trần Thị Phương Thão Date: October 25", 2014

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The study could not have been fulfilled without the help, encouragement and support of a number of people

First and foremost, | would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to my supervisor, Ms Tran ‘hi Tuyet for her never — ending support and valuable guidance duwing this process I have appreciated her contimual encouragement,

Second, I would like lo take the chance to express iny great allitude to our loachiers

at the Faculty of Postgraduate Studies of Vietnam National University, University

of Languages and Intemational Studies for providing is with the precious knowledge from their practical and helpful Lectures

Besides, I greatly appreciate my colleagues and the participants in my research because of their generosity in giving me time and suggestion

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of porttolio assessment on

English reading comprehension ability of English major students at Ha Nam

‘Teachers’ ‘Training College Participants consisted of 30 first year English major

students [he portfolio assessment was integrated into classroom activities to

explore to what extent the student’s English reading comprehension ability may be enhanced Roth quantitative and qualitative procedues were used for dala collection

and analysis Data were ublained through four channels: a qnestiommire with

students, an interview with teacher, students’ portfslios and classroous observation The results indicated that most of students and the teacher were in favour of portfolio assessment of reading and its procedures boosted students’ reading comprehension and raised their self — assessment and leamer autonomy as well [f portfolio assessment is planned carefully, it will become a powerful tool for assessing and sultaneig siuđenls" learning,

iii

LISTS OF TABLES NAME OF TABLES

Table 1: Ditferences between traditional assessment and alternative assessment

‘Table 2: Design of portfolio assessment

‘fable 3: Week plan for portfolio assessment classroom procedures

Table 4: Portfolio rating scale

Tulle 5: Suggested questions for students’ reflections

Table 6: Material evaluation checklist

Table 7: The impact of teacher's immediate feedback and group discussion Table 8: Students’ views on their self assessment skills

Table 9: The role of portfolio as a learning and assessment tool

‘Table 10: ‘The role of portfolio assessment in promoting learner autonomy

TABLE OF CONTENTS Declaration

Acknowledge ccccccccccccces

Abstract

List of tables

Table of content

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

2 Obje

3 Methods of the study

4, Stmeture of the study

PART B: DEVELOPMENT: Chapter 1: Literature review

1.1 Definition of reading comprehension, 1.2 Reasons for ass judents’ reading comprehension 1.3 Ásscssmcnt approachGs

1.4 Portfolio assessInenl

1.4.1 Delimiion of portfOlie

1.4.2 Typssofportllo

1.4.3 Portfolio assessment 1.4.4 Research on portfolio assessment 1.4.5 Reasons for using portfolio øssessuncnl ives, rescarch questions, and segpe of the study

1.4.6 Stages of portfolio asscssment implomentation

Chapter 2; Methodology

2.1, Sampling

2.1.1 Students

2.1.2 Teachers

2.1.3 Teaching reading to first year English major students

2.1.4, Applying portfolio assessment in ITTTC context

Chapter 3: Findings and discussion

3.1, Data analysis results

3.1.1 Data colfccled from classroom observation

3.1.2 Data collected from students’ reflections and final feedback

3.1.3 Data collected trom students’ questionnaire

3.1.3.1 The impact of teacher's intermediate feedback and group discussion,

3.1.3.2 Students’ views on their self — assessment skills

3.1.33 The role of portfolio as a learning and assessment tool 3.1.34 The role of portfolio assessment in promoting leamer

3.2.1 Students’ perception on portfolio øsssssmnent

3.2.2 The impact of using portfolio assessment on students’ reading

Appendix 2: A week plan for classroom portfolio procedures

Appendix 3: Portfolio rating scalc siete

Appendix 4: Suggested questions for students’ reflections

Appendix 5: Material evaluation checklist

Appendix 6: Questionnaire for students (English version)

Appendix 7: Questionnaire for shulents (Vietnamese version)

Appendix 8: Teacher's interview

Appendix 9: Slullenls’ refleetions

T

VI VUL

XI XI

PART A: INTRODUCTION This part presents rationale of the study, objectives of the study, research questions, scope of the study, ructhods of the study und structure of the study

1 Rationale

Asscssment is an integral part of any cducational proccss promising beneficial backwash effects on the syllabus, materials and teaching (Tomlinson, 2005) Along with the recent developments in science, socicty and educational mcasurcments, instructional and assessment practices become “holistic, student centered, performance based, process oriented, integrated and multidimensional” (Gottlicb,

1995, p.12) This is accounted for by the concems to the izaditional assessments, which typically fail to assess higher order cognitive skills and other skills essential for functioning in school (llansy & Madans, 1989) In addition, the traditional methods such as tests are seen as particularly irrelevant to learning process (Moya

