TABLE OF CONTENTS PART A: INTRODUCTION Justification of the study It is a common knowledge that assessment is an indispensable part in the learning and teaching process Principally, through evaluation, both teachers and learners can get positive and negative output in teaching In addition, by evaluating student performances, teachers can evaluate both the weak and strong points of the method or materials that they use in the learning-teaching process, reconsider their way of teaching, and make necessary adjustments In terms of students, they can realize their ability, find out what they are capable of and what is their weakness which should be overcome Recently, teaching strategies in language classrooms are shifting from the traditional way of enlightening unacquainted learners solely by transmitting knowledge to what students will need to succeed in the real world (Caner, 2010) Nowadays teachers are demanded to focus on current language teaching strategies that include thinking critically, learning to solve problems, and working and communicating with others However, much of the assessment work is still done in the traditional method of checking students’ memorization and assessment is mainly conducted at the end of term It can be conceded that with the increasing demand of foreign language learning today, it is rather difficult to assessment through traditional devices It is obvious that multiple- choice tests, usually the only option available from test publishers, fail to assess higher order skills and other skills essential for functioning in school or work settings (Haney & Madaus, 1989; Neill & Medina, 1989; O'Neil, 1992: Wiggins, 1989) Multiple -choice tests are not authentic because they not represent Page of 22 activities students typically perform in classrooms In addition, multiple- choice tests not reflect current theories of learning and cognition and are not based on abilities students actually need for future success (Herman, 1992) Another concern is that standardized tests cannot be used to closely monitor student progress in the school curriculum throughout the year since they are only administered once or twice annually Researchers working with populations of adult “intermediate” and “advanced” L2 learners not always have access to standardized proficiency scores (such as the TOEFL for L2 English) that have been collected shortly (e.g., less than three months) before the study Since these standardized tests are designed for specific decision-making purposes, they may also not be appropriate for a given study To avoid the pitfalls of not adequately documenting L2 proficiency, researchers should find and administer a proficiency test that is sufficiently integrative (e.g., assessing not only morphosyntactic competence, but also lexical and discourse competence), meets validity and reliability standards of testing research while discriminating between L2 learners (for discussion, see Brown , 1996), and can be completed within the time constraints of an experimental paradigm Depending on the target language, it may even be necessary to create such a test Given the ability of portfolio assessment to meet these criteria, their flexibility, and their ease of creation and relative ease of scoring, we believe that they are an excellent tool for assessing L2 proficiency in a language classroom Caner (2010) states that new forms of student assessment are developed in order to demonstrate what students are learning and what they can with their knowledge These new forms of assessment, known variously as alternative or authentic measures, require students to perform in some ways such as writing, demonstrating, explaining, or constructing a project or experiment One of the alternative assessment procedures that has gained much interest in the field of language teaching is portfolio assessment, which is regarded as an ongoing assessment procedure Gosselin (cited in Caner 2010) defines ongoing assessment as examining and documenting learner progress at certain intervals in the learning process In addition, a portfolio has a wide range of meanings from a “drawer” into which documents and other materials such as students’ worksheets are placed, to a highly structured framework for holistic assessment of an individual (Davis, 2005) To sum up, basically portfolio is defined as a purposeful collection of any aspect of the student’s work which is kept in a file folder, box, or any durable and expandable container that tells the student's improvement, progress, and achievement (Javanmard & Farahani, 2012) Despite its popularity, it is a great misfortune that this innovative form of assessment has had very limited application in EFL teaching in Vietnam especially in high school level where most of evaluation work focuses on grammar presentation I believe that there should be something new which helps to change the learning and testing culture in high Page of 22 school level where I teach and the innovative nature and procedure of portfolio is sure to meet our demand of evaluating our students’ learning progress and fostering their active role in assessment process Aims of the study This study aims at: - Using portfolio to assess students’ English language proficiency at English class 11, Tran Phu Major High School, Haiphong