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 college001

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOIUNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIESFACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES *************************** TRẦN THỊ PHƯƠNG THẢO A STUDY ON THE IMPACT

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOIUNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

***************************

TRẦN 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

NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ ẢNH HƯỞNG CỦA VIỆC SỬ DỤNG PHƯƠNG PHÁP ĐÁNHGIÁ TUYỂN TẬP BÀI LÀM ĐỐI VỚI KHẢ NĂNG ĐỌC HIỂU TIẾNG ANH CỦASINH VIÊN CHUYÊN NGÀNH TIẾNG ANH NĂM THỨ NHẤT TRƯỜNG CAO

ĐẲNG SƯ PHẠM HÀ NAM

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111

Hanoi, 2014

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOIUNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

***************************

TRẦN 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

NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ ẢNH HƯỞNG CỦA VIỆC SỬ DỤNG PHƯƠNG PHÁP ĐÁNHGIÁ TUYỂN TẬP BÀI LÀM ĐỐI VỚI KHẢ NĂNG ĐỌC HIỂU TIẾNG ANH CỦASINH VIÊN CHUYÊN NGÀNH TIẾNG ANH NĂM THỨ NHẤT TRƯỜNG CAO

ĐẲNG SƯ PHẠM HÀ NAM

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111

Supervisor: Dr Trần Thị Tuyết

Hanoi, 2014

I hereby certify that the thesis entitled “A study on the impact of using portfolioassessment on English reading comprehension ability of the first year English majorstudents at Ha Nam Teachers’ Training College” is the result of my own research forthe Degree of Master of Arts at University of Languages and International Studies,Vietnam National University, and that this thesis has not been submitted for any otherdegrees

Signature:

Trần Thị Phương Thảo

Date: October 25th, 2014

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSThe study could not have been fulfilled without the help, encouragement andsupport of a number of people.

First and foremost, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to mysupervisor, Ms Tran Thi Tuyet for her never – ending support and valuable guidanceduring this process I have appreciated her continual encouragement, challengingquestions and constructive advice, without which this thesis would not have beencompleted

Second, I would like to take the chance to express my great attitude to our teachers atthe Faculty of Postgraduate Studies of Vietnam National University, University ofLanguages and International Studies for providing is with the precious knowledgefrom their practical and helpful lectures

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

My gratitude also goes to the authors of the books and articles listed in thesources of the references

Finally, I wish to thank my family, without whose love and support this studycould hardly become a reality

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of portfolio assessment onEnglish reading comprehension ability of English major students at Ha NamTeachers’ Training College Participants consisted of 30 first year English majorstudents The portfolio assessment was integrated into classroom activities to explore

to what extent the student’s English reading comprehension ability may be enhanced.Both quantitative and qualitative procedures were used for data collection andanalysis Data were obtained through four channels: a questionnaire with students, aninterview with teacher, students’ portfolios and classroom observation The resultsindicated that most of students and the teacher were in favour of portfolio assessment

of reading and its procedures boosted students’ reading comprehension and raisedtheir self – assessment and learner autonomy as well If portfolio assessment isplanned carefully, it will become a powerful tool for assessing and enhancingstudents’ learning

LISTS OF TABLESNAME OF TABLES

Table 1: Differences between traditional assessment and alternative assessmentTable 2: Design of portfolio assessment

Table 3: Week plan for portfolio assessment classroom procedures

Table 4: Portfolio rating scale

Table 5: Suggested questions for students’ reflections

Table 6: Material evaluation checklist

Table 7: The impact of teacher’s immediate feedback and group discussionTable 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 ………. i

Acknowledge……… ii

Abstract……… iii

List of tables……….…… iv

Table of content……… v

PART A: INTRODUCTION……… 1

1 Rationale……… 2

2 Objectives, research questions, and scope of the study……… 2

3 Methods of the study……… 2

4 Structure of the study……… 3

PART B: DEVELOPMENT……… 4

Chapter 1: Literature review……… 4

1.1 Definition of reading comprehension……… 4

1.2 Reasons for assessing students’ reading comprehension………. 4

1.3 Assessment approaches……… 5

1.4 Portfolio assessment……… …… 8

1.4.1 Definition of portfolio……… … 9

1.4.2 Types of portfolio……… … 9

1.4.3 Portfolio assessment……… … 10

1.4.4 Research on portfolio assessment……… 11

1.4.5 Reasons for using portfolio assessment……… 12

1.4.6 Stages of portfolio assessment implementation……… 13

Chapter 2: Methodology……… 16

2.1 Sampling……… 16

2.1.1 Students……… 16

2.1.2 Teachers……… 16

2.1.3 Teaching reading to first year English major students……… 17

2.1.4 Applying portfolio assessment in HTTC context……… 18

2.2 Research questions……… 21

2.3 Data collection……….……….……… 21

2.3.1 Instruments……… 21

2.3.2 Research procedures……… 23

2.3.3 Data analysis……… 24

Chapter 3: Findings and discussion……… 25

3.1 Data analysis results……… 25

3.1.1 Data collected from classroom observation ……… 25

3.1.2 Data collected from students’ reflections and final feedback…… 25

3.1.3 Data collected from students’ questionnaire……… 30

3.1.3.1 The impact of teacher’s intermediate feedback and group 31 discussion………

3.1.3.2 Students’ views on their self – assessment skills……… 31

3.1.3.3 The role of portfolio as a learning and assessment tool… 32 3.1.3.4 The role of portfolio assessment in promoting learner autonomy……… 32

