INSTITUTO ACADÉMICO DE IDIOMAS
REVISTA KRONOS
UNIVERSIDAD CENTRAL DEL ECUADOR
6(1), FEBRERO - JULIO 2025, PP. 90-101
REVISTA KRONOS
The Effects of Portfolio Assessment
on Writing of EFL Students
Ingrid Paola Tomalá Guzmán | Universidad Estatal Península de Santa Elena-Ecuador
Evelyn Almeida | Universidad Central del Ecuador-Universidad de las Fuerzas Armadas ESPE-Ecuador abstract This study analyzes the effects of portfolio assessment on the development of writing skills in students learning English as a Foreign Language (EFL). Given the importance of language skills in academic and professional contexts, the portfolio is presented as an educational tool that supports the gradual and reflective development of writing, one of the most complex skills to acquire. Through introspective activities guided by the teacher, students find relevant content to write about, which enhances their autonomy and creativity. The research, with a qualitative approach, was conducted through observations, interviews, and analysis of written productions. Results show that 85% of students improved their writing autonomy, while 78% of teachers reported a better understanding of their students' needs. Portfolio use also allows for continuous and personalized formative assessment, promoting the application of metacognitive strategies that help plan, manage, and evaluate the writing process. In conclusion, the study proposes replacing traditional assessment methods with portfolio use, as it encourages critical thinking, self-reflection, and the adaptation of pedagogical practices to improve EFL writing instruction.
keywords Portfolio Assessment, metacognitive strategies, EFL (English as a Foreign Language), written expression, creative writing.
fecha de recepción 20/02/2025 fecha de aprobación 15/05/2025
Los efectos de la evaluación de portafolios en la escritura de estudiantes de EFL
resumen Este estudio analiza los efectos de la evaluación mediante portafolios en el desarrollo de la expresión escrita en estudiantes de inglés como lengua extranjera (EFL). Considerando la importancia de las habilidades lingüísticas en contextos académicos y profesionales, se plantea el portafolio como una herramienta educativa que favorece el desarrollo progresivo y reflexivo de la escritura, una de las habilidades más complejas de adquirir. A través de actividades introspectivas guiadas por el docente, los estudiantes encuentran contenido relevante para escribir, lo que potencia su autonomía y creatividad. La investigación, de enfoque cualitativo, se llevó a cabo mediante observaciones, entrevistas y análisis de producciones escritas. Los resultados revelan que el 85% de los estudiantes mejoraron su autonomía en la escritura, mientras que el 78% de los docentes reportó una mayor comprensión de las necesidades de sus alumnos.
El uso de portafolios también permite una evaluación formativa continua y personalizada, promoviendo el uso de estrategias metacognitivas que ayudan a planificar, gestionar y evaluar el proceso de escritura. En conclusión, el estudio propone reemplazar las evaluaciones tradicionales por portafolios, ya que estos impulsan el pensamiento crítico, la autorreflexión y el ajuste de las prácticas pedagógicas para mejorar la enseñanza del inglés como lengua extranjera.
palabras clave Evaluación de portafolio, estrategias metacognitivas, EFL (Inglés como lengua extranjera), expresión escrita, escritura creativa, Ecuador.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.29166/kronos.v6i1.7806
pISSN 12631-2840
CC BY-NC 4.0 —Licencia Creative Commons Reconocimiento-NoComercial 4.0 Internacional eISSN 2631-2859
© 2025 Universidad Central del Ecuador
kronos.idiomas@uce.edu.ec
INTRODUCTION
Nowadays, knowing another language is the most important requirement. For this reason, almost all students in high school or universities need to develop the four skills in English language. There are several methods and techniques for improving speaking, reading, listening and writing which teachers can apply in the classroom, including the use of a portfolio. Writing is considered one the most complex skills for the students. Portfolios are considered as an assessment strategy that facilitate learning, reflection, self-assessment and motivation for students to improve their writing in English as a foreign language. A portfolio contains essential components for design and classroom application that provide guidance in the writing process.