City, Vietnam - Suggesting solutions to improve students’ English language proficiency at English class 11, Tran Phu Major High School, Haiphong City, Vietnam Methods of the study The study is conducted with the combination of qualitative and quantitative method As regards the qualitative, descriptive and interpretative approaches are made in order to find out the facts about current situation of the school, the teachers and students In addition, formal interviews are done to figure out the teachers and students’ opinion about portfolio assessment and how they can make progress in their learning Turning to quantitative method, statistical analysis is carried out in order to find out evidence for students’ improvement in their learning process Scope of the study There are a wide range of portfolio types and they can be used for students’ ongoing assessment of different subjects and skills of English Within this paper, we would like to focus on the use of teacher-student portfolio to assess students’ English proficiency Design of the study The study consists of three parts organized as follow: • Part one provides justification, aims, scope and design of the study • Part two with three separate chapters in which  Chapter one provides a brief view of the literature review  Chapter two elaborates the current teaching and learning situation in Tran Phu Major High School, especially English class  Chapter three presents a detailed description of the application procedures of portfolio in assessment  Chapter four focuses on the findings and recommendation • Part three is conclusion in which major issues are recapitulated and some implications are mentioned Page of 22 PART B: DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1: Literature Review Portfolio Assessment in EFL Teaching and Learning Portfolios have been most widely used in the teaching of reading and writing, with a strong focus on classroom instruction, student ownership and self- evaluation, and teacher autonomy (Graves, 1983; Tierney, Carter, & Desai, 1991) More recently, portfolios have been proposed and adopted as statewide student assessment management tools in addition to or instead of standardized achievement test data (Baron, 1992b; Brewer, 1990; O'Neil, 1992; Rothman, 1991) Provided that the purpose of portfolio contents is to expand understanding of a student's growth based on multiple measures, different kinds of test and non-test data can be included in a portfolio Portfolios might also contain required information for state- or district-wide systems, but these data need not dominate or divert portfolio assessment from being used to inform classroom instruction Neiman (2007) defines portfolio assessment as a selected collection of work that shows not only the best work, but also the development of the individual's work over a period of time The students are expected to be independent thinkers or produce individual solutions to problems they face Ramazan (2012) asserts that a portfolio, in education, stands for a kind of student-centered assessment Unlike the traditional assessment processes, portfolio assessments enable learners to participate in the evaluation of their own works because students can decide the content of the portfolio through the given directions of the instructor In practical terms, a student portfolio for assessment purposes is a “library” of reports, papers, and other materials, together with the student’s reflection on his or her learning and on strengths and weaknesses The assessment portfolio is prepared by an individual student either at the direction of the teacher or as uniquely planned by the student It may also contain reports of grades, evaluations, and examinations, and it is usually held together in some appropriate binder (Lynch & Shaw cited in Huang, 2012) As portfolios can provide a rich view of learning process, a portfolio is often seen as a highly valid instrument for assessment However, the data in a portfolio, being often descriptive, context-bound and personal, ask for much interpretation before they can be scored (Moss, cited in Schaaf 2005) This view is supported by Wolf and Dietz (cited in Schaaf 2005) who conclude that portfolios normally contain selected evidence of performance and products in various contexts accompanied by a teacher’s comments and reflections Generally speaking, for some a portfolio is a folder containing all the student work; others see it as a collection of the student’s best work The literature reviewed on portfolios reveals that there are many types of portfolios in use According to Columba & Page of 22 Dolgos (cited in Ramazan 2012), there are basically three types of portfolios to consider for classroom use Models of Portfolio Assessment According to Columba & Dolgos (cited in Ramazan 2012) there are three kinds of Portfolio for assessment They are: 2.1 Showcase This type of portfolio focuses on the student’s best and most representative work This type of portfolio is similar to an artist’s portfolio where a variety of work is selected to reflect breadth of talent Therefore, in this portfolio the student selects what he or she thinks is representative work This folder is most often seen at open houses and parent visitations 2.2 Teacher - Student Portfolio This type of