& O'Malley, 1994) and “as dark clouds hanging over 1

them with thunderous anxiety” (Brown, 1994, p.373), Therefore, researchers have

mer's heads, upsetting

sought alternative forts of studenl assessment thal are able to solve the above problems One of the most effective types of alternative assessments is portfolio

strategies (Moore, 1994; Banfi, 2003, Yang, 2003)

In spite of the sigmtticance of portfolio assessment in instruction and leamung, little research has been done conceming the use of portfolios with college students in an EFL environment, Additionally, this method has not been applied in evaluating the reading skills of the first - year English major students at Ha Nam ‘Teachers’ Training College (HTTC), where the author works

For the above-mentioned reasons, the researcher would like to camy out the following research: “4 study on the impact of using portfolio assessment on English

reading comprehension ability of the first- year English major students at Ha Nant Teachers’ Training College”

2 Objectives of the Study

2.3 Scope of the Study

As the title suggests, the study was camied out on a group of 30 first - year English majors al TITTC to examine the effectiveness of applying portfolio as a tout

of ass

ment, Finally, duc to tinwe constrainls, my research targeled only al the impact of porttolio assessmisnt on students’ reading comprchension ability

3 Methods af the Study

The study involved both qualitative and quantitative method, In order to achieve the above aims, the techniques employed to support this investgation included student portfolios, 2 questionnaire tor students, an interview to teacher and

classroom observation

4 Structure of the Study

The thesis was organized into three parts

Part A: is the introduction which provides an overview of the study, including the rationale, the objectives, the methods and the structure of the study

Part 8, the development, is the main part with three chapters Chapter 1

The last part of the study summarizes main points discussed in the thesis and

mentions to limitation and suggestions for further studies,

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CTTAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter outlines and reviews literatwe and theories underlying this study which discusses (1) reading comprehension, (2) reasons for assessing reading

comprehension, (3) assessment approaches and (4) portfolio assessment

1.1 Definition of Reading Comprehension

Reading comprehension plays an importas role in uaching and learning reading # foreign language Payne (1992, p.35) defines “Seading comprohension as a process

of simnultancously extracting and constructing meaning through intcraction and

involvement with written language” With the same view, Grellet (1999, p.3) considers that reading comprehension is “understanding a written text meaning

extracting the required information fom it as efficiently as possible”

Meanwhile, both Lee and Vanpatten (1995) and Anderson and Pearson (1984) agree that comprehension is the process of relating new or incoming information to information already stored in memory Readers can connect the new information on the printed page with their existing knowledge when ty critically evaluate the

ideas conveyed in the text

Although the above opinions are not exactly the same, there is a common point that reading, comprehension is a process in which the readers try to recognize the graphic form and understand the relation between the writing and the meaning

1.2 Reasons for Assessing Students' Reading Comprehension

Shulents? reading comprehension is oflen assessed for some following reasons

Both Cross andl Paris (1987) and Grabe (2009) agree Ulut onc of purpose for reading comprehension assessment is sorting It is used to redicl Isamers’ acatlamic success and determine if students arc appropriately preparcd for further learning and educational advancement

Another reason for assessmg students’ reading performance, according to Race (1995) and Grabe (2009), is that it provides immediate feedback that is usetil to both students and teachers Students themselves need feedback to help them

promotz the improvement of reading ability, find out how their learning is going Mcanwhile, teachers need feedback on students’ Icaming progress, so that they can

adjust and develop ther teaching

Pressley and Afilcerbach (2005) emphasize the importance of assessment to how

students deal with the new information It helps them know how to connect the new

text with their experience and know how (o interpret, evaluate, synthesize and consider alternative interpretations of what they have read

1.3 Assessment Approaches

Assessment is onc of the crucial components of the instruction People within the

educational community as policymakers, educators, students, parents, administrators have different ideas regarding the implementation of assessment strategies (Dietel, Herman & Knuth, 1991)

‘There are two general assessment approaches from which teachers can choose (Lauvas, Llaynes 4 Raahemins, 2000) ‘The first type, traditional assessment, refers

to assessment that “attempts to measure an individual's achievement or aptitude

through slandardized and classroom achievernent tests with mos! closed — ended

mid Gill — in — the blanks” (Belle, 1999,

p.6) It involves students selecting a response from the given lists and usually items such us true/false, multiple choice

occurs after learnmg has taken place In this study, the term traditional assessment is

used interchangeably with standardized tests The second type, alternative assessment, a non — traditional assessment, is anything that does not include inultiple - choice tests and other forms of classroom evaluation usually seen in classroom (Librmm, 2000) TL requires students to ereale a response Lo an open — ended problem or task (Ryan & Miyasaka, 1995) Portfolio, performance, self — evaluations, exhibitions, cooperative Icaming, journals and stinmlations arc types of

alternative assessment (Libman, 2000)