The teaching and learning of writing in English is limited in some educational contexts by the use of grammar-focused textbooks, so teachers do not create teaching materials to develop these skills. According to a study by Hidalgo (2009), from the students’ point of view, they are not developing their metacognitive skills related to the writing process or critical writing. In this way, the portfolio is proposed as an educational resource to introduce metacognition to students through creative writing.
The organization of the research report is presented below: the first chapter presents the context, problem, justification, and objectives. The theoretical background at local, national and international levels. Furthermore, the relevant theoretical foundations. This chapter also explains the methodological design and the techniques. It has the instruments used for data collection; which concerns the presentation of results and interpretation around the stated objectives.
The qualitative method focuses on how students can improve their writing skills using a portfolio. The observation in the classroom allows to contextualize the use of portfolio with the pedagogical dynamic; the interviews facilitate the access to the personal experiences for the students; and, the text analysis allows to get evidence in the writing process step by step.
English as a foreign language is taught in schools according to textbook requirements, with reading and listening more relevant than speaking or writing. Despite the emphasis on language in writing education, students do not take ownership of their written work, making it more difficult to create original work that reflects their personal experiences and situations.
Teaching writing in English through non-traditional means will ignore all mental processes and efforts, neglect the importance of writing as a composition with steps or stages, and fail to develop students’ critical thinking skills through planning/supervision and revision. Students’ lack of writing skills hinders their ability to see writing as a process, to write about their interests or tastes and to develop awareness of their metacognitive skills for writing (Facione, 2007).
Portfolio assessment has become a fundamental tool in the educational field, especially in the teaching of English writing. By implementing this methodology, various activities are generated that encourage more reflective and autonomous learning among students.
Sharing the set of writing activities between students promotes a relevant self-evaluation in which they revise their drafting step by step and can check mistakes in the final product.
Team work or pair work can produce motivation for writing because the first step to being confident is to communicate among friends or collaborative writer partners.
Mixing students to participate together in activities is useful for both teachers and students. Applying peer correction as an alternative to make awareness mistakes in the linguistic part and to foster a better writing composition. Together, these dynamics con-REVISTA KRONOS 6(1), febrero - julio 2025 | pISSN 12631-2840 | eISSN 2631-2859
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The Effects of Portfolio Assessment on Writing of EFL Students tribute to a more enriching and motivating learning environment, where writing becomes an active and participatory process (Orozco, 2021).
The portfolio was proposed as a didactic aid, using creative writing in English, to promote metacognition as an essential critical thinking skill, according to the thesis. The portfolios were named after the didactic resource that highlights the various stages of written production, enabling students to develop metacognition as an essential skill for critical thinking and self-regulation. Students can produce narratives of their own choice without being restricted by grammatical or academic writing, as it allows them to generate knowledge and past experiences through creative writing. Therefore, the following research question arose: What are the effects of portfolio assessment on EFL learners’ written expression?
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
The portfolio is a tool that organizes students’ learning and promotes independent and reflective learning. It is a training and evaluation tool that generates a metacognitive process that allows students to follow their progress in learning, supported by a series of texts and personal explanations. It is interactive and participatory because everyone has the opportunity to learn and teach. In other words, translation is a communicative and collaborative relationship between students and teachers, which is why it is so important at university (Delmastro, 2005).
According to Lunar (2007), a portfolio is a collection of work that includes individual achievements, assignments, evaluations or other documents that demonstrate accom-plishments during a specific period of time. There should be a process of self-assessment and collaboration, as achievements should be presented and discussed with peers.
The portfolio is a collection of work completed by the learner, including the best products created during the course and reflects the strengths and weaknesses of each learner. It includes “a selection of activities that students complete throughout the course and which are used to assess the student’s performance based on the progress made on the initial tasks”. As a flexible and personalized tool, the portfolio offers an authentic space to promote creative writing.
