| This study explores undergraduate EFL learners' experiences and perceptions of participating in an electronic portfolio assessment project. It also investigates their challenges and concerns throughout the development process.; Acting as a supplementary evaluation tool, the electronic portfolio project was implemented for one semester in an EFL class of 39 students in Taiwan. While developing their electronic portfolios, the learners composed essays in English, wrote self-chosen items, such as diary entries, and participated in self- and peer-assessment.; Both quantitative and qualitative approaches were applied to examine the learners' experiences and perceptions. At the end of the project, a survey was administered to ascertain the learners' general reactions to their portfolios as a learning and an assessment tool. Additionally, qualitative case studies with three focal learners were conducted to obtain in-depth and contextualized views and stances. Data collection sources include (1) documents from the electronic portfolios, such as required essays and self-chosen artifacts, (2) semi-structured interviews with the learners and teacher, (3) open-ended questionnaires, (4) self- and peer-assessment checklists, (5) reflective journals, and (6) email correspondences.; The study found that the learners' experiences of participating in electronic portfolio development involved seven interrelated dimensions: collecting, reflecting, assessing, documenting, linking, evaluating, and technology. They tended to positively perceive electronic portfolios as a learning and assessment tool, particularly for raising metacognitive and affective awareness and providing multidimensional perspectives on evaluation. However, they articulated a few challenges and concerns, such as (1) portfolios being time-consuming, (2) uncertainty and self-perceived insufficient English proficiency while carrying out self- and peer-assessment, (3) minimal teacher and peer feedback, and (4) portfolio grading procedures. Lastly, the results also showed that participating in this project produced some impact on the learners' writing processes in that the learners generated a multitude of writing strategies and raised their awareness of the nature of academic writing.; Finally, the study provides pedagogical implications for adopting electronic portfolio assessment in the EFL classroom. |