portfolio is often called the “working portfolio” or a “working folder” This is an interactive teacher - student portfolio that aids in communication between teacher and student The teacher and student conference add or delete within the content of the show-case portfolio 2.3 Teacher Alternative Assessment Portfolio All the items in this type of portfolio are scored, rated, ranked, or evaluated Teachers can keep individual student portfolios that are solely for the teacher’s use as an assessment tool This is a focused type of portfolio and is a model of the holistic approach to assessment Due to its strengths and applicability, we select student-teacher portfolio for this study and would like to see how it can be used and how much it can help to assess students’ English language proficiency Models and Implementation of Portfolio Assessment in EFL Classrooms Models and Implementation of Portfolio Assessment in EFL Classrooms Reviewing the literature, different models of portfolio assessment are suggested for developing and implementing portfolio assessment programs in EFL classrooms Gomez (cited in Serhani 2007) proposes a portfolio assessment model for EFL learners which includes eleven interrelated levels of assessment activities: • Decide goals and content • Design the portfolio assessment program • Develop scoring criteria and standards of performance • Align tasks to standards and curriculum • Implement at pilot sites, provide staff development, and analyze results • Implement at all sites • Train teachers to score • Establish guidelines for administration • Score the portfolios • Report the results Page of 22 • Evaluate the program Page of 22 Chapter 2: Applying Portfolio in Assessing English Language Proficiency An Investigation into the Current Situation of Teaching and Assessment of EFL in English Class, Tran Phu Major High School 1.1 Introduction To realize the objectives of this study, first there is an overview on Tran Phu Major High School, in which background, facility, trend of development of the school is briefly presented Then for a better understanding about the school, some information about the teaching and assessment will be addressed In addition, an analysis on teaching methods, materials, and material assessments will be conducted to help the researcher have better understanding about the learning and teaching and assessment at Tran Phu Gifted Major School (TMHS) thus finding suitable methods of assessment to improve students’ English language proficiency 1.2 An Overview on Tran Phu Major High School Tran Phu Major High School is the only high school for gifted students in Haiphong city Its operation and development contributed greatly to the quality of high school education in Haiphong city With 30 year operation, it has been noted for a large number of excellent students gaining national and international awards regarding a variety of subjects including mathematics, physics, chemistry, English, so on and so forth Tran Phu Major High School has forty-five classes specializing in mathematics, physics, chemistry, literature, English, French, Russian, Chinese with the total number of more than one thousand students There are six English classes divided equally into three grades 10, 11, and 12 Each class has thirty-five students and their English competence is nearly the same because they have to pass an entrance exam designed especially for gifted students This fact assures that the students surveyed are competent enough to take part in any kind of assessment English has been one of the key subjects introduced in teaching curriculum of Tran Phu Major High School All students including the major and non-major have English as a compulsory subject 1.3 Learners and Learning Requirements Learners at Tran Phu Major High School are selectively enrolled from different secondary schools in the area of Haiphong city They need to pass an entrance exam specially designed for gifted students Therefore almost all of them perform well at school However, there are two types of students to be taken into consideration: one specializing in English and the other specializing in other subjects There is a huge discrepancy in their English ability and it becomes a real challenge to select an appropriate measure for assessment 1.4 Teachers and Teaching Methods Page of 22 In Tran Phu Major High School, there are one hundred and twenty-one teachers including eleven teachers of English providing lessons for over six hundred students Ninety percent of them have Master degree in English language learning The oldest teachers have more than twenty years teaching experience, and the youngest just more than a year Annually, the teachers participate in different national and international seminars Foreign Language teaching and learning, doing scientific research in improving teaching techniques, thereby they constantly access to new teaching methods Teachers of English at TMHS also can get approach to a colossal stock of English books imported from prestigious publishers such as Longman, Thompson, Cambridge, etc From this fact, we can clearly deduce that teachers of English at TMHS are highly adaptive to new teaching methods and update information about teaching English nationwide and even worldwide and competent enough to conduct