Writing is a mental activity that requires the expression of ideas, the use of verbal and complex knowledge, and the organization of ideas in a meaningful way. These parts are reflected in the portfolio. This dynamic fact establishes with the creative writing principles that values the exploration, the experimentation and constant revision. Portfolio improves students’ linguistic competence and enhances students’ artistic sensibility for communicating emotions and original viewpoints.
However, in the classroom experience of this aspect of teaching a foreign language, the teacher researchers observed that most of the time academic writing is taught with a grammatical approach, it is not possible to develop writing in this way: it is not the result of your own thinking, it is the result of attention to the construction of a sentence or a poem. Basically, the model has no development and no way to create the structure of the composition in different parts. Through the metacognitive skills of generating ideas, writing and evaluating, planning, organizing, and revising, the writing process involves increasing awareness of what you know and how to achieve it. (Harmer, 2004).
In terms of their involvement in language teaching, the traditional view of the teacher is that the teacher is the source of knowledge needed to transmit information to learners participating in the school environment. This model limits critical thinking development and the students’ autonomy because they focus on the information transmitted instead of promoting the active construction of knowledge. However, the current education pro-92
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motes a more dynamic vision in which the knowledge is set in a collaborative way and the teacher is a guide in the learning-teaching process.
Some researchers have been at pains to warn about the limitations of budgets as an assessment tool. For example, Elbow (1994) discusses financial risk as a critical way to evaluate it, Murphy et al., (1994) mention the influence of cultural factors, White (1994) discusses validity and reliability reasons, and LeMahieu et al., (1995) noted difficulties in using it on a large scale when comparing outcomes across groups and industries. However, current learning methods can avoid these limitations because the most important aspect of the portfolio focuses on exploring process-driven strategies, quality and process monitoring.
The first reference found on the use of portfolio in foreign language teaching dates back to Sweet’s study in 1976 (Calfee et al., 1996) and the subject was limited. Since then, there have been significant changes in the use and application of portfolio in education. It is the spread of research in education and foreign language teaching around the world in the last ten years of the twentieth century that vindicates the advantages of the portfolio as an assessment tool and as the right working strategy.
The role of learners in the creation of the portfolio not only increases opportunities to use the foreign language in different ways and encourages contact with authentic materials, but also encourages the combination of speaking, listening, reading and writing. Interacting with friends or teachers. In general, backgrounds are used in learning English education in the same way as in other areas of education or learning, because they promote learner independence, the development of metacognitive strategies and feedback on progress and individual learning in the mother tongue used in the field of English Foreign Language and second language education, especially abroad, for the development of reading and writing skills with a different assessment strategy. (Londoño, 2021).
During the third phase the internalization grows, as teachers demonstrate pedagogical understanding and conceptual development. Here the zone of imitation plays a significant role in teachers’ conceptual development. In this sense, teachers can intellectually imitate the use of DA in all classes. Vygotsky states that imitation of the thinking process, not mechanical imitation, is an unconscious process through repetition, and then the concept is internalized and becomes conscious. In the specific case of teachers’ understanding of assessment, this process allows teachers to become consciously aware of the role of DA in ALL (Almeida, 2022, p.35).
As for the field of writing, especially its contribution to the teaching of English writing, creative writing is an important topic because teachers can encourage students to write in a playful way and give them freedom to write. At the same time, teachers can be creative in their teaching of writing without stifling pressures. This is the focus of this study to create a conscious and reflective implementation of the portfolio that produces teachers’ learning to write through creative writing. The writing process enables students to plan, verify and evaluate their own writing. As a teaching resource, this portfolio also aims to create a learning approach that focuses on developing students’ metacognition and critical thinking skills.
GENERAL OBJECTIVE
To analyze the impact of portfolio assessment on the written expression skills of EFL students at Unidad Educative Particular de Santa Elena.
