A Study Of The Use Of Portfolio Assessment In College English Learning

Compared with traditional tests, portfolio assessment has been considered a new and alternate assessment instrument in language teaching and learning. Ever since the 1980s, many studies have been conducted to investigate the implementation of portfolio assessment home and abroad. In China, however, studies on this issue are mainly focused on elementary education rather than on higher education. Given such gaps, this study is aimed at investigating the use of portfolio assessment in College English teaching and learning to explore the status quo of portfolio employment, the role it plays, and what advantages it has compared with traditional tests.A questionnaire survey was conducted among 158 non-English majors from a key university in Shandong Province. Subsequently ten of them were interviewed. Results of the study show that though portfolio has been widely employed as an assessment tool, the status quo of its development varies from person to person. As reflected in the present study, most students self-evaluated their work and behaved highly-motivated in the construction process since they reflected on their strengths and weaknesses, evaluated their progress, set achievable goals and made specific plans to achieve these objectives. A large number of students reported that portfolio played a positive role in their English study for the reason that the use of portfolio helped them have the reflection of learning, increased sense of enjoyment and achievement, and cultivation of good learning habit despite that it did not contribute much to autonomous learning. In addition, when contrasting portfolio assessment with traditional tests, students had different attitudes towards it. Some considered that portfolio assessment is not as comprehensive as traditional tests in assessing one's English proficiency, whereas some other students preferred portfolio to traditional tests in that they enjoyed more flexibility and more freedom in the process of language learning.Based on relevant theories and previous studies, the results of the study are discussed from the angles of the benefits of portfolio assessment in English learning, problems of portfolio development, and advantages of portfolio assessment over traditional tests. In order to make full use of portfolio assessment to better serve College English teaching and learning, suggestions like implications for professional instructions, and implications for cooperative feedback are later presented. Meanwhile, the limitations of this study are summarized, and correspondingly the suggestions for future studies are provided with the hope of paving the way for more studies.