3.1.4 Data collected from teacher’s interview……… 33

3.2 Discussion of findings……… 34

3.2.1 Students’ perception on portfolio assessment……… 34

3.2.2 The impact of using portfolio assessment on students’ reading 34 comprehension ability………

3.2.3 The possibility of applying portfolio assessment in reading 36 courses in HTTC………

PART C: CONCLUSION………… ……… 38

1 Summary of the study……… 38

2 Limitations and suggestions for further studies……… 39

REFERENCES……… 40 APPENDICES

Appendix 2: A week plan for classroom portfolio procedures……… II

Appendix 4: Suggested questions for students’ reflections……… VI

Appendix 6: Questionnaire for students (English version)……… VIIIAppendix 7: Questionnaire for students (Vietnamese version)……… X

PART A: INTRODUCTIONThis part presents rationale of the study, objectives of the study, research questions,scope of the study, methods of the study and structure of the study.

1 Rationale

Assessment is an integral part of any educational process promising beneficialbackwash effects on the syllabus, materials and teaching (Tomlinson, 2005) Alongwith the recent developments in science, society and educational measurements,instructional and assessment practices become “holistic, student centered,performance based, process oriented, integrated and multidimensional” (Gottlieb,

1995, p.12) This is accounted for by the concerns to the traditional assessments,which typically fail to assess higher order cognitive skills and other skills essentialfor functioning in school (Haney & Madaus, 1989) In addition, the traditionalmethods such as tests are seen as particularly irrelevant to learning process (Moya

& O’Malley, 1994) and “as dark clouds hanging over learner’s heads, upsetting themwith thunderous anxiety” (Brown, 1994, p.373) Therefore, researchers have sought alternativeforms of student assessment that are able to solve the above problems One of the most effectivetypes of alternative assessments is portfolio assessment

Portfolios have proved useful in providing effective feedback to both teachers andlearners, enhancing responsibility towards learning and bringing positive attitudes(Yang, 2003; De Fina, 1992) Moreover, they can be used to facilitate the learningprocess, encourage learner autonomy and raise learners’ awareness about learningstrategies (Moore, 1994; Banfi, 2003; Yang, 2003)

In spite of the significance of portfolio assessment in instruction and learning, littleresearch has been done concerning the use of portfolios with college students in anEFL environment Additionally, this method has not been applied in evaluating thereading skills of the first - year English major students at Ha Nam Teachers’ TrainingCollege (HTTC), where the author works

For the above-mentioned reasons, the researcher would like to carry out the following

research: “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”

2 Objectives of the Study

2 1 Objectives

This study was designed to evaluate the influence of using portfolio as an assessmentinstrument on English reading comprehension ability of the first - year English majorstudents at HTTC Specifically, the research has three objectives Firstly, it aims atexamining the student’s attitude towards portfolio assessment Secondly, itinvestigates the extent of impact of using portfolio assessment on students’ readingcomprehension ability Lastly, it identifies the feasibility of applying portfolioassessment in reading courses in HTTC

Based on the objectives of the study, this study sought to answer the following threemajor questions:

(1) What do students think about portfolio assessment?

(2) To what extent does portfolio assessment enhance student’s reading

comprehension ability?

(3) To what extent is it feasible to apply portfolio assessment in reading courses in HTTC?

2.3 Scope of the Study

As the title suggests, the study was carried out on a group of 30 first - yearEnglish majors at HTTC to examine the effectiveness of applying portfolio as a tool

of assessment Finally, due to time constraints, my research targeted only at theimpact of portfolio assessment on students’ reading comprehension ability

3 Methods of the Study

The study involved both qualitative and quantitative method In order to achieve theabove aims, the techniques employed to support this investigation included studentportfolios, a questionnaire for students, an interview to teacher and classroomobservation

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 B, the development, is the main part with three chapters Chapter 1

conceptualizes the issues and theories of reading comprehension, reasons for readingcomprehension, assessment approaches and portfolio assessment The main focus ofchapter 2 is methodology, which deals with the actual procedures of the study,including instruments for data collection and analysis Chapter 3 presents the findingsand discussions from the study

The last part of the study summarizes main points discussed in the thesis andmentions to limitation and suggestions for further studies

PART B: DEVELOPMENTCHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEWThis chapter outlines and reviews literature and theories underlying this study whichdiscusses (1) reading comprehension, (2) reasons for assessing readingcomprehension, (3) assessment approaches and (4) portfolio assessment.