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The Effects of Portfolio Assessment on Writing of EFL Students SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES
1. To examine the theoretical foundations of portfolio assessment and its role in enhancing students’ written expression.
2. To investigate students’ perceptions of the importance of EFL learning in relation to portfolio assessment.
3. To foster students’ awareness of the importance of coherence, grammar, vocabulary and structure in their writing text.
METHODOLOGY
The study uses the qualitative method with the purpose of finding out the positions, criteria, opinions, and experiences of students and teachers of English at the Unidad Educativa Santa Teresita in teens students with regard to the use of the assessment portfolio as an alternative assessment strategy for the written production. This approach allows us to observe how students interact with their portfolios and reflect about the writing process and their self-evaluation.
The use of qualitative data collection methods, such as observation and key informant surveys, to identify authentic evidence or oral observations of stakeholders works with known verification strategies. It is used as an evaluation sample.
In the intervention phase, 35 people who attended Class I at different stages of learning were considered as a sample of nine learners who had the opportunity to practice before writing and learn to write in English.
The selection criteria are the following:
The evaluation and quality of the portfolio, the grades obtained in the part of the trimester taking into account the gender of the student.
Following a research approach and a case study design, it was agreed that systematic and rigorous observation methods would be used to document the issues in detail and provide an unbiased explanation of the analyses and final reports. These observations were maintained throughout the portfolio application process during the analysis, intervention and evaluation phases of the same strategy. In addition, students’ reactions, attitudes and skills were recorded in various activities in the use of the backpack, including moments of interaction between the student teacher, the student’s bag and the teacher’s bag. For recording, description and interpretation, an observation sheet design should be created to record the actions and reactions occurring in the presence of the portfolio, the assessment based on the financial strategy and the approach to learning writing in English.
POPULATION AND SAMPLE
The research population is detailed as follows: Table 1 Population
Nº
Detalle
Cantidad
1
Authorities
3
2
Teachers
4
3
Students
105
Total
112
Source: Unidad Educative Particular de Santa Elena. Prepared by: Tomalá, Ingrid, 2024.
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The research sample was determined randomly as follows: Table 2 Muestra
Nº
Detalle
Cantidad
Técnica de investigación
1
Authorities
2
Interview
2
Teachers
2
Interview
3
Students
31
Observation
Total
35
Source: Unidad Educative Particular de Santa Elena Prepared by: Tomalá, Ingrid, 2024.
DATA PROCESSING AND ANALYSIS
For data analysis, the thematic analysis method was employed, which consists of recording data whose meanings are similar for registration, description, and interpretation. An observation sheet design was used to record the actions and reactions that occur in the presence of the portfolio and the evaluation at the moment of using English writing, with the data recorded as follows:
The results indicate a positive experience for both teachers and students. On the one hand, portfolio assessment allows students to deal with a closer academic progress due to monitoring step by step as compared to traditional assessment methods. Underscore some relevant advantages; such as, portfolios promote self-reflection as a purpose of learning and lead to organizational and coherence skills in writing. On the other hand, there are some disadvantages; for instance, the time is one relevant issue to manage the portfolios and provide specific students’ feedback. It is a challenge for a large classroom.
According to the influence of portfolio assessment on the writing process, it was observed that it has had a positive impact. Since this methodology was used, there has been a 75% improvement in the ability to structure ideas clearly and coherently. By being able to review drafts and receive constant feedback, the fluency and organization of the writings improved.
The feedback received through the portfolio has been essential for motivation. 70%
in outcome refers to a punctual area like errors or mistakes, which supportcheck their composition and improve their writing skills. These outcomes give more sureness including perceptible progress in each phase. Furthermore, the capacity for demonstrating errors in the text and to acquire a more proactive attitude focus on learning.
According to the collected data, just 25% of the students have to improve their ability to gather ideas together and structure paragraphs using the correct grammar patterns in comparison to traditional assessment methods. This enhancement contributes to the reflective approach of the portfolio, referring to personal practice, which allows students to foster the habit for creating their own criticism in writing skills.
