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Volume 2, Issue 4, July-August 2010 AngloHigher The Magazine of Global English Speaking Higher Education
ISSN 2041-8469 (Online) www.anglohigher.com Copyright 2009-10 by Panethnic Limited, All Rights Reserved.
Introduction
Portfolio assessment methodology has
generated a good deal of interest in re-
cent years, with academics taking the lead
in exploring ways to use them. The func-
tion of assessment exists to ofer informa-
tion about how students are learning and
teachers are teaching, in order to facilitate
learning and teaching results. Tradition-
al testing, such as standardised measure-
ments or norm-referenced instruments,
is quite product-based so that it fails to
provide process-based evidence of learn-
ing and teaching. The problem associat-
ed with traditional testing is also that it
masks what the students really know or, in
the case of English as second/foreign lan-
guage, what the students can do. As Padil-
la et al. (1996 p.429) indicates, Traditional
assessment has emphasized the measure-
ment of a given body of defned and dis-
crete knowledge as determined by a stu-
dents performance on an objective test.
This approach has often been limited to
assessment of student outcomes at a spe-
cifc point in time and has provided lit-
tle information about teaching and learn-
ing processes. In addition, Huerta-Macias
(1995) points out that the testing situa-
tion itself often produces anxiety with-
in the students such that they are unable
to think clearly. The students may also be
facing extenuating circumstances (e.g.,
personal problems or illness) at the time
that they are being tested; this also can in-
fuence the students performance on the
test. Wolf (1989) more completely depicts
the once-over and one-time nature of
standardised tests as 1) assessment which
comes without a personal responsibility, 2)
assessment which measures learners per-
formance on the slice of skills that appears
on tests, but fails to demonstrate learners
full range of intuitions and knowledge, 3)
sufciency with frst-draft work, and 4) ex-
clusion of development.
Recently, educators have put emphasis on
searching for alternative measurements
with which students can be evaluated on
what they can integrate and produce in-
stead of how well they can memorise.
There is no one best alternative assess-
ment method, as well as no single ap-
proach to implement alternative assess-
ment techniques. One of the alternative
Portfolio assessment, a valid tool to evaluate students achievements
possibilities is portfolio assessment; an ef-
fective addition to traditional forms of as-
sessment. Portfolios provide evidence of
students learning processes toward meet-
ing their goals as learners and the frame-
work or backdrop for teachers instruction.
Portfolio assessment can also be seen as
an efective measurement to compensate
the disadvantages of traditional assess-
ment. McNamara and Deane (1995, p. 21)
explain the importance of using portfoli-
os as one educational assessment tool by
pointing out that it provides a more com-
plete picture of our students ability, efort,
and progress and, more importantly, it al-
lows students to have a greater voice in
their language learning process.

What is Portfolio Assessment?
Portfolio assessment is the systematic, lon-
gitudinal collection of students work cre-
ated in response to specifc, known in-
struction and objectives, and afterwards
evaluated in relation to the same criteria.
The assessment is done by measuring the
individual sections as well as the portfo-
lio as a whole against the specifed crite-
ria, which match the objectives toward a
specifc purpose. Portfolio creation is the
responsibility of the learner, with teacher
guidance and support, and often with the
involvement of peers and parents. The au-
dience can participate in the assessment of
the portfolio. Academics have developed
portfolio instruction and assessment crite-
ria, and gained appropriate administrative
support. During the development process,
they found answers to their own ques-
tions, as well as addressed issues concern-
ing portfolio assessment coming from col-
leagues, students and parents. Concerns
are often focused on reliability, validity,
process, evaluation, and time. These issues
could apply equally to other assessment
methods. There is no assessment tool that
meets every teachers purpose perfect-
ly, is entirely valid and reliable, takes no
time to prepare, administer, or grade, and
meets each students learning style. For-
eign language educators need to be able
to choose and/or design assessments that
meet their most important instruction-
al and assessment needs and which they
have the resources to implement and eval-
uate. Below are some strengths of port-
folio assessment, seen in contrast to tra-
ditional forms of assessment, traditional
assessment versus portfolio assessment.