Bachman (1990), an advocate of traditional assessments, asserts “language tests can

be valuable sources of information about the effectiveness ot leaming and teaching”

(p.3) Heaton (1988) shares the same point of view that “language testing is a form

of incusurcrnent This so đloscly related to leaching thal we earmot werk in testing without being constantly concemed with teaching” (p.5) Another reason for teachers, schools and assessment organization to utilize multiple - choice tests is that they are fast, easy and economical to score, Besides, they are scored objectively, which may give the test appearance of being fairer than subjectively scored tests (Bailey, 1998, p.130) [erman, Aschbacher aud Winters (1992, p3) present usefulness of testinys as

“For administrators and school planners, test results provide information about program cffectivences and identify arcas of curricular strongih and weakness For teachers, testing provides important diagnostic information for instructional groupings, for identifying instructional needs and prescribing appropriate instmetien, for determming mastery, and for assessing the effectiveness of puticular instructional units o: approaches For parents and students, testing information ig a gauge of individual progress, which helps

them mmderstand and build on individnal strengths and weaknesses”

However, they also cmphasize that testing fulfills its promise only if it can represent significant outcomes for students and the important goals for classroom instruction This raises questions whether test scores represent significant leamng outcomes and whether improvements in test seore performance actually represent improvements in learning (Cannell, 1987, Linn et al 1991; Shepard, 1989) The answers to these questions expose some limitations of tests According to Bailey (1998) and Smaldino et al (2000), tests often focus on measuring learner’s ability

of memorization and recall, which is low level of cognition skills Besides, tests examine students’ ability at a particular time but not over time Test items are blamed for their irrelevance to classroom activities as well as the real world The final product is the core concen but not the progression of leamers

Alternative assessments, on the other hand, assess higher — order thinking skills because learners have opportunity to demonstrate what they leaned Furthermere, this type of assessment tools focuses on the growth and performance of students over af time T's learner fails to perform a given task at a particular time s/he still

has chance to demonstrate histher ability at a different tune and situation In

addition, altcrnative assessments provide leamz1s opportunities to practice authentic

activities they might encounter in real life As this type of assessrnent evaluates the leaming process over time and in context, teachers have chance to measure the

strengths and wealnesses of students as well as get further insights into students” knowledge and skills Allernative assessments also intend ta motivate stulents 10

take more

sponsibility for thir own learning (Hurgrcaves cLal, 2002; Law and Feke, 1995; Simonson et al., 2000) However, teachers meet some difficulties when implementing this kind of assessment It might be harder to score and quite time consuming to evaluate the Jeamers’ performance (Simonson et al., 2000) Rentz (1997) shares the same idea that alternative assessments take more time to grade than traditional ones While multiple — choice test is machine scorable, the alternative relies on human judgment

‘Traditional Assessment Alternative Assessment

+ assumes knowledge has a single| « assumes knowledge has multiple

© Detioves that learning is passive © teats leaning as an setive

= focuses on mastering bils of] *# on inquiry

information {associated with

lower level thinking skills)

* assumes the puposc of| * assumes he puposc of

assessment is to document and assessment is to facilitate leaning

jnemitor student learning

© lndieves cognitive, affective, and| © recognizes a connection between

conative abilities are separate cognitive, affective and conative (students? thoughts are not abilities

considered, how students cary

out tasks is not considered)

© views assessment as objective,| s® views assessment as subjective

value-fiee, and neutral and value-laden

© embraces hierarchical model of ®© embraces a shared model of

power and control (students do power and control

not participate in decision-

making)

* perceives leaming as an| © perceives leaming as a

individual enterprise collaborative process

© provides no feedhack to leamers © provides useful feedback ïo

Jeamers

* may cause student’s stress and ® reduces test anxiety

lest anaiely

(able 1 The differences between allernative assessment and portfolio assessment)

(Sources: Anderson & Builev, 1998; Brown, 1994: Slater, Samsun & Ryan, 1995)

Due to the drawbacks of traditional forms of assessment, alternative assessment started being used as a means of educational reforms (Dietel, Herman & Knuth,

1991) ‘The reforms in education require leaming as an active process and assessment procedures to be congruent with instruction and leaming (Baume, 2001;

Biggs, 1999; Davies & Wavering, 1999: Wiggins, 1990)

1997) EFI teachers have also used portfolios to evaluate and enhance student’s

lesming As the use of portfolios may encourage students to take more iniliative and

control of eating and to reflect on their leaning, porLfolio wan be ø usefiil lool for

fostering learner autonomy (Graves & Sunstzin, 1992; McNasmara & Debra, 1998)

Portfolio has thus become a popular trend of asscssment in recent years (Yang,

2003)

