A study on using portfolio assessment to motivate 9th form students at Nam Hai lower secondary school to learn English = Nghiên cứu việc sử dụng phương pháp đán

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYỄN THI ̣ HẠNH

A STUDY ON USING PORTFOLIO ASSESSMENT TO MOTIVATE
9TH FORM STUDENTS AT NAM HAI LOWER SECONDARY
SCHOOL TO LEAN ENGLISH
(NGHIÊN CỨU VIỆC SỬ DỤNG PHƯƠNG PHÁP ĐÁNH GIÁ TUYỂN
TẬP BÀI LÀM NHẰM TĂNG HỨNG THÚ CHO HỌC SINH KHỐI LỚP
9 TRƯỜNG THCS NAM HẢI HỌC MÔN TIẾNG ANH)

M.A. Minor Thesis

Field: English Language Teaching Methodology
Code: 60.14.10

HA NOI – 2012


VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYỄN THỊ HẠNH

A STUDY ON USING PORTFOLIO ASSESSMENT TO MOTIVATE
9TH FORM STUDENTS AT NAM HAI LOWER SECONDARY
SCHOOL TO LEAN ENGLISH

(NGHIÊN CỨU VIỆC SỬ DỤNG PHƯƠNG PHÁP ĐÁNH GIÁ TUYỂN
TẬP BÀI LÀM NHẰM TĂNG HỨNG THÚ CHO HỌC SINH KHỐI LỚP
9 TRƯỜNG THCS NAM HẢI HỌC MÔN TIẾNG ANH)

M.A. Minor Thesis

Field: English Language Teaching Methodology
Code: 60.14.10
Supervisor: Phạm Thị Hạnh, M.A.

HÀ NỘI - 2012


TABLE OF CONTENTS
Declaration

i

Acknowledgements

ii

Abstract

iii

Table of contents

iv

List of figures, tables and abbreviations

vi

PART A. INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale of the study................................................................................... 1
2. Aims of the study.........................................................................................

2

3. Research questions....................................................................................... 2
4. Significance of the study.............................................................................. 3
5. Scope of the study........................................................................................ 3
6. Methods of the study.................................................................................... 3
7. Design of the study......................................................................................

4

PART B. DEVLOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW…………………………………

5

1.1. Theoretical background of motivation...................................................... 5
1.1.1 Defining motivation................................................................................ 5
1.1.2 Motivation in second language learning................................................. 6
1.1.3. Strategies to motivate language learner.................................................

7

1.2 Theoretical background of portfolio assessment.......................................

9

1.2.1. Defining portfolios................................................................................. 9
1.2.2 Portfolios in Language education...........................................................

10

1.2.3. Portfolios in ESL as Alternative Assessment........................................

10

1.2.4. The advantages and disadvantages of portfolio assessment..................

11

1.2.5. Portfolio Assessment Model.................................................................. 14
CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY……………………………………………….

17

2.1. The setting of the study............................................................................. 17
2.1.1.The textbook and the current methods of testing and assessment..........

iv

17

2.1.2. The subject of the study......................................................................... 18
2.1.3. The researcher........................................................................................ 18
2.2. Data collection instruments....................................................................... 19
2.2.1. Questionnaires........................................................................................ 19
2.2.2. Students' portfolios................................................................................. 20
2.2.3. Interviews............................................................................................... 21
2.3. Data collection procedures........................................................................ 21
2.4. Data analysis procedures........................................................................... 26
CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS, DISCUSSIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS…

27

3.1. The participants........................................................................................

27

3.2. The effects of portfolio assessment on students' motivation and
proficiency in learning English.......................................................................

30

3.2.1. The effect of portfolio assessment on students' motivation................... 30
3.2.2. The effect of portfolio assessment on students' proficiency in learning
English.............................................................................................................

32

3.3. Students' difficulties in doing the portfolio assessment program ............

34

3.4. Teacher and students' recommendations for the portfolio assessment
program............................................................................................................

34

3.5. Feasibility of motivating students to learn English through portfolio
assessment.......................................................................................................

35

PART C. CONCLUSION
I. Implications and suggestions for using portfolio assessment for 9th
form students in learning English subject..................................................

38

1. For teachers.................................................................................................

38

2. Considerations when using the portfolio assessment program...................

39

II. Conclusion.................................................................................................

40

III. Limitations and recommendations for further study..........................

40

References…………………………………………………………………..