By Zamira Alimemaj, Lecturer, University of Vlora, Albania and Lavdosh Ahmetaj, Director of the
Albanological Center Aleks Buda, Kristal University, Albania
www.univlora.edu.al email: zalimema@univlora.edu.al
www.kristal.edu.al email: lavdosh.ahmetaj@yahoo.it
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ISSN 2041-8469 (Online) www.anglohigher.com Copyright 2009-10 by Panethnic Limited, All Rights Reserved.
Volume 2, Issue 4, July-August 2010 AngloHigher The Magazine of Global English Speaking Higher Education
A specifc distinction in using portfolio as-
sessment in second/foreign languages
is that the learners ability to use the lan-
guage is the primary goal of study. The
learners current use of the target lan-
guage system and potential growth in the
abilities over a period of time is what is at
issue. This type of portfolio can capture
the learners use of the language in many
ways. Particularly, it can provide not only
the students progress in four main lan-
guage skills areas (reading, writing, speak-
ing, and listening) but also their entire
progress in the language learning process.
Specifcally, considering the development
of the students reading skills and ability
to compose written products in the sec-
ond/foreign language, the students writ-
ten materials can be a part of the portfo-
lios. Although the growth of oral skills is
difcult to be captured through written
means, the use of multimedia in this type
of portfolio, such as audio and video re-
cordings, enhances the reliability. Some of
the advantages of using portfolios in the
feld of foreign language education can be
to provide students with opportunities to
display their work, serve as a vehicle for
critical self-analysis, and demonstrate mas-
tery of a foreign language.
While some researchers such as Padilla et
al. (1996), have pointed out the general ad-
vantages, innumerable strengths of using
portfolios in second/foreign language as-
sessment have been reported by many re-
searchers (such as: Wolf, 1989; Singer, 1993;
Gottlieb, 1995; Huerta-Macias, 1995; McNa-
mara & Deane, 1995).
More specifcally, this type of portfolio, for
students, is able to: 1) help them become
aware of the language learning contexts
that work best for them, 2) establish their
goals for future independent learning, 3)
allow them to assume responsibility for
their own learning and provide evidence
of their progress toward meeting their
goals as learners, 4) provide them with op-
portunities to display good work, 5) serve
as a vehicle for critical self-analysis, and 6)
demonstrate mastery of a second/foreign
language.
For teachers, the use of such type of port-
folio assessment in the classroom can: 1)
provide information on the strengths and
weaknesses of each individual student, 2)
provide multiple indices that can be used
to gauge and document each individual
students progress, 3) help identify efec-
tive language learning strategies and ma-
terials or refect the curriculum that is actu-
ally being implemented in the classroom,
and 4) provide information into their stu-
dents language learning process and al-
low teachers to individualise their instruc-
tion.
Concept and Purpose
Portfolios have been used for a long time
by various professions as a means to doc-
ument a persons achievements. For ex-
ample artists, architects or designers col-
lect samples of their work in portfolios.
They use them to show evidence of their
best practice, but also to demonstrate how
their skills have developed over the years
as a consequence of the learning process.
In second/foreign language classrooms,
the greatest potential of portfolios is to
document and chart students growth in
profciency in the four language skills. Spe-
cifcally, items placed into the portfolios
over time enable anyone to examine the
students increased knowledge and so-
phistication with using vocabulary, great-
er accuracy in pronunciation, increasing
fuency of oral production, and growth in
using the language for written purposes.
In a pilot project of portfolio assessment
in foreign language education, realised in
1993 (Singer, 1993), researchers indicate
that, in contrast to more than just a con-
tainer full of stuf, this type of portfolio is
systematically collected with organisation.
It is used to monitor the students learning
process or to exhibit their eforts, prog-
ress, as well as achievement with respect
to their knowledge, skills, and attitudes in
second/foreign language learning. Portfo-
lios may be used for diferent purposes in
second/foreign language due to diferent
instructional needs. However, frst of all,
the teachers and the students should clar-
ify the purpose of their portfolios. Care-
fully considering the following questions
should help the teacher and students to
work out the purpose of their portfolios.