1.1 Definition of Reading Comprehension

Reading comprehension plays an important role in teaching and learning reading aforeign language Payne (1992, p.35) defines “reading comprehension as a process ofsimultaneously extracting and constructing meaning through interaction andinvolvement with written language” With the same view, Grellet (1999, p.3)considers that reading comprehension is “understanding a written text meaningextracting the required information from it as efficiently as possible”

Meanwhile, both Lee and Vanpatten (1995) and Anderson and Pearson (1984) agreethat comprehension is the process of relating new or incoming information toinformation already stored in memory Readers can connect the new information onthe printed page with their existing knowledge when they critically evaluate the ideasconveyed in the text

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

1.2 Reasons for Assessing Students’ Reading Comprehension

Students’ reading comprehension is often assessed for some following reasons Both Cross and Paris (1987) and Grabe (2009) agree that one of purpose for reading comprehension assessment is sorting It is used to predict learners’ academic success and determine if students are appropriately prepared for further learning and

educational advancement

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

promote the improvement of reading ability, find out how their learning is going.Meanwhile, teachers need feedback on students’ learning progress, so that they canadjust and develop their teaching.

Pressley and Afflcerbach (2005) emphasize the importance of assessment to howstudents deal with the new information It helps them know how to connect the newtext with their experience and know how to interpret, evaluate, synthesize andconsider alternative interpretations of what they have read

1.3 Assessment Approaches

Assessment is one of the crucial components of the instruction People within theeducational community as policymakers, educators, students, parents, administratorshave different ideas regarding the implementation of assessment strategies (Dietel,Herman & Knuth, 1991)

There are two general assessment approaches from which teachers can choose(Lauvas, Haynes & Raahemins, 2000) The first type, traditional assessment, refers toassessment that “attempts to measure an individual’s achievement or aptitude throughstandardized and classroom achievement tests with most closed – ended items such astrue/false, multiple choice and fill – in – the blanks” (Belle, 1999, p.6) It involvesstudents selecting a response from the given lists and usually occurs after learning hastaken place In this study, the term traditional assessment is used interchangeablywith standardized tests The second type, alternative assessment, a non – traditionalassessment, is anything that does not include multiple - choice tests and other forms

of classroom evaluation usually seen in classroom (Libman, 2000) It requiresstudents to create a response to an open – ended problem or task (Ryan & Miyasaka,1995) Portfolio, performance, self – evaluations, exhibitions, cooperative learning,journals and stimulations are 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 of learning and teaching”(p.3) Heaton (1988) shares the same point of view that “language testing is a form

of measurement It is so closely related to teaching that we cannot work in testingwithout being constantly concerned with teaching” (p.5) Another reason for teachers,schools and assessment organization to utilize multiple - choice tests is that they arefast, easy and economical to score Besides, they are scored objectively, which maygive the test appearance of being fairer than subjectively scored tests (Bailey, 1998,p.130) Herman, Aschbacher and Winters (1992, p.3) present usefulness of testing as

“For administrators and school planners, test results provide information about program effectiveness and identify areas of curricular strength and weakness….For teachers, testing provides important diagnostic information forinstructional groupings, for identifying instructional needs and prescribingappropriate instruction, for determining mastery, and for assessing theeffectiveness of particular instructional units or approaches For parents andstudents, testing information is a gauge of individual progress, which helpsthem understand and build on individual strengths and weaknesses”

However, they also emphasize that testing fulfills its promise only if it can representsignificant outcomes for students and the important goals for classroom instruction.This raises questions whether test scores represent significant learning outcomes andwhether improvements in test score performance actually represent improvements inlearning (Cannell, 1987; Linn et al 1991; Shepard, 1989) The answers to thesequestions expose some limitations of tests According to Bailey (1998) and Smaldino

et al (2000), tests often focus on measuring learner’s ability of memorization andrecall, 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 toclassroom activities as well as the real world The final product is the core concernbut not the progression of learners

Alternative assessments, on the other hand, assess higher – order thinking skillsbecause learners have opportunity to demonstrate what they learned Furthermore,this type of assessment tools focuses on the growth and performance of students over

at time If a learner fails to perform a given task at a particular time, s/he still

has chance to demonstrate his/her ability at a different time and situation In addition,

alternative assessments provide learners opportunities to practice authentic activities

they might encounter in real life As this type of assessment evaluates the learning

process over time and in context, teachers have chance to measure the strengths and

weaknesses of students as well as get further insights into students’ knowledge and

skills Alternative assessments also intend to motivate students to take more

responsibility for their own learning (Hargreaves et.al, 2002; Law and Ecke, 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 learners’ 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

The table below summarizes the differences between traditional assessment and

alternative assessment

assumes knowledge has a single assumes knowledge has multiple

believes that learning is passive treats learning as an active

processmeasures student’s ability at one measures student’s ability over

separates process from product emphasizes process and product

(final products are all that is

evaluated)

focuses on mastering bits of focuses on inquiry

information (associated with

lower level thinking skills)

assessment is to document and assessment is to facilitate learningmonitor student learning

believes cognitive, affective, and recognizes a connection between

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

considered, how students carry

out tasks is not considered)

views assessment as objective, views assessment as subjective

embraces hierarchical model of embraces a shared model ofpower and control (students do power and control

not participate in

decision-making)

provides no feedback to learners provides useful feedback to

learnersmay cause student’s stress and reduces test anxiety

test anxiety

(Table 1: The differences between alternative assessment and portfolio assessment)

