An Empirical Study Of The Influence Of Portfolio Assessment On The English Learning Autonomy Of Senior High School Students

It is emphasized in English Curriculum Standards for Senior High School that teachers should take the cultivation of students’ learning ability as an important teaching goal,create favorable conditions for students’ development and learning in the teaching process,and help students learn how to choose,judge and monitor themselves in the process of English learning,so as to cultivate students’ autonomous learning ability（Ministry of Education,2020: 68）.In the past,most of the teacher pursuit mechanical transmissions,and the cramming teaching mode has been outdated;teachers should begin from the student’s reality,establish a new type of teaching mode,as well as for students’ psychological characteristics,which is helpful to cultivate students’ autonomous learning ability,so that the students can really learn to study in the learning process,learn to find,and learn to create.However,so far,the mainstream education has not really achieved the above goals,the purpose of school education is still only to emphasize the dissemination of knowledge,teaching methods are still only taught by teachers,students can only passively accept.Most of the teaching results are evaluated by summative evaluation-examinations.In this overall learning system,the actual learning ability of learners has not been exercised and improved.With the deepening of English curriculum reform in basic education in China,it has become an important issue in the field of English education how to promote learning and develop students’ core competence in English subject through assessment.The curriculum standards also point out that in senior high school English teaching,teachers should advocate the combination of formative assessment and summative assessment,pay attention to the overall development of students,and strive to integrate assessment into every link of classroom teaching activities.（Ministry of Education,2020:87）Portfolio assessment,as one of the formative assessment tools,is also a useful tool that can objectively and truly reflect the learning progress of students.In addition,portfolio assessment is a dynamic process,different from the traditional examination,which can not only arouse students’ autonomy and enthusiasm in learning English,but also enable students to pay more attention to their own learning process.Through students’ continuous selfassessment and self-reflection,students’ self-learning potential can be better tapped,thus forming good English learning habits and forming strong English learning ability.Therefore,this study makes an attempt to study the influence and cultivation of the portfolio assessment on students’ English autonomous learning through the implementation of the portfolio assessment,aiming to solve the following problems:（1）What is the impact of the portfolio assessment on the cultivation of autonomous ability in English learning for senior high school students?（2）Does the portfolio assessment influence English academic achievement for students with different English academic levels?（3）How can portfolio assessment be effectively used to cultivate students’ autonomous ability in English learning and improve their academic performance?This study consists of six chapters: The first chapter is the introduction,including the research background,research purpose and significance;The second chapter is a literature review.The concept of portfolio assessment and autonomous learning and previous related research and findings are sorted out.The third chapter is the theoretical framework of this research.The fourth chapter is the research design.The experimental class and control class set in this study are two parallel classes from a senior high school in Wuhua County,Meizhou city,Guangdong Province.All subjects are taught by the same teacher.The experimental class will add portfolio assessment in daily teaching,carry out self-evaluation and mutual evaluation,etc.,while the control class adopts traditional teaching method.This teaching research will adopt a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods for one semester.Chapter five is the result and discussion part of this research: After a series of studies,including special teaching experiments,questionnaire survey,two tests and relevant interviews,it is found that:（1）portfolio assessment can stimulate the interest and confidence of most students in English learning;Secondly,portfolio assessment can also cultivate students’ abilities of self-planning,self-monitoring,self-assessment and self-reflection,which can help students develop a good autonomous ability in English learning.（2）The process of portfolio assessment is also a process of recording and reflecting on students’ English learning.After the experiment,the scores of the students in English study increased to some extent,among which the high score students made greater progress,while the low score students made less progress.The difference is due to the amount of time and investment it takes and so on.（3）Portfolio assessment can reflect the problems in students’ learning process in time and provide basis for teachers and students to solve the problems in a targeted way;Encourage students to carry out planned and purposeful self-assessment and mutual assessment,so that they can have a clear understanding of their own learning process or that of others;Continuous reflection is helpful to adjust and solve the problems in the learning process in time;additionally,the portfolio assessment should be extended from the class to the extracurricular,for the better and all-round management of their English learning.While improving English scores,it can also put the core competencies of English subjects into practice.The last chapter is a summary of this research and puts forward two important implications for high school English teaching.First,portfolio assessment can be used to urge students to learn independently in the process of English learning in senior high school in order to develop students’ autonomous learning ability.Second,for teachers,portfolio assessment can also be used to promote normal teaching,better explore the potential of students and improve their own professional level.The teaching experiment of this study discusses the application of portfolio assessment,which has a positive impact on the cultivation of senior high school students’ autonomous ability in English learning.It is a successful experiment,which shows the feasibility and applicability of portfolio assessment in English teaching of ordinary senior high schools.