An Empirical Study On Oral Competence Development Through E-portfolio Assessment

For many years, the phenomenon of"dumb English"has been a serious problem of Chinese students in their English learning, and it presents an arduous task for Chinese educators to deal with as well. Therefore, a significant breakthrough in Chinese college English teaching is highly expected, but none has shown yet, especially in oral English teaching. The problems, such as large-size classes, teacher-centered teaching, students'poor competence in oral communication, etc., must be paid great attention to, and solutions must be found to improve students'English competence.In recent years, a variety of modern theories such as humanism, cognitive and social-constructivist learning theories and theory of multi-intelligence etc., have inspired many researches on language instruction and assessment. Under their influence, electronic portfolio (e-portfolio) appeared as an assisting instrument to teaching and learning. E-portfolio is a useful means for learner's autonomous learning, learning reflection and assessment with the development of IT-based and Web-based instruction. E-portfolio assessment highlights learner's self-management, self-assessment and self-reflection in a multimedia or web learning environment; it enormously promotes learners to participate in the learning activities.In order to search for an effective approach with a new learning environment and a new platform for college oral English instruction, the author of this thesis has conducted an experiment with the college EFL students'oral English teaching by means of e-portfolio. To examine the implementation and effect of the oral English e-portfolio assessment (OEePA), a succession of procedures, including observation, questionnaire, pretest and posttest and e-portfolio audio materials are utilized to collect extensive data for the research. The study employs both quantitative and qualitative research, but essentially takes an ethnographic approach. Quantitative data are analyzed through Excel and SPSS, and qualitative data are dealt with through the procedure of protocol analysis. The purpose of this study is to research the effect of the OEePA on college EFL students'oral English learning and to study whether the OEePA can improve EFL students'oral English proficiency.The research results demonstrate that in spite of the fact that EFL students'oral English proficiency can not be improved remarkably in a short time; the subjects of the experiment have made some achievements in terms of confidence, fluency and accuracy in speaking. There were more peer-assessment and self-reflection in experimental group than in control group. And the teachers'role has changed automatically in different environments. Thus, the OEePA has been proved a valuable means for college English instruction and evaluation.