(Sources: Anderson & Bailey, 1998; Brown, 1994; Slater, Samson & 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 learning as an active process and assessment

procedures to be congruent with instruction and learning (Baume, 2001; Biggs, 1999;

Davies & Wavering, 1999; Wiggins, 1990)

1.4 Portfolio Assessment

Popular belief in alternative assessment procedures suggests that the use of student

portfolio can help students successfully organize and integrate newly acquired

knowledge Many language researchers have applied portfolios as a tool of

assessment in a variety of classroom learning environments due to a need for more

equitable and authentic assessment that goes beyond traditional testing (Stiggins,

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

learning As the use of portfolios may encourage students to take more initiative and

control of learning and to reflect on their learning, portfolio can be a useful tool for

fostering learner autonomy (Graves & Sunstein, 1992; McNamara & Debra, 1998).Portfolio has thus become a popular trend of assessment in recent years (Yang, 2003).

1.4.1 Definition of Portfolio

There is no “right” way to define portfolio (O’Malley & Pierce, 1992)

Arter and Spandel (1992, p.210) define portfolio as a purposeful collection of student work that tells the story of the student’s efforts, progress and achievement According

to Paulson, Paulson and Mayer (1991, p.60)

“Portfolio is a purposeful collection of student’s work that exhibits thestudent’s efforts, progress and achievement in one or more areas Thecollection must include student participation in selecting contents, the criteriafor selection, the criteria for judging merit and evidence of student self-reflection”

Simon and Forgette – Giroux (2000, p.36) define as “portfolio is a cumulative andonging collection of entries that are selected and commented on by the student, theteacher and/or peers, to assess the student’s progress in the development of acompetency.”

De Fina (1992, p.13) states that portfolios are systematic, purposeful, and meaningfulcollections of students’ working in one or more subject areas

All above definitions share two common points Firstly, portfolio is a collection orselection 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

1.4.2 Types of Portfolio

There are different ways to categorize portfolios such as:

Haladyna (1997) classifies portfolios into five types that are ideal, showcase,

documentation, evaluation and class portfolio The ideal portfolio, which contains

students’ all works, is not given to students a grade but they have to self – assess their

own portfolio The showcase portfolio only includes the students’ best works It, therefore, is not suitable to be assessed and graded The documentation portfolio

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

classroom

Charlotte and Leslye (1997) catergozie portfolios into three major types: working

portfolio, display portfolio and assessment portfolio The working portfolio is an

intentional collection containing both work in progress and finished sample of work

Its major purpose is to keep the students’ work The display portfolio is sometimes

referred to as the showcase or best works portfolio Its purpose is to showcase the

students’ highest achievement The assessment portfolio documents a student’s

learning over time, based on curriculum objectives

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

The product portfolio is used to document accomplishment while the process portfolio documents the stages of learning and provides a progressive record of

student’s growth In general, teachers prefer to use process portfolios because theyare ideal for documenting the stages that students go through as they learn andprogress (Venn, 2000, p 533)

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

of the instruction, teacher can select a proper type and apply it This study examinedthe progress students’ reading comprehension ability when using portfolio as anassessment tool; therefore, the kind of portfolio used in this research is processportfolio (Venn, 2000), or assessment portfolio (Charlotte & Leslye, 1997) ordocumentation portfolio (Haladyn, 1997)

1.4.3 Portfolio Assessment

According to Schrier and Hammadou (1994), portfolio assessment is particularlyapplicable to foreign language assessment It was introduced into the mainstream

curriculum of foreign language classes about two decades ago and is now used in anumber of North American schools.

Liskin – Gasparro (1996) suggests that this type of assessment is useful to evaluatethe process the students use to complete a particular task In such task, students feelinvolved in evaluating themselves in learning the foreign language (Tierney, Carter,

& Desai, 1991) It is indicated that portfolio assessment can provide students with theability to accumulate required knowledge and skills for the subject or task and bring themlearning improvement (Fischer & King, 1995; Tierney, Carter, & Desai, 1991)

Sharing the same ideas with Tierney, Carter and Desai (1991), Glazer and Brown(1998) claim that keeping portfolio teaches learners to be responsible for monitoringtheir own learning process, progress and success When students are involved andresponsible for collecting and answering classroom needs, they learn to beindependent and autonomous learners (Fischer & King, 1995)

1.4.4 Research on Portfolio Assessment

In the study “Portfolio Assessment to Enhance Student Learning”, Sarker and Hu(2006) obtained feedback from 22 undergraduate students in relation to the fairnessand acceptance of portfolio assessment as a tool 68% of respondents agreed orstrongly agreed that use of a portfolio was an accurate reflection of their ability, 72%agreed or strongly agreed that it was a fair assessment of their understanding ofsubject, and 77% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed to accept portfolio as part

of the overall assessment of the unit These findings indicated that most studentsconsider portfolio assessment as a positive form of assessment

Charvade et al (2012) and Chi (2006), who examined the impact of portfolioassessment on learners’ reading comprehension ability, found the same results Theyboth highlighted the positive effect of portfolio assessment on improving the learners'language ability

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

of performance than traditional assessment, it is more objective and it

promotes better feedback Portfolio assessment is also proved its positive effect onthe learners' motivation (Nafisi, 2010).