What should be placed in the portfolio?
How often should materials be added to
the portfolio?
Who decides what goes into the portfo-
lio?
Who should be given responsibility for its
safekeeping?
What should be done with the portfolio
at the end of the school year?
Approaches to implementation
There is no single way to implement port-
folios in second/foreign language edu-
cation. They tend to represent diferent
intents; however, all of them are educa-
tionally defensible. As a means of imple-
menting portfolios in second/foreign
language assessment, the following ap-
proaches, which represent equal weight,
importance as well as validity, address de-
tailed stages to develop this type of port-
folio, with a unique function shaped by a
set of specifed criteria. They are:
a) Collection
Brainstorm with students and other teach-
ers to generate a list of tasks, projects, or
exhibit checklists to help students select
samples from their working portfolios that
represent their academic growth. By the
use of these checklists, students repeated-
ly review and add new accomplishments
into their portfolios to show their contin-
ual knowledge growth over the language
level during a set timeframe. To solve the
difculty of capturing the oral abilities of
a target language through written means,
one can use technologies, such as au-
dio and video recordings. In order to en-
hance students involvement during the
portfolio development process, they can
be asked to establish goal cards and time
planning sheets.
b) Refection
The teacher can have the students ex-
plain why they would include certain piec-
es of their work into their portfolios by ask-
ing them to write a refective statement
which expresses their attitudes, reactions,
and thoughts (e.g., reading logs, response
journals, or learning logs). The teacher can
work with the class to generate diferent
types of refection, such as a class-generat-
ed checklist, to help the students edit their
writing or help them check the content of
their work, as well as their learning strat-
egies.
c) Documentation
The portfolios should be systematically
documented in order to be clear to the stu-
dents and their parents. Results from stan-
dardised testing, as available, can provide
one source of documentation in the port-
folio and contribute to a comprehensive
view of student achievement.
d) Linkage
Portfolio assessment in second/foreign
language education should 1) build up
communication networks among the
school, home and community regarding
goals of the programme, curricula, and
teaching materials, 2) ease transitions of
students from one language level to an-
other, and 3) promote articulation among
teachers regarding students progress in
the language development across time
and levels. Such a linkage is aimed to pro-
mote students learning result with an ef-
fcient communication among students,
teachers, and parents.
e) Evaluation
Periodical evaluation (e.g., at the comple-
tion of a language level or at the end of an
academic year) on the worth and accuracy
11
Volume 2, Issue 4, July-August 2010 AngloHigher The Magazine of Global English Speaking Higher Education
ISSN 2041-8469 (Online) www.anglohigher.com Copyright 2009-10 by Panethnic Limited, All Rights Reserved.
of the portfolios is needed to improve this
type of portfolio practice.
The summative data generated by the
evaluation can also be used for teach-
ing accountabilities. This is because a lan-
guage portfolio can act as a large expand-
able fle folder that holds the following: 1)
samples of the students work selected by
the teacher or the student, 2) the teachers
observational notes, 3) the students own
periodic self-evaluations, 4) progress notes
contributed by the student and the teach-
er collaboratively.
The range of items is almost limitless, but
may include the following: 1) written re-
sponses to reading, 2) reading logs, 3) se-
lected daily work, 4) pieces of writing at
various stages of completion, 5) classroom
tests, 6) checklists, 7) unit projects, 8) au-
dio and video recordings.
The key is variety, so that teachers, parents
and students can build a complete picture
of the students development. This type of
portfolios can be evaluated through the
collaboration of classroom teachers, stu-
dents and course administrators.
