The Application Of Portfolio Assessment In English Writing In Junior High Schools

As one of the four skills that junior high school students should develop in English learning, English writing plays an important role in English teaching activities and gains increasing attention in writing teaching. However, C hinese students' writing performance is much weaker than the other abilities. They find that it's more difficult to make progress in writing than in other skills. Apart from the learning strategies and teaching methods, the traditional assessment is one of the reasons. At present, in junior high schools, writing products gain more attention than writing process. English teachers seldom require students to do self-assessment and self- reflection but simply assess their writing by grading. Besides, the effects of traditional writing instruction on stimulating students' writing interest, motivating their initiative, increasing their confidence and improving their writing habits are not satisfying. The New English Curriculum Standard points out that the combination of formative assessment and summative assessment should be encouraged and the portfolio assessment should be used in English teaching. Portfolio assessment, as a form of formative assessment, can help students improve their writing performance through self-assessment and self- reflection. Therefore, the reform of the writing instruction and assessing methods in junior high schools is of great significance. This study focuses on exploring the effectiveness of the applica tion of portfolio assessment in English writing instruction in junior high school.The study is carried out in Grade 9 in Guangzhou Jiangnan Foreign Language School. Two parallel classes(N=80) were chosen as the subjects, one of which was implemented with the portfolio assessment while the other was implemented in the traditional way. The study, lasting 12 weeks, adopted pre-test and post-test to collect data to prove the following research questions:(1) Can portfolio assessment improve students' writing performance in Junior High School?(2)In what aspect does portfolio assessment have most effect on writing for Junior High School students?The data collected from the pre-test and post-test are summarized and put into the software of SPSS 16.0 for statistical analysis. Descriptive Statistics is employed to obtain the basic statistics, including mean scores, standard deviation of the two groups for both of the writing tests.The major research findings are as follows:(1) The writing proficiency of students trained with the portfolio has been greatly improved after the experiment.(2) Portfolio assessment, has more effect on the accuracy and fluency than the content of students' writing. Thus, portfolio assessment can be applied to English writing practice to help students to improve their writing ability. Based on the major findings of the research, some implications have been made for future English teaching. With limitations of the research analyzed, some suggestions for further research are offered.