With respect to grammar errors, the outcomes indicate that 68% of the students re-duced their mistakes in key grammatical facts such as verb tense agreement and the correct use of English in sentences: prepositions, adverbs, prefixes, and so on. The continuous feedback is a main component in the portfolio, it causes a decrease in language errors, where teachers lead to specific comments in the structuring sentences as a priority in the composition. Teachers provide personal and practice topics for developing a rich writing.
As a writing process, drafting is appropriated for revision mistakes and to get a deeper and more effective learning.
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The Effects of Portfolio Assessment on Writing of EFL Students Additionally, the qualitative analysis in their writing production showed 80% achieved the communicative goal in this portfolio assessment. Students enhance in the clarity and coherence which are fundamental as good writing. A clear text uses a direct and precise language avoiding confusing terms. Students get a clear structure that facilitates the com-prehension of the ideas gathered. Students apply a variety of vocabulary that expose argu-ments or a main narrative. The students mentioned that the use of the portfolio motivated them to continue improving their drafting using new words, or expressions and to get a better linguistic development.
From the perspective of self-assessment, portfolio assessment helped 70% of the students identify the quality in patterns and how they improve with the practice. Observing how the previous writing is different to the final production is the main objective. This self-awareness is crucial for understanding self-assessment such as evolutionary patterns and reference points. This means, students cannot grade their current writing without reference to their past writing.
Regarding motivation, 80% of the students stated that portfolio assessment motivated them to improve, as they were able to see their progress in a tangible way and directed towards personal improvement goals. Self-assessment also helped 70% of the students identify their own strengths and weaknesses, which allowed them to develop greater autonomy in their learning process. For an effective implementation of portfolio assessment, it is considered essential that teachers receive specific training in this methodology.
During this study, teachers apply qualitative instruments such as observation shifts, rubrics for teachers’ evaluation, writing portfolio analysis and interviews for the students.
80% of the students improve their writing quality and it is demonstrated from the com-parative analysis between the first and the last text productions in the students’ portfolio.
Teachers apply rubrics with the appropriate criterion: textual coherence, the correct vocabulary, grammatical structure, ideas organization and spelling.
Table 3 Coding
Words
Coding
Motivation
Self-efficacy
EP
Coherence
Cohesion
EP
Reflection
Strategy
EP
Management
Time
EP
Improvements
Autonomy
BP
Process
Writing
EP
Strategies
Pedagogical
BP
Impact
Feedback
BP
Criteria
Evaluation
BP
Practices
Teachers
BP
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Table 4 Categorization
Words
Coding
Descriptor
Motivation
Self-efficacy
EP
Learning culture
Coherence
Cohesion
EP
Performance improvement
Reflection
Strategy
EP
Performance improvement
Management
Time
EP
Adaptation to change
Improvements
Autonomy
BP
Adaptation to change
Process
Writing
EP
Learning culture
Strategies
Pedagogical
BP
Knowledge gaps
Impact
Feedback
BP
Performance improvement
Criteria
Evaluation
BP
Knowledge gaps
Practices
Teachers
BP
Learning culture
Table 5 Themes
Words
Themes
Coding
Descriptor
Motivation
Self-efficacy
Quality
EP
Learning culture
of written
Process
Writing
texts
EP
Learning culture
Practices
Teachers
BP
Learning culture
Coherence
Cohesion
EP
Performance impro-
vement
Reflection
Strategy
Portfolio
EP
Performance impro-
evaluation
vement
Impact
Feedback
BP
Performance impro-
vement
Management
Time
Teaching
EP
Adaptation to change
of teaching
Improvements
Autonomy
practices
BP
Adaptation to change
Strategies
Pedagogical
BP
Knowledge gaps
Criteria
Evaluation
BP
Knowledge gaps
TOPIC 1: QUALITY OF WRITTEN TEXTS
Effective communication in the educational field depends on the quality of texts. Interviews and classroom observations were led to assess current writing practices in this study.
