The Application Of Portfolio To The English Topic-based Review In Senior High Schools

With the implement of the new curriculum reform, the latest National English Curriculum Standards proposes that the evaluation of English course should effectively monitor the whole process and result of teaching and learning based on the curriculum objectives and requirements. One evaluation principle of the new National English Curriculum Standards is to focus on the role of formative assessment on students’ development. As an effective way of formative assessment, portfolio was given certain importance in educational field. From the previous researches and practices, teachers find that portfolio is an approach to promoting students’ learning and teachers’ teaching by offering each individual’s mastery degree of the language, showing the specific learning situation of every student in the process of English learning, and making teacher and students know their progress and the concrete problems. However, by reading a large quantity of literature, the author knows that most of the researches on English subject have been carried out on the application of portfolio to English writing, reading and other language learning skills. Few researches are related to the application of portfolio to review lessons of English.English topic-based review is a new and prevailing way of review in senior three of senior high schools. It is more helpful to systematically review the basic knowledge and improve students’ reading and writing ability compared with traditional way of review in the order of textbook arrangement, but it still has some problems, such as students’ lack of interest and motivation of English learning, taking little part in the class activities and teacher’s difficulty in knowing the concrete learning situation of students. So the primary purpose of the study is intended to solve the problems of teachers and students in the process of the English topic-based review by applying portfolio in the review of senior three. During the study, the author explores how the portfolio can be established according to English topic and how the portfolio helps teachers and students solve the problems.In the preparation phase of the study, the author adopts interviews and questionnaires to find out the problems of teachers and students in the process of English topic-based review. Then the author takes the class taught by her as the experimental class and compares with another class with the same English level taught by the author one year ago. Meanwhile, the author knows the changes of the experimental class by comparing the average scores of monthly tests with those of the whole grade. The experiment lasts for a term. During the study, from the results of the questionnaire, post-test and monthly tests, the author makes some important discoveries, including that the application of portfolio to English topic-based review rouses students’ interest and motivation, makes students lay emphasis on the learning process, promotes students’ learning strategies and autonomous learning ability and improves their overall English ability. Meanwhile, it also helps teacher know the learning situation of students and provides effective feedback for teacher. It is convenient for teacher to help students summarize and organize the reviewed knowledge. It helps teacher adjust teaching and formulate practical teaching objectives according to students’ actual learning situation.In short, the application of portfolio to English topic-based review effectively helps teacher and students solve their main problems in English topic-based review. So it provides a practical way of review for the twelfth grade teachers in the school where the author works. And it also offers some reference to the research on the application of portfolio to review.