41

Appendixes

v


Lists of FIGURES, tables and abbreviations

Figure 1: Students’ needs and wants in the second semester
Figure 2: Students’ preferences about activities in English subject

Table 1: The criteria assessment for grade 9 students' portfolios
Table 2: 45-minute test scores and portfolio scores

Abbreviations:
ESL: Second language learning
L2: Second language
S: Student

vi


PART A. INTRODUCTION
This chapter presents the rationale, states the aims and research questions of

the study. It also describes the significance, the scope, as well as the methods of the
research. In addition, it further provides an overview of the research design.
1. Rationale of the study
The reform of teaching methods is one of the spirits of innovations in
education at all levels of our country. Nowadays people often mention about
education initiative or active learning, which is the transfer of the central role of
teachers in the classroom to the students. In this approach, students do not depend
too much on the training process and the main keys for them are self-study, selfdiscovery, self-esteem, self-efficacy and self-assessment. Therefore, in order to
improve the quality of training, there must be not only focus on teachers, or
innovative teaching methods but also need to enhance methods of testing and
assessing students. Besides, evaluation must be organized systematically to see the
whole learning process of students, and assessment tools must combine multiple
and diverse forms.
So far, in Viet Nam education system, when referring to evaluation and
assessment, people often think about traditional tests, which involve the using of
paper-and-pencil, standardized tests to assess students' performance under time
pressure and the memorization of the knowledge. What is more, basing on the final
scores, teachers and administrations assess each of individual students. Actually,
this is sometimes a bit one-sided factor as the scores do not show everything to
evaluate students. Moreover, scores are only part of the assessment and teachers
should not only base on scores to assess them.
Additionally, currently there are many ways to examine students’ assessment
in the world, and the utility of portfolio assessment as an alternative assessment is
one of them. More obviously, research evidence suggests that portfolio assessment
which expresses strongly one of the final aims of testing and assessing students’
achievement is “motivates students to learn” plays an important role in impacting

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and motivating ESL students to study and improve their English level. Thus, that is
a great value to apply in context of ninth graders at Nam Hai lower secondary
school since they are said to lose their motivation in learning English for some
various reasons.
From the above assumptions, the author is inspired to carry her thesis on the
topic “A study on using portfolio assessment to motivate 9th form students at Nam
Hai lower secondary school to learn English”. I hope that the ideas of the thesis
will contribute meaningfully to improve the quality of teaching and learning English
subject at my school in particular and other schools throughout the country in
general.
2. Aims of the study
The purpose of the study is to investigate the feasibility of using portfolio
assessment to motivate grade 9 students to learn English at Nam Hai lower
secondary school. It aims specifically at:
- finding the attitudes of students and teacher towards the application of portfolio
assessment program on the English subject.
- exploring the effects of portfolio assessment method on students’ motivation and
proficiency in learning English.
- giving some recommendations for motivating students to learn English through
portfolio assessment.
3. Research questions
The research questions of the study are as follows:
1. What are the attitudes of students and teacher towards the application of portfolio
assessment program on the English subject?
2. What is the effect of portfolio assessment method on students’ motivation?
3. What is the relation between portfolio scores and the 45-minute written test
scores?

2

4. Significance of the study
The famous researcher Littlewood (1984) said, "In second language learning
as well as in every other field of human learning, motivation is the crucial force
which determines whether a learner embarks on a task at all, how much energy he
devotes to it, and how long he perseveres". Motivation can strongly help a language
learner succeed with the language. Therefore, the understanding of its role and
related theory is very necessary for all the teachers as well as learners of English.
If portfolio assessment method can indeed enhance students' motivation, then
using and applying it in teaching and learning English may have considerable
improvements for English classroom. The outcomes of the study and some
recommendations will supply with practical benefits to teaching and learning
English. Teachers and learners will come to know the useful role of portfolio
assessment and make use of some portfolio assessment techniques powerfully.
5. Scope of the study
As it is stated in the title, the focus of this study is only on the grade nine
students. Particularly, the subjects are limited to the thirty-eight students from a
ninth grade class at Nam Hai lower secondary school. Furthermore, within a variety
of alternative assessments, the researcher examines the effectiveness of only one
type that is portfolio assessment.
Last but not least, due to limited time, the study targets specially at the
advantage of portfolio assessment in the field of motivation, not the other
advantages as a whole.
6. Methods of the study
The research was realized with regard to both quantitative and qualitative
analysis. In order to achieve the main purpose of the study, an experimental
research was conducted. To collect data, three main research instruments are made
used of, namely questionnaires, students’ portfolios and interviews. As for the first
instrument, there are two questionnaires- the pre-treatment questionnaire and its
post-questionnaire version. They were used to gather information to answer the

