The impact of writing portfolio assessment on writing proficiency of Iranian EFL learners

摘要

A current concern in writing theory and practice is with the new pedagogical orthodoxy of process writing and communicative language teaching where the main interest is in what writers do wh en they write. This approach sees writing as explanatory, generative, and recursive. Therefore, writing portfolio assessment as an alternative to traditional assessments has gained popularity in writing pedagogy. The present investigation was designed to s tudy a group of thirty eight Iranian EFL learners with the aim of investigating the possible effects of using writing portfolio assessment on improving writing proficiency of Iranian EFL learners. The learners were asked to perform some writing tasks. Then they edited their own papers and corrected their writing products using the five categories of content, organization, grammar, spelling, and mechanics while they were engaged in a continuous dialogue with the teacher. The results indicated that portfolio writing was effective in developing subjects' writing ability with no significant difference among the three subgroups except that only high achievers improved organization of their writing.