Compare what are the factors that improve this quality is up to the students’ motivation.
The outcomes show that there is a better organization among the strengths and weaknesses in writing instructions.
Students notice in a first writing production as drafting, notice the use of a lot of words such as prepositions in the same sentence. For instance, “University groups went into Colombia to make field activities. We arrived Wednesday in the evening and they received us with dinner”. In a second writing production, students receive feedback from REVISTA KRONOS 6(1), febrero - julio 2025 | pISSN 12631-2840 | eISSN 2631-2859
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The Effects of Portfolio Assessment on Writing of EFL Students the teacher, and improve in this way “University groups went to Colombia to make field activities. We arrived Wednesday evening and hotel staff received us with dinner”.
The interviews conducted with teachers showed the importance of elaborating a previous flexible plan before applying a portfolio, separating the portfolio in sections according to themes, including both auto-evaluation and co-evaluation. The strategy consists in the involvement in different types of evaluation and emphasis in the formative evaluation; by the way, it is appropriate to use scales due to complex mechanisms to evaluate the writing process.
During classroom observations, students showed lack of motivation to write in their compositions which caused a huge impact in the quality of the texts. Many students showed difficulties in the composition of descriptive texts. Students cannot connect clear ideas. In the first stage, students write:
“Use portfolio for develope my writing quality was rude. I was learn how to joining sentences and for share my ideas”.
“Using portfolio for developing my writing quality was impressive. I had learned how to join sentences and to share my ideas”..
In the final stage, students improve in this way, students connect their ideas using correct grammar patterns, and raise the quality of their texts. Many students need motivation to write.
Some effective strategies were identified to raise the quality of written texts during the classroom observations. For instance, teachers can apply personal themes based on experience in their lives to encourage them. Moreover, they obtain a relaxing environment and gather students’ interest and participation with this strategy, The interviews and classroom observations showed how writing in English is too hard, as a peak to achieve, but there are also chances for improvement in the quality of the texts step by step. It is recommended to provide continuous training to teachers on innovative and effective methodologies for teaching writing. Likewise, it is essential to create an educational environment that fosters collaboration and the exchange of ideas among students. By addressing these aspects, one can significantly contribute to improving the quality of written texts in the school environment.
As indicated by Quillupangui (2023):
Writing essays on familiar or personal topics, as an exercise in learning English as a second language, allows students to express their ideas creatively and critically, with greater syntactic complexity, precision, and fluency, than when they have to write on unfamiliar, less known, or even class-discussed topics. The most frequent grammatical errors are, first, the use of spoken language, transferred from the structures of the native language, and second, the improper use of conjunctions. This indicates the need to deepen the mastery and practice of grammar through different methods and tools (p.847).
TOPIC 2: PORTFOLIO EVALUATION
Portfolio assessment is a pedagogical tool that allows students to demonstrate their learning and development over time. Barrientos (2023) argues that assessments in foreign language teaching should focus on grammar, as its absence would result in an obvious gap.
For this reason, it is suggested that the teaching of international languages should focus on improving grammatical skills. To carry out this research, focus groups and interviews 98
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were conducted with students from the language course. Additionally, rubrics were developed to be integrated into the teacher’s portfolio, aligning with the topics covered and allowing students to apply the grammar learned at their own pace to complete their assessments and validate meaningful learning.
The interviews allow the teachers to apply the portfolio for evaluating student progress. During the classroom observations, students include text samples in their portfolios.
It is relevant, teachers define the criteria evaluation and the portfolio segments. Most of their text production includes how students dismiss their errors. Students establish learning objectives due to the challenge in each theme for producing in the portfolio.