any teaching program as well assessment project 1.5 Assessment Methods In TMHS assessment procedures vary from multiple choice tests to essay assignments From standardized tests with cloze tests, matching, multiple choice to informal assessment, say, presentation, students’ project Students’ English proficiency is assessed during and at the end of the semester There is one test for all non-major students and one for students of English major To guarantee the fairness in assessment, all students sit in an exam at the same time and students from different classes are mixed to create the exam list Applying Portfolio in Assessing English Language Proficiency There is no "right" way to design portfolios Each classroom, school district, and state will reflect a unique approach to authentic assessment, and in this sense, each student's collection of documents will differ somewhat, depending on the purpose of the assessment (Tierney, Carter & Desai, 1991) Creating and maintaining student portfolios require that a variety of teacher and staff’s decisions be made concerning the instructional goals or objectives to be assessed, who will be involved in the portfolio design and interpretation, what instruments will be selected and how student performance will be demonstrated, how portfolio information will be used, and how the results will be conveyed to others Because the entire portfolio process can be complex systematic review and evaluation of the process should be conducted on a periodic basis Steps to portfolio development should include designing the portfolio, planning for and collecting the necessary data, analyzing the portfolio contents, and using the results (Moya & O'Malley, in press) Each of these points will be described in the following sections 2.1 Designing Portfolios Page of 22 For the purposes of assessment, the material in a student portfolio is most useful when each piece collected reflects progress toward particular learning goals To this end, portfolios can be designed following a multi-step process that involves: • setting the purpose of the portfolio • focusing on specific learning goals • identifying performance tasks and/or selecting appropriate instruments • setting criteria • selecting students to be assessed • collaborating with other teachers and staff • conducting staff development; and • involving students and parents in the portfolio development process Purpose Before collecting any samples of student work, the first step in planning a portfolio is to determine the purpose for conducting the assessment, and how the results will be used (Moya & O'Malley, in press; Navarrete et al., 1990) Will the results be used for making decisions related to classroom instruction? Will they be used to determine whether a student is ready to move out of a special English language support program, such as ESL, ESL-content, or bilingual education? Will they be used to aid in assigning a student grade? Specifying how the results of the portfolio assessment are to be used will assist in determining the goals to be assessed and the samples of student work to be collected Within this study, we would like to assess students’ English proficiency with reference to their ability of reading, writing, listening and speaking in English at pre-intermediate level in order to see if they can communicate effectively in the real circumstance 2.3 Specific Focus The second step in portfolio design is focusing the portfolio on specific learning goals Each portfolio should have a specific focus determined by school staff The focus may be on oral or written language skills or on content area skills such as those required in mathematics, science or social studies Objectives may also be selected from goals contained in local curriculum frameworks, state guidelines, program objectives, or consensus among ESL/bilingual and mainstream teachers concerning important goals for learning While it may be possible to collect student work for all content areas as well as for English language skills in a single student folder focus, on the other hand, avoids having to go through an overwhelming amount of information in each portfolio As aforementioned, this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of using portfolio to assess students’ English proficiency, it is therefore understandable that their ability of reading, writing, speaking, and listening should be focused The results of assessment will be used as a source of evidence for the school to adjust their curriculum, teachers to adjust their teaching methods so that students can get improvement in their English study 2.4 Performance Task 2.2 Page of 22 Once learning goals and performance objectives have been identified, portfolio designers need to identify performance tasks and instruments to be used to measure whether learning goals are being attained School staff should strive to combine traditional and performance assessment measures in order to get multiple indicators of a student's ability level Each portfolio should also contain items which are required to assess progress on particular instructional goals and others which are optional Required items might include those which are necessary to communicate a student's progress to other teachers or to administrators and can