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

1.4.5 Reasons for Using Portfolio Assessment

In a number of theoretical and empirical studies in education, portfolio assessmenthas been proved one of the effective assessment forms Some researchers havereferred to the significant advantages when adopting a portfolio approach

First, portfolio assessment provides both teachers and learners prompt feedback thatcan enhance not only learning but also teaching process (Bailey, 1998; De Fina,1992; Yang, 2003) Thanks to the immediate comments of teacher, students couldrealize their strengths and weaknesses Meanwhile, an invaluable insight into studentlearning and performance from reading the student’s refection may help teacheradjust the instructional and assessing practice to match individual student

Second, portfolio assessment is considered as a reliable assessment tool to assess realstudent’s ability It provides teacher relatively truthful information about studentswhich is collected from different sources such as teachers, student’s friends andstudents themselves (Brigin & Baki, 2007; Kemp & Toperoff, 1998) In addition, itbecomes 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 particulartime, s/he has chance to demonstrate her/ his ability in another time

Third, portfolio assessment actively involves students in their own learning andassessment (De Fina, 1992; Alabdelwahab, 2002) In fact, that having to takeresponsibility for the quality and usefulness of his/her own work and being givenempowerment to prove his/her own achievement engages students in learningactively

Finally, portfolio assessment enhances the learner autonomy (Barton & Collin, 1997;Kemp & Toperoff, 1998; Kose, 2006; Littlejohn, 1985; Tierney, Carter , & Desai,1991) When doing portfolios, students are involved in decision making

process and taking more control of learning This makes students likely to be moreenthusiastic and motivated in learning.

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

Although portfolio assessment is proved a reliable assessment tool, scoring aportfolio may be seen as less fair than multiple choices test scores and may beaffected by the subjectivity of the teacher (Cicmanec & Viecknicki, 1994) If thepurpose and assessment criteria of portfolio are not clear, portfolio can be just amiscellaneous collection of works that cannot reflect students’ growth orachievement accurately Therefore, it is essential to develop appropriate gradingguideline, maintain consistency in portfolio grading and avoid subjectivity in grading

to make this type of assessment more efficient and truthful (Hiverla & Pierson, 2000)

Another drawback of using portfolio is that it requires teacher a lot of time and effort

to score students’ works, assess students’ performance and give feedback to studentsover time (Racer, 1995; Schaaf, 2005; Stecher, 1998) Schaaf (2005) explains thatassessing portfolios involves complex interactions among teachers’ competences, theportfolio, the standard used raters’ characteristics and raters’ interpretations.Therefore, scoring students’ portfolios is more time – consuming than scoring atraditional test

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

a worthwhile burden with tangible results in instruction and student motivation(Koretz et al., 1994; Stecher, 1998)

A discussion on the advantages and disadvantages of applying portfolio assessment inlanguage classrooms helps us have an insight into the use of this ongoing assessment

It is obvious that if planned, managed and conducted in an appropriate way, portfolioassessment can bring the best outcomes to both teachers and students

1.4.6 Stages of Portfolio Assessment Implementation

Reviewing the literature, different frameworks of portfolio assessment are proposedfor developing and implementing portfolio assessment programs in languageclassrooms.

Johnson, Mins – Cox, and Doyle – Nichols (2010) suggest six stages in implementingportfolio assessment They are

Stage 1: identifying teaching goals to assess through portfolio The first step is to

establish the teaching goals which state clearly what teacher hopes to achieve inteaching Those goals will serve as the guide to how teacher assesses students' work

Stage 2: introducing the idea of portfolio assessment to the class Some examples are

needed to illustrate this idea

Stage 3: specifying 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 studentsacquainted with the rating scale before performing the task

Stage 4: giving clear and detailed guidelines for portfolio presentation Teacher sets

clear and detailed guidelines on how portfolios will be presented and explains theneed for clear and attractive presentation

Stage 5: informing key school officials, parent and other stakeholders As an

assessor, teacher needs to notify his/her department, dean or principal because it willserve 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

information and search substantial information about the subject Also, students andteacher must have to support each other as they go on to the development of theportfolio

While the above framework focuses on the what to do, Delett, Barnhardt andKevorkian (2001) provide a procedure which focuses more on the how to do It iscomposed of seven steps with the detailed description of its implementation

Step 1: setting assessment purpose The purposes guide the portfolio process and help