1.4.1 Definition of Portfolio

There is no “tight” way to define portfolie (Q’Malley & Pierce, 1992}

Arter and Spandel (1992, p.210) define portfolio as a purposeful collection of student work thal tells the story of the student’s efforts, progress and achiovernent Aveording to Paulson, Paulsen and Mayer (1991, p.60}

“Portfolio is a purposefil collection of student's work that exhibits the

smdent’s efforts, progress and achievement in one or more areas The

collection must include student participation in selecting contents, the criteria

for selection, the criteria for judging merit and evidence of student self-

All above definitions share wo comuen points, Firsily, portfolio is a collection or

selection of samples of student work Secondly, these samples are selected

purposely in a way that they can reveal students’ learning progress over a period of time

It, therefore, is not suitable to be assessed and graded The documentation portfalia

9

involves a collection of work over time showing students’ growth and improvement, This portfolio contains quality and quantity data, The evaluation portfolio includes a standardized collection of student's work and could be determined by the teacher or, in some cases by the student This type is suitable for grading students ‘The class portfolio contains students’ grade, teacher’s view and

knowledge about students in Dott

Charlotic and Lestyc (1997) caterguvic portfolios into three major types: working portfolio, display portfolio and ass

Venn (2000) groups portfolios into two types: product portfolio and process

portfolio The product portfolio ia used to document accomplishment while the

process portfolio documents the stages of loarnig and provides » progressive

revord of student's growth In geucral, leachers prefer to use pro

portfolios because they arc ideal for documenting the stages that students go through as they

lear and progress (Venn, 2000, p 533)

‘To sum it up, different types of portfolio serve different purposes Hased on the aim

of the instruction, teacher can select a proper type and apply it This study examined the progress students’ reading comprehension ability when using porlfolio as an

assesstucul tool, therefore, the kind of portfolio used im this research is process

curriculum of forcign language classes about two decades ago and is now used ina number of North American schools

Liskin Gasparro (1996) suggests that this type of assessment is useful to evaluate the process the students use to complete a particular task, In such task, students feel involved in evaluating themselves in leaning the foreign language (iemey, Carter,

& Desai, 1991) Tl is indicated thal portfolio assessment can provide students with the ability to accumulate required knowledge and skills for the subject or task and bring then learning improvernent (Fischer & King, 1995; Tierney, Cartor, & Desai, 1990)

Sharing the same ideas with Tiemey, Carter and Desai (1991), Glazer and Brown (1998) claim that keeping portfolio teaches learners to be responsible for monitoring their own leaming process, progress and success, When students are involved and responsible for collecting and answering classroom needs, they team to be independent and autonomous learners (Fischer & King, 1995)

1.4.4 Research on Portfolio Assessment

Tu the study “Portfulio As: sessment 1o Enhance Student T.ca *, Sarker and Hu

(2006) abtuined fecdback fcr 22 undergraduate students in relation to the Grimes and acceptance of portfolio assessment as a tool 68% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that use of a portfolio was an accurate reflection of their ability, 72% agread or strongly agreed that it was a fair assessment of their understanding

of subject, and 77% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed to accept portfolio as

essment of the unit Th

students consider portfolio as

Charvade of al (2012) and Chi (2006), who examined the impact of partfalio assessment on Icamers’ reading comprehension ability, found the same results They both highlighted the positive effect of portfolio assessment ơn improving the leamers' language ability

Breault (2004) and Zou (2002) found out that portfolio assessment is a better

meastre of performance than traditional assessment, it is mare abjective and it

VW

promotzs better (cedbuck, Portfalia assessment is also proved ils pasitive cffect on the Jeamers' motivation (Nafisi, 2010)

In short, the findings in the above research all revealed the beneficial impact of using porttolio as a tool of assessment in language classroom,

1.4.3 Keasens for Using Porttolio Assessment

Tw a teanber of theoretical and enynrical studies in education, portfolio assesstnent

tus been proved one of the effective assessment forms Some resvarchars have rofirred to the significant advantages when adopting a portfolio approach

First, portfolio assessment provides both tcachers and leamers prompt fecdback that can enhance not only Ieaming but also teachmg process (Bailey, 1998; De Fina, 1992; Yang, 2003) Thanks to the immediate comments of teacher, students could realize their strengths and weaknesses, Meanwhile, an invaluable insight into student learning and performance ftom reading the student’s refection may help teacher adjust the instructional and assessing practice to match individual student Second porifolio assessment is considered as a reliable assessment tool to assess rol students ability, Tl provides twachor relatively Guihfal information aboul

students which is collected from different souroos

uch as Leachers, studen!*s friends

and students themsclvcs (Brigin & Baki, 2007, Kemp & Toperoff, 1998) In

addition, it becomes more reliable when students are evaluated at various points of time (Kemp & ToperofF, 1998) If a student does not perform a given task well at a

particular time, s/he has chance to demanstrate her/his ability in another time

Third, portfolio assessment actively involves sindents in their own learing and

assussmont (De Fina, 1992, Alabdelwuhal, 2002) In fact, Hat laving te take

responsibility for the quality and usefulness of his/her own work and being given cmpowenment to prove his/her own achievement engages students in lcaming actively

