An Empirical Study Of Portfolio Assessment On Young Learners Of English

Portfolio assessment is defined as a longitudinal purposeful collection of students' works that demonstrates their learning achievement and helps them reflect on their learning process. As the appeal for assessment for learning and assessment as learning grows higher, portfolio assessment (PA) is given more attention in recent years. Abundant research has been conducted around the world, and portfolio is believed to produce beneficial backwash on students'learning. In China's EFL teaching circumstances, however, there is still a lack of empirical studies on the effect of portfolio assessment. Besides, the subject of previous research focused more on undergraduates while students in primary schools are somehow neglected. Therefore, there is an urgent need to explore the effect of portfolio assessment on young learners of English in China.The present dissertation was designed to investigate the feasibility and effectiveness of portfolio assessment adopted in elementary EFL classroom and the potential backwash it has to facilitate young learners'learning. The effects of portfolio assessment were interpreted as the influence on young learners'learning attitude, the use of learning strategies and learning product, which was based on Hughes' trichotomy of backwash model (1993). Consequently, the following three research questions were addressed in the present study:(1) Are there significant differences between the PA group and non-PA group in terms of learning attitude?(2) Are there significant differences between the PA group and non-PA group in terms of learning strategy?(3) Are there significant differences between the PA group and non-PA group in terms of English proficiency?The research employed a pretest-posttest experimental design embedded with two case studies. Two parallel classes with 43 primary school students were selected to take part in a 13-week experiment, during which two students were chosen randomly to participate in the case studies. Multifold instruments were utilized to gather evidence from different perspectives. The research yielded seven major findings through the experiment, which were summarized according to the research questions:1. Learning attitude is reflected on learning interest and learning perspectives. It is revealed in the present study that no significant improvement in learning interest can be seen among students as a group. However, case studies show that students may become more positive towards learning thank to the use of PA. Besides, the effectiveness of PA is recognized while the equality of PA still faces challenges from its users.2. The frequency of the five learning strategies used in the PA group is significantly higher than that in the non-PA group. Both students and parents benefit from the construction of PA. It is also believed that the mastery of these strategies may have potential influence on students'self-monitoring in their lives.3. With regard to the learning product, students'English proficiency as a whole in the PA group is improved in comparison with that in the non-PA group. It is highly possible that students make progress in their learning through the use of learning strategies and the enhanced peer interaction caused by the use of PA.Based on the main findings and the in-depth discussions, implications are provided for the potential portfolio users, which may include students, teachers, parents and school administrators. Finally, some limitations still lie in the present research, such as the small sample size of the case study and the duration of the research period. Recommendations for further research are presented based on the findings and limitations of the study.