include a student's "best work," while optional items could include drafts of work in progress, ongoing ratings of performance, and occasional pieces selected by the student (Valencia, 1990) The use of required items introduces an element of consistency in the evaluation of student portfolios By making certain items obligatory and others optional, teachers get the information they need for making instructional decisions while also encouraging students to participate actively in portfolio design and use In English class in TGHS, the student-teacher portfolio is designed with the requirement of teacher observation log which enables to the teacher to regulate their student’s work regularly (see Appendix 1), books, audiotape of students’ performance, test results, the samples of what students should The requirement for each skill of English including reading, writing, speaking and listening is different The following figures elaborate what a portfolio for each skill includes Figure 1: Portfolio for Reading • Teacher observation log • Examples of what student can read • Books/materials read • Audiotape of student reading • Test results, formal and informal • Conferencing forms • Examples of skills mastered Figure 2: Portfolio for Writing • Teacher observation log • Learning log, dialog journal • Weekly writing samples • Drafts and final products from different genres (personal narratives, exposition, letters, poems, essays reports) Page 10 of 22 In fact, we are aware of the authenticity and validity of using portfolio assessment so the same requirement is given regarding portfolio design and distribution It is used in two kinds of students with the same check lists but different requirements Data collection for portfolio assessment consists of identifying information to be entered into the portfolio, determining the frequency of data collection, creating a system to record and monitor the frequency of data collection, and setting guidelines for the removal and updating of portfolio material These guidelines may vary depending on the purpose of the portfolio At our high school, portfolios can be updated on a semester basis with the aim of assessing students’ on-going performance rather than their end of term test results A part of the portfolio can be added or removed pending the specific requirement of each stage The adjustment is also to assess students’ performance more accurately 2.7 Analyzing Portfolio Content To determine whether a portfolio's contents reflect a student's progress toward learning goals the teacher or portfolio assessment team can match contents to specific learning goals and objectives on a cover sheet, as illustrated in the Sample Portfolio Analysis Form The Portfolio Analysis Form includes learning objective(s), illustrations of student progress, specific citations or page reference to materials that support each objective It also houses what students can and need to fulfill Summary comments, interpretations, and recommendations can be added at the bottom of the Portfolio Analysis Form These anecdotal notes help interpret and integrate the results of student performance across various measures or skill areas Forms such as the one in Figure offer several advantages: teachers can indicate the relationship between each item in the portfolio and the objectives being assessed; they can make specific suggestions for instructional adaptations to student needs; and they can sift through portfolio contents periodically to remove materials that, although interesting, have no use in evaluating students’ progress To determine how students acquiring English as their second language are progressing in comparison to other students, performance assessments can be administered to native or proficient English-speaking grade-level peers in mainstream classes and average rating calculated for these students as well as for the English language learners Administering any of the performance assessments described in this publication to a locally selected, "average" group of English-speaking peers will provide the most meaningful basis for comparison This will inform the teacher regarding both the English learner's progress and his/her preparation for functioning at an independent/average level in a typical mainstream classroom PORFOLIO ANALYSIS FORM Page 13 of 22 Date: Student: Teacher: Class: Learning objective: Mastery of Paragraph Writing Performance Task Contents illustrating References Date Signature student progress Demonstrate ability Literacy performance and interest in checklist varieties of writing Write the topic Performance of the sentence components of topic sentence Write the supporting Evidence of Coherence sentences and Cohesion Evidence of Grammar Accuracy and Variety Evidence of Lexical Accuracy and Variety Write concluding Performance of the sentence components of the concluding sentence Summary comments: ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Using Portfolio Results There are a variety of ways in which portfolio results can be used However, the results from portfolio assessment can be used for but not limited to the following purposes: (i) to diagnose and identify students’ strengths and needs with regard to major curriculum objectives; (ii) to monitor student progress over the course of