Finally, portfolio assessment enhances the leamer autonomy (Barton & Collin, 1997; Kemp & Toperoti, 1998; Kose, 2006; Litlejohn, 1985; Tiemey, Carter , & Desai, 1991), When doing portfolios, students are involved in decision making

12

process and taking mare control of learning This makes students likely 1o be more

enthusiastic and motivated in learning

However, to obtain the effectiveness of portfolio assessment, it is necessary to be aware of some issues

Although portfolio assessment is proved a reliable assessment tool, scoring a

porlfolio may be seen as less fair than unaltiple choices test

achievement accurately Therefore, it 1s essential to develop appropriate grading guideline, maintain consistency m portfolio grading and avoid subjectivity in

grading to make this type of assessment more efficient and truthful (Hiverla &

Despite of taking time and effort on this work, a lot of teachers agree that portfolio

is a worthwhile burden with Laugible 1ssulls in instruction and student motivation (Rore ot al., 1994; Stecher, 1998)

A đai

NSITICTI

sion on the advantages and disadvantages of applying portfolio z

in language classrooms helps us have an insight into the usc of this ongoing assessment, It is obvious that if planned, managed and conducted in an appropriate way, portfolio assessment can bring the best outcomes to both teachers and students,

1.4.6, Stages of Porttollo Assessment Implementation

13

Reviewing the Tilcrature, differant frameworks of port folie assessment are proposed for developing and implementing portfolio asscssmont programs in language classrooms

Johnson, Mins Cox, and Doyle Nichols (2010) suggest six stages in implementing portfolio assessment ‘They are

Stage 3: specifving the content of the portfolio What to put in the portfolio and how

it will be assessed is explained to students in detail ‘Teacher also gets students acquainted with the rating scale before performing the task

Stage 4: giving clear and detailed guidelines for portfolio presentation Teacher sets clear and detailed guidelines om how portfolios will be prosunted and explains the need fon clear anul aliractive presentation,

Stage 5: informing hey school officials, parent and vther stakeholders As an assessor, teacher needs to notify his/her department, dean or principal because it will serve a precaution in case the students complain about his/her assessment

method

Stage 6: developing the portfolio: in this stage, students do their tasks, gather infromation and scarch substantial information about the subject Also, students amd teacher must have to support cach other as they go on io the development of the portfolio

While the above tiamework focuses on the what to do, Delett, Bamhardt and Kevorkian (2001) provide a procedure which focuses more on the how to do It is composed of’ seven steps with the detailed description of its implementation

and

Step 1: setting assessment purpose The purposes guide the portfolio pre

help students and teacher make purposeful decisions about what to include in the portfolio and how to assess it

Step 2: determining portfolio outcomes The cuteames provide focus on the portfolio by deseribing what knowledge or skills leamers should be able to

demonstrate

Step 3: matching classroom tasks to outcomes The generation of producl will serve

as enlrivs to the porlfolia

Step 4: determining organization of the portfolio Ït holps:

© the portfolio be organized systematically so that the audience can understand why individual pieces were chosen and evatuate the portfolio asa whole

schedule time for students to select and organize entries throughout the

Stop 7: evaluating the portfolio process, Teacher determines whether the pattolio serves the assessment goals and whether the evaluation is accurate and consistent Reasons for failure as well as reason for success should be determined and noted for

next time

Both two frameworks Urough time have proved their effectiven

In this study, their most applicable points wars comiined Lo wake porlfotio a uscfid assessment tool The process of assessing with the detailed explanation of the model would be discussed in the next chapter

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY This chapter recites the methodology conducted in the study, including sampling, and data collection

2.1, Sampling

2.4.4 Students

This shuly was conducted from December 2013 to June 2014 in a class at TTC - a provincial college im Ha Nam, a small provinee to the soulh of Hanoi

Thirty first — year female students, aged from 19 lo 22, participated im the study

‘They mainly came fiom the countryside In gonerdi, they had leat English for over

7 years However, their proficiency is not high as revealed in their low entrance examination results, and their learning style is quite passive, In addition, they hardly acquired any effective skills in reading, especially with long and complicated texts

As a result, they were almost beginners in reading comprehension when entering the college

After a semester studying at this college, their language skills regarding listening, speaking, roading and writing had improved a litile bi, In torm of reading skills,

the students, afler the first seme: had been acenstemed to basie reading skills

like reading for main ideas, reading for specific information, recognizing the reading, structure and summazing and had chances to practice on these skills

