Using Portfolio Assessment To Enhance English Writing Instruction In Senior High School

As the new English Curriculum Standard (ECS)(2002) has pointed out, writing is such a very important skill of all the four skills that senior school students should develop in English learning. Nowadays, English writing has gained increasing attention in senior schools. However, it is estimated that the writing ability of Chinese students is much weaker than other abilities. One of the possible reasons is that traditional assessment play an important role in testing students’English writing ability. ECS (2002) also pointed out that the assessment for the English course should carry out efficient supervision on the process as well as final result of teaching according to the course purposes and requirements, combining formative assessment with summative assessment together. That is to say, in teaching and assessment, attention should be paid not only to result but also to process. Therefore, if we use only traditional assessment in English writing teaching, students’ writing abilities cannot be evaluated accurately. It has also become increasingly evident that traditional assessment cannot tell the teachers all that they need to know about students’ progress in learning. As one of the useful tools of formative assessment, portfolio assessment has the advantages; it can provide both teachers and students with useful information for their future development.A portfolio is a purposeful and meaningful collection of student work that tells the story of student achievement or growth, and gives a fuller picture of what a learner has achieved. The students’ involvement and reflection are the two primary themes that run throughout the whole duration. They are empowered to choose their writing topics, deciding the rubrics, reflecting on their compositions according to the peers’ and instructor’s comments and presenting their findings to the class. In such situations, the students take the initiative to make decisions about their own writing, gauge their own strengths and weaknesses, and even set up the learning goals.The student’s perceptions of the portfolio assessment and the influence of the treatment were explored in this study. Questionnaires were administered to125students in a senior high school. Correlative analysis revealed that portfolio assessment is an effective method for the EFL writing classroom and it can enhance the students’ participation, reflective thinking, self-directed learning, and above all it can leave the students a sense of success, which can hardly be found in traditional types of assessment.