TOPIC 3: TEACHING OF TEACHING PRACTICES
The teaching of teaching practices is a main step in the portfolio application. Training teachers for using portfolios is a challenge to them. Teachers have to avoid applying traditional methods for enhancing writing skills. Teachers through portfolios can observe students’ needs hence they have to prepare specific objectives and reconsider the activities quality. Explaining the goal in each writing activity fulfills the main requirement for guidance to the students. Portfolio assessment can be successful when teachers learn how to use it. They connect in the best linguistic manner both the grammatical part with the communicative part. Teachers include some characteristics to evaluate a portfolio such as patterns, rubrics, use of English box, vocabulary list according to the mood. Whole, help-ing students to improve their writing skills.
The interviews are the basis for organizing how and what teachers evaluate. The edu-cators emphasized that practices must be aligned with contemporary pedagogical theories to be effective. However, challenges were also identified, such as the lack of resources and time to conduct effective observations and provide adequate feedback to future teachers.
This situation suggests that, although there is a consensus on the importance of solid practical teaching, more favorable conditions are required for its implementation.
For Ureta (2022):
The gamification practice has a transcendental importance in school life because it guides, strengthens, and stimulates the interest to delve into educational content with enthusiasm. On the other hand, it is socially significant for the child because it marks a milestone in their history; the experiences lived will remain in their memory for a long time or for the rest of their life, and could motivate them to emulate this process with other individuals (p.69).
Teachers have the responsibility to encourage students during the writing process.
Creating a good environment to start writing is not easy but they combine their enthusiasm and experience as a motivational tool to face the disadvantages or difficulties to manage English in text productions. Teachers gave students some reasons to write and dismiss the lack of motivation. Teachers can write phrases to motivate them and students try to rewrite what they understand. Teachers have to pay attention to students’ needs and be functional and practical in the long-term or short-term. By addressing these aspects, it is possible to significantly contribute to the training of more competent and confident teachers in their professional practice.
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The Effects of Portfolio Assessment on Writing of EFL Students CONCLUSIONS
A values strategy during the last decade in the century XX was the use of portfolio as a useful and pedagogical approach for the language teaching. This study demonstrates the utility, flexibility and versatility that portfolio has as assessment strategy due to the different types of evaluations (co-evaluation and self-assessment) and activities (elaboration of rubrics, portfolio design, and reflective process to promote the self-consciousness in the students), both imply students’ motivational aspects.
The findings of this qualitative research show that the use of portfolio as a pedagogical tool has a positive impact in the development of writing skills. The analysis in the text productions, interviews and observations confirm that portfolio benefits the progress in linguistic aspects, coherence, cohesion, grammar; and, promote a better consciousness about the own learning process in the students.
The metacognitive approach led students to reflect about their strengths, mistakes, and strategies. Portfolio becomes a compromising activity which allows students have a continuous revision, comparison, reflection, and rating in their texts. Portfolio means structure and sequence in student’s texts production. Moreover, portfolio also means an actionable plan which show a challenge, an amusement, a complex task and an opportunity to learn how to write in English and then, can apply in their academic and professional surroundings. Portfolios foster students to be independence and in the same time to work with peers and teachers.
To sum up, applying portfolio assessment to foster students to check mistakes and learn the differences among words. Parts of speech is a deep topic that students deal with in their final products. Students recognize how to use a noun instead of an adjective according to the content. On the other hand, they can mix roots with suffixes or prefixes in the sentences with coherence. For instance, a few letters “un-” or “-ful” in a root can be a big change in the composition context consequently the portfolio assessment application is a good manner to consider in writing skills.
AUTHORS CONTRIBUTIONS
Ingrid Tomalá: data collection and analysis, results writing, and manuscript discussion.
Evelyn Almeida: review of objectives; conceptualization (supporting), analysis (supporting); manuscript review and editing.
ETHICAL IMPLICATIONS
The authors declare that there are no ethical implications.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
The authors declare that there are no financial or non-financial conflicts of interest that could have influenced the work presented in this article.
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REVISTA KRONOS 6(1), febrero - julio 2025 | pISSN 12631-2840 | eISSN 2631-2859
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