the semester or school year; (iii) to feedback on the effectiveness of instruction if individual students are not progressing, the instructional approach should be re-evaluated and appropriate adaptations made to meet each student's needs One possible conclusion is that a student needs instructional support beyond the services provided by the classroom(s) in which the portfolio has been maintained; (iv) to adjust teachers’ teaching method in case it is not up to students’ requirement or expectation; 2.8 Page 14 of 22 (v) (vi) to communication with other teachers including other members of the portfolio team and supports instructional decisions; to avoid time consuming Chapter three: Findings and Discussion Advantages of Portfolio Assessment applied in English classes, Tran Phu Major High School 1.1 Portfolio is more motivating It is obvious that portfolio can monitor and assess students’ progress over time Students’ autonomous learning ability can be developed through the activity of keeping a portfolio developed Up to 91.4% of major students (32/35 of the sampled students) state that they are more motivated in their learning process when the assessment form of portfolio is put in use because they are well aware of what they need to to achieve their learning objective It is not like the standardized test like close test or multiple which tends to be too challenging to overcome They are often overloaded with such types of tests because they don’t know what to be tested and how Simultaneously, 94.2% of non-major students agree that they are more motivated and can control their studying progress; therefore they feel more relaxed when portfolio assessment is applied Question 1: Are you motivated in learning English thanks to the application of PA? By compiling a portfolio, the students are able to frequently set goals, reflect on their learning results and check on their progress, conduct self-assessment and peerassessment by consulting the given criteria with the teacher’s guidance In addition, Baume (2000) claims that portfolios are a very effective method for stimulating, supporting, integrating and assessing student work The second major strength of portfolio assessment is that it provides involvement and collaboration in the learning process and its assessment It is apparent that teachers have to more than just lecturing or teaching and students just listening in this process or studying for tests They in fact have to collaborate in the process of assessment This is what Davis (2005) confirms that portfolio assessment can be the focus of initiating a discussion between student and tutor Anyway, this form of assessment not only Page 15 of 22 promotes teacher-student cooperation but also triggers peer collaboration Students work together to achieve their learning target Thanks to teacher assistance and guidance, students get involved in preparing their own portfolios This helps students gain a sense of responsibility towards their work When students are involved in reflection activities and setting goals for future progress, they become more self-critical and reflective about their activities, as Davis (2005) reminds us that portfolio promotes students’ critical thinking As regards teachers, portfolios provide teachers with a broad opportunity to find out who each student is, what that student knows and does not know It enables the teacher to see students as individuals, each with his or her own unique of characteristics and needs Besides, it offers teachers vital information for diagnosing students’ strengths and weaknesses to help them improve their English language performance Finally, the form of assessment would support teachers with an effective tool both for assessing students' performance and for revising their own teaching and learning processes They can provide students valuable comments as feedback that reflects improvement in their future work This is even more important than purely a mark even an excellent mark given to the end of each lesson on a multiple choice or cloze test paper Then students have no idea what they need to overcome and what to make full use of However, with detail comments and recommendations, teachers can get positive feedbacks from their students and thereby obtain clear insights into their teaching Subsequently, teaching plans and strategies can be modified to improve the instructional process in the classrooms 1.2 Portfolios are inclusive Assessment portfolios can be compiled for students of different ability and background Mainly poorly performed students are often excluded from norm-referenced and criterion-referenced testing programs because of their lack of proficiency in English However, with this form of assessment, teachers can assess all types of students because it simply involves collecting sample of student work and scoring them according to predetermined criteria This form of assessment also includes teachers and school administrators to get involved Portfolios demonstrate student learning and achievement more accurately than single test scores Assessment portfolio systems can be designed to assess knowledge gained or skills developed in any content area As described above portfolios provide a rich source of information because they can include documentation of a