Chapter I Introduction
1.1 Research Background
In the new curriculum reform, the goals of education assessment has transformed from discriminating and selecting students to improving teaching and promoting development of all students. The new education assessment view not only places much emphasis on the development functions of assessment, but also attaches great importance to the main role of students, which allows them to take part in the teaching assessment and arouses their learning enthusiasm. In the meantime, the assessment methods tend to be diversified and the assessment process is more dynamic than before. English curriculum standard under the new curriculum reform has specific provision that “English writing should be assessed from the comprehensive perspectives of knowledge and skills, process and methods, and emotions and values to examine the overall accomplishment of students” (Reform syllabus, 2010). Besides, the standard set concrete requirements for the assessment of English writing. However, seen from the teaching and learning practice, assessment of English writing in junior middle schools has several problems.
The traditional education assessment pays much attention to the selection of "high score" talents, and there are few assessment focusing on learners' practical ability. In comparison, E-portfolio as a new evaluation tool to promote the development of assessment, is to record the process of finding and solving problems and the thinking process of learners and provide a good feedback for teachers to carry out classroom teaching. What’s more important, learners themselves can get self-reflection, self-evaluation and self -promotion in the learning process so that they can make progress by means of peer assessment and mutual complement.
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1.2 Research Questions
According to the present situation of assessment in English writing, this paper puts forward the following three questions based on the teaching model of portfolio assessment:
(1) How does the method of e-portfolio assessment affect students' writing interest?
(2) How does writing teaching based on e-portfolio assessment affect students' English writing performance?
First, it attaches great importance to formative assessment rather than finality assessment. English curriculum standard has made it clear that “Both the formative assessment and finality assessment are necessary, but formative assessment should be strengthened” (Reform syllabus, 2010). The teaching of English writing should not focus on the finished composition of students, which classifies students’ compositions into different ranks, but to make objective assessment on each and every link and stage in the writing process so as to change the stereotype of assessing English writing. The present assessment system places too much emphasis on finality assessment and the selection of students, but lacks assessment of the writing process, such as the assessment of the collection of composition materials, the assessment of the composition conception, and the assessment of the revision of compositions, etc. Therefore, the method of e-portfolio by means of formative assessment in English writing can be used to assess the writing process of students and to make a complete assessment of students’ English writing so as to arouse their writing enthusiasm.
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Chapter II Literature Review
2.1 Researches on E-portfolio Assessment
Portfolio assessment is a new teaching evaluation tool that appeared along with the western educational evaluation reform movement in the 20th century. Portfolio is a growth record bag used to describe the progress of students, display their achievements and evaluation the learning situation. Portfolio assessment has been used in all education levels, from the usual classroom teaching to large-scale testing, and from mother tongue writing to second language writing. In the middle 1990s, based on the paper-based portfolio, e-porfolio assessment appeared in writing teaching in America. The support of technology provides portfolio assessment with new life. The transformation from portfolio to e-portfolio assessment not only dedicates the change in information storage carrier, but also the obvious advantages of archiving, retrieval and sharing. The e-portfolio assessment tools include online assistance, self-assessment, peer assessment and teachers’ assessment. The way that evaluates students by e-portfolio includes the following aspects. First, e-portfolio can display all students’ performance in writing by storing, recording and sharing. Second, e-portfolio enables students to correct their own learning outcomes by providing online modifying tools. Third, e-portfolio provides learners with a writing control process, in which learners can select the best works and put them into the e-portfolio for sharing. Fourth, e-portfolio involves peer assessment, teachers’ assessment, which makes learners receive more information about their works.
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2.2 Researches on Second Language Writing
This section includes the literature reviews of researches on second language writing from both home and abroad. In the overseas studies, the research are done from the perspectives of explaining the concept, the affecting factors of second language writing, the theoretical bases of L2 writing, the investigation of learners’ writing situations, and the training of L2 writing ability, and so on.
2.2.1 Researches on Second Language Writing Abroad
Researches on second language writing abroad began in 1970s, which include the definition of second language writing, the second language writing ability, the theoretical bases, curriculum design and empirical studies on it.
Dickerson & Creedon (1981) explored the strategy of self-assessment in revising writing. The researchers required that the finished writing be compared with the standards set by teachers or learners to have a revision. The research result showed that second language learners are able to compose better writings if they write according to specific assessment standards. They also found that learners who have self-set standards had a better performance in second language writing than those who have not.
Applebee (1986) pointed out that writing is a process, which constructed the frame for the teaching of writing that aimed to cultivate learners’ autonomous writing ability. The writing process includes four stages: planning, drafting, revising and editing, and the four stages are a circulated process rather than a simple linear flow. According to the “writing process” theory, the key of writing lies in the process of brain thinking in the stage of drafting, and the finished work is only the representation of this process.
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Chapter III Methodology ............................ 18
3.1 Hypotheses ............................... 18
3.2 Research Subjects ........................ 18
3.3 Research Methods .......................... 18
Chapter IV Results and Discussion ....................... 32
4.1 The Data Collection and Analysis of Questionnaire for Students ..................... 32
4.2 The Analysis of Pretest ......................... 42
4.3 The Analysis of Posttest .......................... 43
Chapter V Conclusion ................................ 46
5.1 Major Findings ...................... 46
5.2 The Limitations of the Research ..................... 48
Chapter IV Results and Discussion
4.1 The Data Collection and Analysis of Questionnaire for Students
The questionnaires for students are distributed to 45 students in the experiment group in class 1 grade three, Baoji Experimental Middle School at the end of the teaching experiment. With the purpose of investigating the students’ understanding and practice of e-portfolio assessment in English writing, the experimenter classified the content of the questionnaires into several sections, which include students’ understanding of e-portfolio, students’ attitudes towards e-portfolio in English learning, students’ practice of e-portfolio and students’ reflections on e-portfolio. All the 45 students in the experiment group are required to fill in the questionnaire and the questionnaire recovery rate is 100%. The answers given by the subjects are tallied to calculate the percentage and it is used for further analysis.
Questions 1 – 3 are to investigate the students’ attitudes towards the importance of e-portfolio assessment in English writing. The percentage of all answers are calculated, which can be seen clearly in table 4.1-1.
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Chapter V Conclusion
5.1 Major Findings
The application of e-portfolio assessment has both advantages and disadvantages in the process of teaching and learning. The advantages of e-portfolio assessment are as follows:
First, the advantages of e-portfolio are: it is easy to store and it has back-up copies; it can be stored for a very long time and it is very portable; it is centered on learners and it can increase the skill competence of students; it can provide easy and accessible by hyperlinks. E-portfolio is easy to store and operate, and it can present a clear development of students by organizing and ranking the writing exercises in time order. It is easy for students to locate and find their learning records at any time. E-portfolio is equipped with good assessment advantage, which is beneficial for students to know their own progress and shortcomings so that they can make better achievements. Teachers can also get to learn the learning situation of all students so that they can adjust their teaching strategies accordingly and teach according to the aptitude of students.
Second, the role of teachers is transferred from teacher-centered to learner-centered. In the traditional way of teaching English writing, the role of teachers is only the imparters of knowledge. Influenced by the product approach, the writing process is often ignored and the only criteria of English writing is the students’ compositions, and other factors such as the conception, plan, language and construction of the writing are often ignored. Teachers and students lack interaction and communication. However, the application of e-portfolio assessment is a presentation of students’ writing process. Students can formulate their learning goals, writing conceptions, first draft revision and feedback through the application of e-portfolio. In the whole learning process the teachers’ role is transferred into director, supervisor and instructor. In the meantime, students’ self-monitoring ability can be strengthened and self-efficacy can be enhanced.
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