Before portfolios are actually used in sec-
ond/foreign language assessment, validity
and reliability of this type of assessment
should be established. Validity can be en-
hanced when the materials, resources, and
procedures correspond to those of instruc-
tion. Specifcally, students should under-
stand the goal of their portfolios, such as
the content and evaluation criteria, before
using the portfolio assessment in the class-
room. Academics should be consistent
with the criteria toward the whole class
in order to strengthen the reliability once
the rubric is established. Rubrics, serving
as a yardstick for the assessment, should
be aligned with specifed tasks. The pos-
sible form of them might be a checklist, a
rating scale, or a matrix. Students should
participate in the development of rubrics
along with their teacher as a gauge of their
achievement in order to get the informa-
tion about, and agree at how to use, the ru-
brics. As Gottleb (1995) mentions, reach-
ing close to unanimous agreement among
teachers on ratings within a rubric (not an
easy feat) on individual entries or the port-
folio as a whole provides consistency or re-
liability.
The teachers assessment sheet consists
of at least three domains - what, so what
and now what? The questions concern-
ing what may be What did the student do,
step-by-step? and What did the student
learn, step-by-step? As to so what, ques-
tions like What was important, valuable
or interesting about this unit of work?
and What new thoughts, knowledge or
understanding did the student develop?
can be asked. Finally the questions relat-
ed to now what may include What might
the student have worked on more or done
better?
What could have been done by others to
facilitate this work? Based on this work,
what new questions or goals does the stu-
dent think should be next? and Based
on this unit, what has changed for the stu-
dent? With that, students receive the fnal
grade, which must also include a rationale
explanation from the evaluator.
If a test is used only for a judgmental and
prescriptive tool, it is hard for such a test
to provide information for a teaching and
learning diagnosis or repair. Tests can be
efective when they are integrated with
multiple assessment methods, so that
they can present a broad and extensive
picture regarding the students learning,
for not every aspect of language learning
can be accessed through tests. Portfolio
assessment in second/foreign language is
continuous, formative, and diagnostic be-
cause it provides an elaborated system of
scoring that refects the diversity and varia-
tion of language skills in diferent situation
and purposes. It also provides teachers
with evidence of the development of their
students learning process over time and
helps students regu-
larly examine their
own learning strate-
gies as well. Howev-
er, given the fact that
no single assessment
can provide com-
plete evidence for
each individuals lan-
guage development,
portfolio assessment
in second/foreign
language should be
used in conjunction
with other assess-
ment methods. Ini-
tially, implementing portfolios in assess-
ment no doubt needs an extra investment
of time, efort and money, which easily
causes resistance or negative responses
from teachers and/or students, especially
from novice teachers or teachers who hate
to make changes.
Therefore, training programmes or work-
shops should be developed by the govern-
ment or educational organisations to help
teachers understand the advantages of us-
ing portfolios in second/foreign language
assessment and direct/guide teachers how
to practice this type of portfolio assess-
ment in their classrooms. Information net-
works should also be built up to provide
teachers with necessary information.
Finally, to novice teachers, it may be better
for them to start from a small-scale portfo-
lio, such as reading portfolios only.
References:
Castiglione V.L. (1996). Portfolio assessment in
Art and Education. Arts Education Policy Re-
view, 97 (4), p. 2-9.
Gottlieb, M. (1995). Nurturing student learn-
ing through portfolios. TESOL Journal, 5(1), p.
12-14.
Grady, E. (1992). The portfolio approach to as-
sessment. Phi Delta Kappa Educational Foun-
dation.
Huerta-Macias, A. (1995). Alternative assess-
ment: Responses to commonly asked ques-
tions. TESOL Journal, 5, pp. 8-10.
McNamara, M. J. & Deane, D. (1995). Self-assess-
ment activities: Toward autonomy in language
learning. TESOL Journal, 5(1), p. 17-21.
Padilla, A.M., Aninao, J.C. & Sung, H. (1996). De-
velopment and implementation of student
portfolios in foreign language programs. For-
eign Language Annals, 29(3), p. 429-438.
Singer, S. (1993) Portfolio assessment in foreign
language, Document Reproduction Service No,
ED 368197.
Smolen, L., Newman, C., Wathen, T., & Lee, D.
(1995). Developing student self-assessment
strategies. TESOL Journal, 5(1), p. 22-27.
Wolf, D.P. (1989). Portfolio assessment: Sam-
pling student work. Educational leadership,
46 (7), p. 35-39.
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