student’s educational 1.2.1 Page 16 of 22 background; multiple examples of student work; and scores on norm-referenced or criterion referenced tests, along with standardized English proficiency tests Moreover, entries in a portfolio are more likely to be representative of the effects of instruction than are norm-referenced test scores This form of assessment becomes an effective tool for teachers to monitor their teaching process and adjust their curriculum if necessary Portfolios, even, can be used by educators to determine how well an educational program work Single-occasion, norm-referenced, and criterion-referenced tests may be linguistically and culturally biased, and they not distinguish between example, one writing prompt used in a state performance assessment asks students to write a business letter to the school principal making suggestions about a recreation center that is being built, including what students would there, what equipment might be needed, and who might work in the center By incorporating both teachers and students, this form of assessment becomes more reliable Students are also asked to write about what benefit the student and other might gain from the center A newly arrived immigrant student may not know what a recreation center is, and therefore could not well on this assessment even though the student may be able to write a coherent argument about another topic 1.3 Portfolios can result in improved student learning Perhaps the most compelling reason for teachers to apply portfolio assessment is that they can greatly improve student learning By using assessment portfolios, teachers can include students in the process of setting educational goals and developing scoring criteria in the form of rubrics, checklists, and rating scales Students can become involved in assessing their own and others’ work based on the scoring criteria, thus focusing on the academic goals they are trying to achieve From data analysis conducted with students’ scorings at the end of term standardized tests of multiple choice test shows that students especially with non-major students get much improved The mark range changes mainly from 6-8 into 8-10 This is a very positive signal of students’ learning improvement Informal interviews with these subjects reveal that they can master a language problem more easily and for long when they have to find it out themselves Also they feel more interested in their developing portfolio so they remember the lessons more easily 1.4 Portfolios can promote improved teaching Page 17 of 22 When teachers decide to put into practice an assessment portfolio system in their school or classroom, this decision involves in-depth often time-consuming discussions about what assessment information they need and how they can obtain it These discussions lead teachers to the development of scoring criteria such as rubrics, checklists, and rating scales Teachers clarify their goals for their classes as the scoring criteria emerge Once goals and expectations are defined, teachers often try to align their scoring criteria to their goals for their students This process naturally leads teachers to evaluate their teaching methods and helps them move toward a more learner-centered teaching model In such classrooms, students have greater control over their own learning and teachers act more as facilitators than as dispensers of knowledge Thus, portfolios not only ensure that teachers will encourage students to use self-assessment to focus student attention on goals and expectations, but encourage teachers to evaluate their own instructional practices as well 1.5 Portfolio facilitates cooperation The task of portfolio assessment can get both teachers and students involved Students also cooperate with each other to create portfolio representing for a group Thereby, they can strengthen their team work skill and become more motivated 1.6 Students are more active in learning In fact, students need to think twice during class time because they are the main subject matter of the teaching and assessing process They have to think hard to select the materials for their self-study In addition, they need to cooperate with other students as well as teachers to have effective assessment Last but not least, they can control their own learning progress All of these tasks make them become more active and selfconfident in learning Disadvantages of Portfolio Assessment applied in English classes, Tran Phu Major High School Despite enormous appeals of portfolio assessment, we also need to admit that there are some downsizes when applying this form of assessment 2.1 It is difficult to change students’ learning and assessment culture First, we need to change students’ awareness of being passive in learning This tends to be a culture of learning in English classes in Vietnamese high school contexts Second, appropriate guidelines must be provided beforehand so that students need to know what they have to during the semester Third, this form of assessment requires the collaboration of other school staff so it is a bit demanding because school staff get used to the conventional form of assessment Page 18 of 22 2.2 Portfolio assessment is time consuming Contrary to what people often assume that portfolio assessment is time consuming