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

Step 2: determining portfolio outcomes The outcomes provide focus on the portfolio

by describing what knowledge or skills learners should be able to demonstrate

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

as entries to the portfolio

Step 4: determining organization of the portfolio It helps:

the portfolio be organized systematically so that the audience can understand why individual pieces were chosen and evaluate the portfolio as a whole.schedule time for students to select and organize entries throughout the

semester

show student progress towards an outcome, not necessarily to master the outcome

Step 5: establishing criteria for assessment The criteria which are set up based on

outcomes must be clear and meaningful Rating scale is also built up

Step 6: monitoring portfolio process Teacher monitors instruction and assessment

continually to make sure that students are working towards outcomes and they areproducing enough for the portfolio The adjustment may be made if things are notworking as planned

Step 7: evaluating the portfolio process Teacher determines whether the portfolio

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 fornext time

Both two frameworks through time have proved their effectiveness In this study,their most applicable points were combined to make portfolio a useful assessmenttool The process of assessing with the detailed explanation of the model would bediscussed in the next chapter

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGYThis chapter recites the methodology conducted in the study, including samplingand data collection.

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

After a semester studying at this college, their language skills regarding listening,speaking, reading and writing had improved a little bit In term of reading skills, thestudents, after the first semester, had been accustomed to basic reading skills likereading for main ideas, reading for specific information, recognizing the readingstructure and summazing and had chances to practice on these skills

2.1.2 Teachers

There are ten English teaching staff members at HTTC Two of them have 15 years

of teaching English experience; six others have been teaching English for over eightyears; the other two have taught English for nearly four years Eight out of tenteachers had MA degree All of them have a strong sense of responsibilities and areenthusiastic and helpful both at work and in daily life

In this study, the researcher invited a teacher of English who was assigned to teachreading skills in the second semester and her class, the first- year English major class,

to take part in the portfolio project The teacher had been teaching English for eightyears and she was willing to apply the new teaching method

In this project, the teacher was in charge of reading lessons at class and monitored thestudent - teacher conferences Meanwhile the researcher observed the whole portfolioproject and worked with the teacher in planning portfolio assessment procedures,assessing students’ portfolios, designing the questionnaire 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

At the time of conducting the research, the students had just finished the firstsemester and were entering the second semester The teaching of reading to the firstyear students at the second semester had to meet basic requirements defined in thesyllabus One major objective of reading program for the students was that after the

15 – week semester, their level of proficiency was at PET (Preliminary English Test).PET is one of five 'Main Suite' examinations offered by Cambridge ESOL The level

of PET is described as low-intermediate and is at B1 in the Common EuropeanFramework of Reference

In the reading syllabus for first year students, students had a weekly 90 - minutelesson in 15 weeks This means that they would have about 22.5 hours of reading inclass, which is not sufficient for students to reach the targeted level of PET Toenhance 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 year English major students at HTTC is Interaction

1 Its objective is to build and develop reading skills for learners The course book isdivided into two sections; the first half is for the first semester and the second for the secondsemester

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

Recognizing topic, Reading for main ideas, Recognizing tittles and paragraph topics, Recognizing reading structure, Understanding explicitly stated information

and Summarizing In this section, the reading texts are familiar topics such as

student life, food, nature, family, traveling Its objective is to help students to practicethe reading skills they have learned and provides them with plenty of usefulinformation in order to enhance student’s linguistic competence and backgroundknowledge.

Section two includes five units, from unit 5 to 10 The objective of this section is todeepen students’ reading skills already acquired in the first semester In addition, twomore advanced reading skills are introduced and practiced They are understandingvocabulary from context and making inferences The language of reading texts in thissection is more complicated The comprehension questions after each text not onlycheck students’ understanding of the text but also provide them with backgroundknowledge about the world and complex language structures and vocabulary

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

- Reading for specific information

- Understanding vocabulary from context

Five skills were chosen as main skills in the course for three reasons First, they areamong the most common reading skills Second, from the researcher’s experience,these skills, especially understanding vocabulary from context and making inferenceare perceived as difficult to students The last reason is that they are skills that readers

“typically need to develop” (Alderson, 2000, p.1)

2.1.4 Applying Portfolio Assessment in HTTC Context

The researcher met the teacher who was in charge of teaching reading skills to thefirst year students of English in the second semester and introduced the idea ofportfolio assessment to her After her approval for taking part in the study, the teacherwas consulted to see how the portfolio assessment could be implemented as

part of the regular instructional process Both the researcher and the teacherestablished the portfolio assessment procedures.