2.1.2, Teachers

‘There are ten English teaching staff members at LI''TC 'I'wo of them have 15 years

of leaching English experience; six others have been teaching English for aver sight years; the other two have taught English (or nearly four yours Fight oul of ten

ers had MA degr

enthusiastic and helpful both at work and in daily Life

In this study, the researcher invited a teacher of English who was assigned to teach

tea All of thom have ø strong sense of responsibilities and are

reading skills in the second semester and her class, the tirst- year English major class, to take part in the portfolio project, The teacher had been teaching English for eight years and she was willing to apply the new teaching method

16

In this project, the leacher was in charge of reading lessons al class and monitored the student - teacher conferences Meanwhile the rescarchor observed the whole portfolio project and worked with the teacher in planning porttolio assessment procedures, assessing students” portfolios, designing the questionnaize for students

An interview to the teacher was done by the researcher at the end of the semester 2.1.3, Teaching Reading to First Year Students

AL the time of conducting the research, the students had just finished the first

syllabus One major objective of reading program for the students was that after the

15 week semester, their level of proficiency was at PET (Prelimmary English

‘Test), PET is one of five 'Main Suite’ exammations offered by Cambridge ESOL

‘The level of PET is described as low-intermediate and is at BI in the Common Eumopean Framework of Reference

In the reading syllabus for first year students, students had a weekty 90 - minute

lesson in 15 weeks This tacans that they would have about 22.5 hours of reading in class, which is not sufficient for stulents to reach the targeted level of PET To

enhance their reading proficiency as well as their reading comprehension ability,

students need to do a lot of extensive reading besides classroom activities

‘Therefore, it required a supplementary program to facilitate and motivate student’s reading,

‘The main course book for first yzar English major students ai TTC is Interaction

1 Tis abjeetive is to buitd and develop reading skills for tearnets The course book

is divided info two sections, the Grst hal Cis for the first semester and the seeond for

the second semester

Section one consists of the first five units which mtroduce basic reading skills such

as Recognizing topic, Reading for main ideas, Recognising titles and paragraph

topics, Recognizing reading structure, Understanding explicitly stated information

and Szmumarizing In this section, the reading exis are familiar topics such as

student life, food, naiure, fanily, traveling Tis objective is to help students to practice the reading skills they have Jeamed and provides thom with plenty of uscftdl information in order to enhance student's linguistic competence and background knowledge

Section two includes five units, from unit $ to 10 The objective of this section is to

deepen stuckmts” reading skills already acquived in the first, semester, In addition,

two more advanced reading skills ara introduced and practiced They are understanding vocabulary from contzd and making inferences The bangtagz oŸ reading texts in this scction is more complicated, The comprchension questions after each text not only check students’ understanding of the text but also provide them vath background knowledge about the world and complex language structures and vocabulary

Among the reading skills which are targeted at in the Interaction 1 course book, five skills were sorted out as targeted skills in this paper ‘They are

- Finding main ideas

= Reading for specific information

+ Understanding voeubulary from context

- Summarizing

- Making inferences

Five skills were chosen as main skills in the couse for thres reasons First, they are among the most common reading skills Second, from the researcher’s experience, these skills, especially umderstanding vocabulary from context and making inference are porecived as difficull to studonts ‘The last reason is that they are skills thal readers “typically iced ta develup” (Alderson, 2000, p.1)

2.1.4 An

‘The researcher met the teacher who was m charge of teaching reading skills to the

g Purtfalio Assessment in TITTC Context

fst year students of English in the second semester and introduced the idea of portfolio assessment to her After her approval for taking part in the study, the

teacher was consulted to see how the portfolio assessment could be implemented as

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part of the regular instructional process Bath the researcher and the teacher established the portfolio assessment procedures

The portfolio assessment procedures used in this study were adapted trom the frameworks of Johnson, Mins Cox, and Doyle Nichols (2009) and Delett, Barnhardt and Kevorkian (2001) ‘These procedures were presented step by step below

Step 1: Planning portfolio assessment

This is the initial and cruciat slop because il affects the success of the portfolio project There were four sub — steps in planing portfolio assessment; sctting, assessment purpose, specifying the content of the portiolio, establishing critetia for assessment and planning, classroom procedures,

‘fhe first sub - step was setting assessment purpose (See Appendix 1) This project was designed to help students develop five targeted reading skills, which were reading for main ideas, reading for specific information, summazing, understanding vocabulary from context and making inferences Resides, the self — assessment

skills, sol — study and active learning of students we

ouraged ‘Through finding mmatcrials, the ability of material scarching skills was expected to develop as welll

The second step was determining the portfolio content (See Appendix 1) In this step, what to put in the portfolio and how to organize the information were decided