because a lot of work has been done regarding both students and teachers Students have to spend a huge amount of time preparing for their portfolio, while it does take time of the teachers to the grading and comments It in fact turns out opposite because portfolio assessment, if designed appropriately and well-managed, can largely save time The following recommendations enable teachers to manage their time more thoroughly (1) make the data collection part of daily instructional routines; (2) make students responsible for collecting information on a regular basis; (3) identify specific items that go into the portfolio and list them on a portfolio analysis form; (4) initially, use portfolios with only two or three students who need intensive monitoring; (5) share responsibilities of data collection and interpretation with students by making full use of peer assessment; and (6) create common planning times for teachers and students involved in portfolio development 2.3 Portfolio assessment is difficult to score Portfolios pose a scoring dilemma for two reasons First, developing and using scoring criteria require labor-intensive staff discussion and training Educators must keep second language acquisition principles in mind as the scoring criteria are developed, to ensure that the criteria are valid and reliable for all students, including English language learners When appropriate, content rather than language form should be the focus of assessment portfolio systems that include English language learners Page 19 of 22 PART C: CONCLUSION Recapitulation Portfolio assessment has been widely used all over the world thanks to its advantages Anyway, teachers and school administrators all realize that their students can be assessed from different aspects but not just mock learning Not only their end of course is marked but also their on-going efforts are realized It helps a lot in encouraging students to get involved in both their learning and assessment process Teachers and school administrators also find it necessary to adopt portfolio assessment because they can get not only the solid and rigid marks from the end of term papers, but they can recognize who their students really are Moreover, this form of assessment can boost the spirit of cooperation in learning and this is very essential for students’ comprehensive development Added to this, students feel more self-confident in their learning process as they are the subjects of the assessment task but they are also active in this process themselves By and large, portfolio assessment partly helps to change the passive learning culture into a more active one Suggestions for further study Due to the limitation of time and ability, we cannot cover all aspects of portfolio assessment We also fail to provide all relevant examples of portfolio checklists therefore we would like to recommend that the latter study should be devoted to designing one specific portfolio to see how much assessment can affect learning and teacher process And vice-versa how much learning and teaching culture will be adapted to the assessment form They are two interwoven and interactive processes which support one another PART D: SOURCES OF DATA & REFERENCES (Haney & Madaus, 1989; Neill & Medina, 1989; O'Neil, 1992: Wiggins, 1989) Neill, D.M., & Medina, N.J (1989) Standardized testing: Harmful to educational health Phi Delta Kappan, 70, 688-97 Bachman, L.F., & Palmer, A S (1989) The construct validation of self-ratings of communicative language ability Language Testing, 6(1), 14- 29 Page 20 of 22 Baron, J.B (1992a, March) Learning and assessment: Achieving the match Keynote speech presented at the National Forum on Assessment for the National Education Association, Washington, DC Baron, J.B (1992b) Performance- based assessment in mathematics and science: Examples from Connecticut's core of learning assessment program Paper presented at the National Forum on Assessment for the National Education Association, Washington, DC Brewer, W.R (1990) Performance assessment in Vermont (Policy Briefs Nos 10 and 11.) 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Questions for quality thinking Baltimore, MD: Author 16 Mitchell, R (1992) Testing for learning: How new approaches to evaluation can improve American schools New York: The Free Press 17 O'Malley, J.M., & Pierce, L.V (1991) A survey of state assessment practices affecting language minority students Arlington, VA: Georgetown University Evaluation Assistance Center (EAC) East Page 21 of 22 18 O'Malley, J.M., & Pierce, L.V (1992, March) Portfolio assessment: Experiences from the field Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada 19 O'Neil, J (1992, May) Putting performance assessment to the test Educational Leadership, 49(8), 14-19 20 Rhodes, L.K., & Nathenson-Mahia, S (1992) Anecdotal records: A powerful tool for ongoing literacy assessment The Reading Teacher, 45, 502-09 21 Roeber, E.D (1990) Performance assessment: A national perspective (Policy Briefs Nos 10 and 11) Oak Brook, IL: North Central Regional Educational Laboratory 22 Rothman, R (1991, May 8) Ambitious student assessment system advances Education Week, p 14 23 Rubin, J., & Thompson, I (1982) How to be a more successful language learner Boston, MA: Heinle & Heinle Page 22 of 22