The portfolio assessment procedures used in this study were adapted from theframeworks of Johnson, Mins – Cox, and Doyle – Nichols (2009) and Delett,Barnhardt and Kevorkian (2001) These procedures were presented step by stepbelow

Step 1: Planning portfolio assessment

This is the initial and crucial step because it affects the success of the portfolioproject There were four sub – steps in planning portfolio assessment: settingassessment purpose, specifying the content of the portfolio, establishing criteria forassessment and planning classroom procedures

The first sub - step was setting assessment purpose (See Appendix 1) This project

was designed to help students develop five targeted reading skills, which werereading for main ideas, reading for specific information, summazing, understandingvocabulary from context and making inferences Besides, the self – assessment skills,self – study and active learning of students were encouraged Through findingmaterials, the ability of material searching skills was expected to develop as well

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 Theportfolio contents included five portfolio entries of targeted reading skills in thesecond semester Normally, each portfolio entry had to contain (1) one sample ofstudent’s work, (2) two samples of their friends’ work (reading exercises) and (3) twotypes of assessment: student’s reflection and teacher’s assessment A students’ finalfeedback indicating their reactions towards the whole portfolio project andadvantages and disadvantages of portfolio assessment was attached with fiveportfolio entries before being submitted to the teacher

The next step is establishing criteria for assessment (See Appendix 1) by which

students’ portfolios would be assessed In this project, there were two types of

assessment used to evaluate each portfolio entry: student’s reflection and teacher’sassessment with the help of portfolio rating scale (See Appendix 2).

The last step was planning classroom procedures (See Appendix 3) Portfolios were

integrated in classroom activities during the semester Each 90 - minute readinglesson was divided into two sections The first section was the presentation of all thetargeted skills stated in Interaction 1, the reading course book of the first year Englishmajors at HTTC The second section was for portfolios First, students were required

to collect one reading exercise related to the targeted skill of the week Aftercollecting the right type of reading exercise, they did it at home Next, they sharedtheir exercise with two friends and discussed their performances The discussionwould serve as input information for their reflections at home The students wrotetheir reflection freely about their learning experience in the week based on somesuggested questions In the following week, there was a conference between thestudents and the teacher about the work they did and then students handed in all thematerials on one entry to the teacher for assessment

Step 2: Introducing portfolio assessment to the students

Two weeks before the second semester, the teacher and the researcher had a meetingwith students to discuss about the ideas of portfolio assessment, its purposes, itsrequirements, the how of assessment and classroom procedures A number of samplesand handouts including all necessary components in portfolio design were delivered

A portfolio sample with core items in an entry such as reading exercises, reflectionand teacher’s assessment was given to the students To help students in evaluating thecollected readings, a material evaluation checklist was also provided (See Appendix5) To help students in writing reflection, some guided questions were suggested (SeeAppendix 4)

Step 3: Implementing portfolio assessment

After everything had been ready, the researcher implemented the portfolio projectaccording to the portfolio design The students did the tasks they were assigned andsubmitted their portfolio entry as in the plan The teacher and the researcher

monitored the process of portfolio completion and gave continuous assessment inconferences with students and in students’ works to make sure that students went inthe right direction.

Step 4: Evaluating the portfolio process

In the final step of the portfolio assessment procedures, the students were asked toexhibit their portfolio with a showcase of their work in the fifteenth week of theproject It was the right time for the teacher and the researcher to review the wholeportfolio process and evaluate its success The reasons for failure and success wereaware of for the future improvement

(1) What do students think about portfolio assessment?

(2) To what extent does portfolio assessment enhance student’s reading

Classroom Observation

According to Reed and Bergemann (2005, p.22), observation is “the act or practice ofpaying attention to people, events, and/or the environment” In addition, it helpsobserver to watch people do and listen to what they say without asking them about

their views, feelings or attitudes (Robson, 1993, p.191) Therefore, the researcherdecided to use it as a means to explore the students’ attitudes towards using portfolio

as an assessment tool The data collected from observing students’ activities andattitudes in class helped the researcher investigate if what they did in practice wascongruent with what they said

Students’ Reflections

As part of the portfolio procedures, students’ reflections had to be submitted afterevery two weeks for teacher’s assessment These reflections provided the teacher andthe researcher with valuable source of information to judge students’ progress andbrought students chances to self – assess

The reflections were written in free style Each reflection should reflect their thoughtabout 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

 the reading strategies used to do the type of exercise in the week

 the challenges they met when doing the task

Questionnaire for Students

A questionnaire was conducted to investigate students’ perceptions of impact ofportfolio assessment on their reading comprehension ability:

The questionnaire consists of two parts: part A for personal information and part Bfor content information It was designed based on the features of portfolio assessmentsuggested by Barton and Collin (1997), De Fina (1992), Kemp and Toperoff (1998),portfolio assessment framework of Delett, Barhardt and Kevorkkian (2001) andclassroom observation The questionnaire was designed to explore the students’detailed views about using portfolio as a means of assessment to readingcomprehension ability Specifically, the 21 questionnaire items was designed toinvestigate (1) the impact of teacher’s immediate feedback and group discussion, (2)students’ views on their self – assessment skills, (3) the role of

portfolio as a learning and assessment tool, and (4) the role of portfolio assessment inpromoting the learner autonomy (See Appendix 6) The rating of questionnaire based

on a four – point scales ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree To avoidstudent’s misunderstanding, the Vietnamese version was delivered to students (SeeAppendix 7)

Interview to Teacher

The interview included two sections Section 1 asked for personal information of theinterviewee The second one contained 7 questions asking about the type ofassessment procedure she followed in her class; the reliability of the assessment used;her knowledge on portfolio assessment before the project; the benefits and difficultiesshe met when using this assessment method; the way she overcame the difficultiesand her future plan towards portfolio assessment The 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 Atthe very beginning of the second semester, the researcher had a meeting with theteacher in charge of teaching reading skills to the first year English major students inthe second semester to talk about the portfolio assessment Then, thirty students inher class were selected participants in this study

