The Application Of Portfolio Assessment To English Writing Teaching In Senior High School In The North Of Shaanxi

English writing ability is an important part in English teaching of senior high school. Writing is also an integrated embodiment of English ability. In actual teaching procedures, teachers always pay more attention to words, reading skills and grammar compared with writing, which leads to the fact that students’ English writing ability is weak. Writing assessment is a significant part of writing teaching and writing assessment methods have a direct influence on writing. The current assessment method is simple and ineffective which is conducted by the way of checking writing “products” of students’. There is a gap between students’ real and required English writing ability, especially in the district of North of Shaanxi.The New English Curriculum Standard proposes evaluation system should help students monitor, adjust their leaning goals and learning strategies, and build students’ English learning confidence. Portfolio assessment, as one of formative assessments has attracted the attention of many English teachers because it provides feedback of students in details. But whether it is proper to apply it to north of Shaanxi, it is unknow. Therefore, this study aims to validate whether portfolio assessment can effectively stimulate students’ interest in writing, whether it can help students to develop good writing habits and whether it can effectively improve the students’ English writing ability.The writer did the experimental study for a semester in grade ten class7 and class8 of Yan’an Senior High School. In class7 portfolio assessment was used in writing teaching while class 8 still with the traditional English writing assessment method. In class7, group members check other’s writing drafts according to the assessment form revise drafts and self-reflect after teachers’ correction. In class 8students hand in their writing “products”, teachers mark the writing drafts and give them back to students. Questionnaires, tests and writing assessment forms are the chief experimental tools. After experiment, the writer used Microsoft Excel and SPSS17.0 to analyze the final data.The results show that portfolio assessment aroused students’ interest in English writing, cultivated good habits of English writing, and improved their English writing ability. Therefore, portfolio assessment can be widely used in English writing ability.