‘The portfolio cantents included five portfolio entries of targeted reading skills in the second semester Normally, each porlfolia entry had ta contain (1) one sample of

aml @)

student’ work, (2) two samples of their fronds? work (reading excrei

lwo types of assesstocnt: student’s reflcetion and teacher's assessment A stutlenis’

final fecdback indicating their reactions towards the whole portfolio project and advantages and disadvantages of portfolio assessment was attached with five portfolio entries before being submitted to the teacher

The next step is establishing criteria for assessment (See Appendix 1) by which students” portfolios would he assessed In this project, there were two types of

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assessment uscd 10 evaluate each portfolio entry: studenl’s reflection and teacher's assessment with the help of portfolio rating scale (Svc Appendix 2)

The last step was plarming classroom procedures (See Appendix 3) Portfolios were integrated in classroom activities during the semester Each 90 - minute reading

lesson was divided into two sections ‘he first section was the presentation of all

the targeted skills slaled in Tileraction 1, the reading course hook of the first year English majens at HTTC The second section was for portfolios First, students were required to colleet one reading exercise related Lo the targeted skill of the week After collceting the right type of reading excreise, they did it at home Next, they

shared their exercise with two fiends and discussed their performances The discussion would serve as input information for their reflections at home The

students wrote their reflection freely about their leaming experience in the week based on some suggested questions In the following week, there was a conference

between the students and the teacher about the work they did and then students

handed in all the materials on ons entry to ths teacher for assessment

Step 2: Introducing portfolio assessment to the students

Two weeks hefore the sceond screster, the teacher and the rescarcher lad a mecting with students to discuss about the ideas of portfolio assessment, its purposes, its requirements, the how of assessment and classroom procedures A number of samples and handouts including all necessary components in portfolio design were delivered A portfolio sample with core items in an entry such as

reflection and teacher’s 4

reading exerci nent, was given to the students, To

ñ malerial evaluation checklist

help students in cvalualing the collected readin

was also provided (Sez Appendix $) Tu help students in writing releetion, some guided questions were suggested (See Appendix 4)

Stop 3: Implementing portfolie assessment

After everything had been ready, the researcher implemented the porttolio project according to the portfolio design The students did the tasks they were assigned and submitted their portfolio entry as in the plan ‘The teacher and the researcher

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tanitored the process of portfolio completion and gave continuous assessment in

conferences with students and in students’ works to make sure that students went in the nght direction

Step 4: Evaluating the portfolio process

In the final step of the portfolio assessment procedures, the students were asked to

exhibit their portfolio with a showcase of thir work in ths fileenth week of the

project It was the right time for the tachor and tha tescarcher to roview tha whats porlfotio provess and ovaluatc ifs success The rewsons for failure andl success were aware of for the future improvement,

Classroom Observation

According to Reed and Bergemann (2005, p.22), observation is “the act or practice

of paying attention to people, events, and/or the environment”, In addition, it helps observer to watch people do and listen to what they say without asking them about

2

their views, feclings or attitudes (Robson, 1993, p.191) Therefore, the vesearcher

decided to usc it as a means to explore the students’ attitudes towards using

portfolio as an assessment tool The data collected from observing students’ activities and attitudes in class helped the researcher investigate if what they did in

practice was congruent with what they said

Students’ Reflections

As part of the portfolio procedimes, students” reflections hail t be submitted afer every Iwo weeks for Ieacher’s assessiuent, These reflections provided the teacher and the rescarcher with valuable source of information to judge students’ progress

and brought students chances to self assess

The reflections were written in tree style Each reflection should retlect their

thought about the following features:

= the reading skill to be acquired in the week

= the exercise they have collected

= their performance on the exercises collected by their friends

¢ of exeruise in the week

they et when doing the Lisk Questionnaire for Students

‘A questionnaire was conducted to investigate students’ pareeptions of impact of portfolio assessment on their reading comprehension ability:

‘The questionnaire consists of two parts: part A for personal information and part B for content information 11 was designed based on the features of portfolio

suggested by Barton and Collin (1997), De Fina (1992), Kamp and

12

ssTneTit

porlfalio as a Tearing and assessment (ool, mui (4) the role of portfolio ass

in promoting the leamer autonomy (Sec Appendix 6) The rating of questionnaire

based ona four point scales ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree To

avoid student’s misunderstanding, the Viemamese version was delivered to students

(See Appendix 7)