First, the portfolio assessment procedures were implemented in 15 weeks Theportfolio assessment plan, its objectives, contents, classroom procedure, homeactivities and methods of assessment were explained clearly to the students in the firstweek From week 2 to 14, the portfolio assessment project was carried out Duringthe project, the students’ portfolio entries were collected, read and analyzed by boththe teacher and the researcher Relevant information about students’ opinions towardsthe program in their reflections helped the teacher be aware of the effectiveness ofher instruction and identify students’ progress as well as difficulties they met in thecourse Students’ portfolios were evaluated and graded by the teacher and theresearcher based on the Portfolio rating scale

Second, a questionnaire was delivered to students in the last week of the semester tofind out the students’ views towards effectiveness of portfolio assessment onstudents’ reading comprehension ability.

Third, a teacher interview was made at the end of the 15 weeks to explore the

teacher’s opinions of portfolio assessment It was recorded and then transcribed The classroom observation was made during the semester to get further information on students’ attitudes towards portfolio assessment

2.3.3 Data Analysis

Questionnaire:

The questionnaires delivered to the students at the end of the portfolio process aimed

at investigating their perceptions of the effectiveness of portfolio assessment on theirown learning as well as on their reading comprehension ability The analyzed dataprovided useful information for the research questions

Students’ reflections and final feedback:

As a part of portfolio assessment project, the reflections served as valuable source ofinformation for the researcher to evaluate students’ progress and benefits they gainedfrom this portfolio project The students’ final feedback provided the researcher with

a deeper insight into students’ attitudes towards the use of portfolio as a learning andassessment tool

The data from the reflections and feedbacks was analyzed qualitatively to seek theanswers to the research questions

Teacher interview:

The interview to the teacher was conducted at the end of the semester to get heropinions on the implemetation of porfolio assessment, advantages as well asdisadavantages she encountered and her future plan The analyzed data supplied moreinformation for the second and third research questions

Classroom observation:

During the classroom activities and the conferences, the researcher observed andnoted down the students’ reactions and attitudes when doing portfolios The data wasused to examine if it matched with the findings from the portfolios andquestionnaires’ analysis

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 3.1 Data Analysis Results

This chapter reports the results of the data collected from the study to explore therelationship between portfolio assessment and students’ reading comprehensionability The data was collected from the portfolios, student’s questionnaire, teacher’sinterview and classroom observation

3.1.1 Data Collected from Classroom Observation

The observation was conducted in the classroom activities and conferences with theteacher during the 15 weeks

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

In general, students’ interest and participation in classroom was growing when theyworked with their peers In the first lessons, some students hesitated in discussingwith their friends This situation gradually changed after they were encouraged by the

teacher and their friends More questions about learning strategies such as “How can

I find the key words?”, “How did you infer?”, “Why did you choose this answer?” and so on were addressed freely to the teacher 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 classactivities as actively as the others

In short, the data from observation revealed the favorable attitudes of studentstowards the use of portfolio assessment The data was also a source to design thestudents’ questionnaire and the teacher’s interview

3.1.2 Data Collected from Students’ Reflections and Final Feedback in Portfolios

The reflections in the portfolios provided the researcher a deeper insight towards theportfolio use as an assessment tool Both the negative and positive sides of portfolioassessment were mentioned Except some critical attitudes, most of the students

perceived their progress in learning of reading skills It was noticed that their learningbecame more active and autonomous when they could manage to examine theirimprovement and be aware of their strengths and weaknesses.

As stated at the beginning of the portfolio assessment project, the primary purpose ofportfolio project was to develop student’s reading skills in order to enhance theirreading comprehension ability The students’ reflections quoted below revealed thebeneficial impact of portfolio program on enhancing the reading skills

In the first two 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 I need to use skimming skill I read the paragraph at once, underlined some key words and then read the first and last sentence carefully because the main idea could

be two sentences” This student realized that “this strategy is quite useful to find the main idea” Other student expressed her difficulties in doing this type of exercise

“Maybe I did not know how to catch key words” Later she could do it with the help

of her classmates “my friends showed me how to find key words, I could find the main idea correctly” These reflections were quite typical reflections among students.

For the exercise on reading for specific information, although most students reflectedthat reading for specific information was easier than finding the main ideas, some haddifficulties when doing it One student had problem in finding the unstated

information “There are still some questions which I cannot find the information until

I discussed with my friends They showed me how to find unstated information.” The other disclosed her tip when doing this type of exercise “I realize that I don’t need to read every word and read too carefully Now I know how to find the specific information quickly by reading the heading and sub – headings to locate the needed information”.

Summarizing is seen as a difficult reading skill However, a number of studentsshowed a good result when doing this type of exercise One student prided her result

“I answered 8 out of 10 correct” Other identified her weakness “After group