Interview to Teacher

The interview included two sections Section 1 asked for personal imformation of

the interviewee The second one contained 7 questions asking aboul the type of assessment procedure she followed in her class, the reliability of the assessment

used; her knowledge on portfolio assessment before the project; the benefits and difficulties she met when using this assessment method; the way she overcame the

difficulties and her future plan towards portfolio assessment ‘he transcript of the

interview was in Appendix 8

2.3.2 Research Procedures

‘The research was carried out in the second semester of school year 2013 — 2014 At

the very begiming of the sccond semester, the researcher had a tweeling with the teacher in charge of teaching reading skills to the first year English major students

in the sccond scmester to talk about the portfolio assessment Then, thirty students

in her class were selected participants in this study

First, the portfolio assessment procedures were implemented in 1S weeks The

portfolio assessment plan, its objectives, contents, classroom procedme, home

activities and methods of assessment were explained clearly to the students in the

first week From week 2 to 14, the portfolio assessment project was carted aut: Duning the project, the students’ porl{olio entries were colleeted, read and analyzed

by both the teachcr and the researcher Relevant information about students’

opinions towards the program im their retlections helped the teacher be aware of the effectiveness of her instruction and identify students’ progress as well as difficulties they met in the course, Students’ portfolios were evaluated and graded by the teacher and the researcher based on the Portfolio rating scale,

Second, a questiommire was delivered to students in the Test weck of the semester ta find out the students’ views towards effectiveness of portfolio assessment on students’ reading comprehension ability

Third, a teacher interview was made at the end of the 15 weeks to explore the teachor’s opinions of portfolio assessment, Tt was Tecorded and then transcribed

‘The classroom observation was made during the semester to get further information

on students’ attitudes towards portfolio assessment

Snudents’ reflections and final feedback:

Asa part of portfolio assessment project, the reflections served as valuable source

of information for the researcher to evaluate students” progress and benefits they gained from this portfolio project The students’ final feedback provided the

rescarcher with a decper insight into students’ attitudes towards the usc of portfolio

as a learning and assessment tool

‘The data from the reflections and feedbacks was analyzed qualitatively to seek the

answers to the research questions

Teacher interview:

‘The interview to the teacher was condneted at the end of the semester to get her opinions on the implemetation of porfolio assessment, advantages as well as disadavantages she encountered and her future plan The analyzed data supplied more information for the second and third research questions

Classroom observation:

During the classroom activities and the conferenees, the researcher obscrved and noled down the students’ reactions and attitudes when doing porifolios The data was used to examine if it matched with the findings ftom the portfolios and questionnaires’ analysis

CIIAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 3.1 Data Analysis Results

This chapter reports the results of the data collected trom the study to explore the relationship between portfolio assessment and students’ reading comprehension ability, ‘he data was collected ftom the portfolios, student’s questionnaire, leacher’s interview and classroumn observation:

3.1.1, Data Collected from Classroom Observation

‘The observation was conducted in the classroom activities amd conferences with the tcacher during the 15 wecks

Some frustration was exhibited by several students at the begimning of the semester However, these worries gradually faded as they became famihar with the task and began to understand and follow the criteria checklists

In general, students” interest and participation in classroom was growing when they worked with their peers In the fizst lessons, some students hesitated in discussing with their friends, This situation gradually changed after they were encouraged by the teacher and their friends More quustions about Icarning sirafegios such as “How can I find the key words?”, “How did you infor?”, “Why did you choose this answer?” and so on were addressed ficely to the tcachor in discussions, All of the students were eager to show their portfolio in the last week of the semester

However, there were few weak and shy students who were not involved in class activities as actively as the others,

In shel, the data from observation revealed the favorable altitudes af students

perecived their progress in learning of reading skills It was noticed that their Icaming became more active and autonomous when they could manage to examine their improvement and be aware of their strengths and weaknesses

‘As stated at the beginning of the portfolio assessment project, the pnmary purpose

of portfolio project was to develop student's reading skills in order to enhance their reading comprehension ability The students’ reflections quoted Uelow reveated the bonsficial impact of pertfolie program on enhancing the reading skills,

In the Gist Iwo weeks, reading for main ideas was the targeted reading skill Students made some incisive comments on the ways they acquired this skill such as

“I know that Ineed to use skimming skill [read ihe paragraph al once, underlined some key words and then read the first and last sentence carefidlly because the main idea could be two sentences” Vhis student realized that “this strategy is quite usefid

to find the main idea” Other student expressed her difficulties in doing this type of exercise “Maybe J did not know how to catch key words” Later she could do it with the help of her classmates “my friends showed ma how to find key words, T could find the main idea correctly” These rellcclions were quilt typical reflections among

students

For the exercise on reading for specific information, although most students reflected that readmg for specific information was easier than finding the main ideas, some had difficulties when doing it One student had problem in finding the unstated information “Phere are still some questions which } carmot find the information until I discussed with my friends They showed me how ta find unstated information.” The other disclosed her tip when doing this type of exereise “I realize that I don’t need to read every ward and read too carefidly Now T know how to find the specific information quickly by reading the heading and sub — headings to locate the needed information”,

Summaiizing is seen as a difficult reading skill, However, a number of students showed a good result when doing this type of exercise One student prided her result “f answered 8 out of 10 correct” Other identified her weakness “fer group

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