3


research questions. In addition, students’ portfolios with three main sources, i.e.
students’ cover letters, scores of portfolios and scores of a 45-minute written test
were utilized so as to seek the valid and reliable data for the analysis. Besides, the
interviews were also carried out to reveal the effectiveness and feasibility of the
portfolio assessment.
7. Design of the study
The study is divided into three parts: the introduction, the development, and
the conclusion
Part A: Introduction –provides the rationale, the research questions, the aims, the
significance, the scope, the methods and the design of the study.
Part B: Development – consists of three chapters
Chapter 1: Literature Review – introduces the literature related to the two main
parts: theoretical background of motivation, and theoretical background of portfolio
assessment.
Chapter 2: The study – focuses on the methodology used in this research including
the setting of the study such as the textbook and the current methods of testing and
assessment, the subject of the study, and the researcher, data collection instruments,
data collection procedures, as well as data analysis procedures.
Chapter 3: Findings, discussions, and recommendations – shows major findings,
discussions and offers recommendations for motivating students to learn English
through portfolio assessment.
Part C: Conclusion – is a summary of the study in which the implications and
recommendations for motivating students to learn English through portfolio
assessment are discussed, and the limitations of the study and suggestions for
further research are presented.

4


PART B. DEVLOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter studies a range of literature review related to the study. The two
main features presented are theoretical background of motivation and theoretical
background of portfolio assessment.
1.1. Theoretical background of motivation
1.1.1 Defining motivation
“Motivation is a very complex phenomenon with many facets […]. Thus, it
is not possible to give a simple definition”. These are the words of Gardner (2006,
p.242). From his point of views, it can be said that the term motivation is defined
differently by different researchers.
As for Woolfolk (2001), he argues that motivation is an internal state that
arouses directs and maintained behavior. Sharing the same viewpoints, Harmer
(2001, p.51) mentions that "at its most basic level, motivation is some kind of
internal drive which pushes someone to do things in order to achieve something".
Dornyei (2001) gives an extensive explanation of motivation. He shares the
same viewpoints with these authors above, but he further suggests that apart from
all the internal factors, there still exists the external ones. He states "motivation
explains why people decide to do something, how hard they are going to pursue it
and how long they are willing to sustain the activities". Thus, it can be inferred from
his outlooks that motivation and satisfaction of needs and desire have a mutual
connection, and it is in either internal or external to the individual.
In conclusion, motivation is a factor that exists in both intrinsic and extrinsic
consciousness of a person; it shows and encourages human the ways to accomplish
everything that he or she really wants in his/her life.

5

1.1.2 Motivation in second language learning
The issue of motivation related to classroom learning has caused more
interest in the topic among language teachers and researchers of L2 learning.
First, in the article "Second language learning motivation", Liuoliene and
Metuniene (2006) presents various aspects of motivation and motivation in L2
learning. Through their study, it reveals that the meaning of motivation is
discovered and three main approaches to motivational psychology are expectancyvalue theory, goal-directed theory and the self- determination theory. Besides, they
also quote Gardner's point of views (1993, p.157–194) when he presents that two
distinct orientations for learning a language are integrative and instrumental
orientation. Specifically, integrative orientation refers to the interest in integrating
into the culture of the community speaking the language, whereas instrumental
orientation refers to the desire to learn a L2 for an immediate short term goal, for
example good grades, future career, passing the examination, searching and
translating material and so on. Moreover, the importance of needs analysis to
language learning and several motivational conditions such as interest in the topic
and activity, relevance to the students’ lives, expectancy of success and feelings of
being in control and satisfaction in the outcome are also provided specifically by
these authors.
Second, other researchers such as Dornyei (1994) and Oxford (1996) also
spend their time studying this particular issue. In his research, Dornyei specifies that
motivation is involved three levels as follows: the language level, the learner level,
and the learning situation level. The language level focuses on "orientation and
motivates related to various aspect of L2 learning". In other words, at this level the
basic learning goals and language studied are determined by orientation and motives.
The learner level contains the influence of individual characteristic of language
learners. Consequently, motivation is influenced at this level by the learner's needs
for achievement and self-confidence; furthermore, the learner level is concerned
with internal characteristic of the learner related to expectancy. Last but not least,

6


motivation at the learning situation level is influenced by many intrinsic and
extrinsic motives which are course specific, teacher specific and group specific.
Along with Dornyei, Oxford (1996b, p.4) assumes that "perhaps instrumental
motivation or orientation should have a greater prominence in theory and research,
at least in certain settings, most notably foreign language environments". She also
calls for further development of models into research on motivation in L2 learning
"For the sake of students worldwide, we cannot afford to restrict ourselves to a
small set of motivational variables, especially when we know form research in other
fields that motivation is an extraordinarily complex, multifaceted, and important
construct" Oxford (1996b, p.1).
In short, as one of the famous researchers affirms "motivation represents one
of the most appealing, yet complex, variables used to explain individual differences
in language learning". It is certain that the researchers, teachers, and language
learners should spend more time and effort in investigating, researching and
understanding it in the most meaningful ways.
1.1.3. Strategies to motivate language learners
From his classification of motivation as mentioned previously, Dornyei
(1994) presents the strategies to boost L2 learners. According to him, for some
particular reasons, most of the strategies will focus on learning situation level rather
than language and learner ones.
At the language level, the strategies will be shown as the followings:
- develop learners' cross-cultural awareness systematically
- include a socio cultural component in the L2 syllabus, e.g. inviting native
speaking guests, showing films or TV recordings, playing relevant music and so on.
- promote student contact with L2 speakers
- develop learners' instrumental motivation, e.g. discussing the role L2 plays in the

world and its potential usefulness both for themselves and their community.
At the learner level, some strategies are:

7


- develop students' self-confidence, e.g. trusting them and projecting the belief that
they will achieve their goal, regularly providing praise, encouragement and
reinforcement, and so forth.
- promote the students' self-confidence with regard to achieving learning goals
- promote favorable self-perception of competence in L2
- decrease students anxiety
- promote motivation-enhancing attributions
- encourage students to set attainable sub goals, e.g. learning 200 new words every
week and so on)
Finally, at the third level, learning situation, the strategies are presented in
three

components,

namely,

course-specific

motivational,

teacher-specific

components, and group-specific components.
At first, in order to achieve course-specific motivational components, the

strategies which can be applied are:
- make the syllabus of the course relevant
- increase the attractiveness of the course content
- discuss with the students the choice of teaching materials
- arouse and sustain curiosity and attention
- increase students' interest and involvement
- match difficulty of tasks with students' abilities
- increase student expectancy of task fulfillment
- facilitate student satisfaction, e.g. allowing students to create finished products
that they can perform or display, encouraging them to be proud of themselves after
accomplishing a task, making a wall chart of what the group has learned, and
celebrating success.
Next, in teacher-specific motivational components, the strategies are:
- try to be empathic, appropriate and accepting
- adopt the role of a facilitator
- promote learner autonomy

8


- model student interest in L2 learning
- introduce tasks such as a way as to stimulate intrinsic motivation and help
internalize extrinsic motivation
- use motivating feedback
Then, in the last component the group-specific, a list of strategies as follows:
- increase the group's goal-orientation
- promote the internalization of classroom norms
- help maintain internalized classroom norms
- minimize the detrimental effect of evaluation on intrinsic motivation
-promote the development of group cohesion and enhance intermember relations

- use cooperative learning techniques.
All in all, it is commonly thought that the effectiveness of L2 learner is
influenced by motivation. Therefore, the teacher should grasp strategies well so as
to develop students’ motivation and to achieve success in their teaching.
1.2 Theoretical background of portfolio assessment
1.2.1. Defining portfolios
Currently, portfolio is a popular term in some fields such as business, art,
photography, and education. When viewing portfolio, people often think about a
collection of documents, drawings, photos, articles, which can be shown as proof of
what an individual can do at a certain time in his/her professional career.
According to Mariani (2001),"it is a collection which can be revised
periodically as one develops new skills or goes through new meaningful
experiences". In the area of education, a few researchers (for example Paulson,
Paulson and Meyer, 1991) define a portfolio as "a purposeful collection of student
work that exhibits the student's effort, progress, and achievements in one or more
areas. The collection must include student participation in selecting contents, the
criteria for selection, the criteria for judging merit and evidence of student selfreflection".

9


To recap, in term of education field, there are two aspects creating a portfolio
that are a collection or selection of samples of student work and these samples must
be purposeful collection in order to describe students' own learning progress. In the
following part, the matters of portfolios in education, especially in language
education will be mentioned more clearly.
1.2.2 Portfolios in Language Education
It is sure that when mentioning portfolios in language education, many
people still do not understand it adequately. The application of portfolios has been
in the United States language education for over twenty years.

Mariani (2001) states the two most important functions of language
portfolios are: "a reporting function and a pedagogic function". The former refers to
the administrative use and it often called a "showcase portfolio". In other words, she
considers this function as a way of alternative assessment, which could be used
together with the traditional assessment or even substitute it. The latter relates to the
classroom uses of the portfolio; otherwise, it is called "learning portfolio". She also
adds that this is a collection of something that is a part of a list of students' works
which record how a student implement the process of achieving particular
competencies, and it is not necessary to be considered as a tool of assessment.
Besides, the effectiveness as well as the advantages of the portfolio in L2 are
also viewed as: "[...] increase the level of students' motivation and to give them a
sense of accomplishment and ownership in their own learning" (Crosby, 1997).
In summary, portfolio in language education is considered as a learning tool
and a form of alternative assessment. Besides, it is assumed that the students would
show their abilities and capacity significantly through the process of doing the
portfolio. Therefore, portfolio will certainly be viewed as a motive to encourage
students in obtaining their language learning aims.
1.2.3. Portfolios in ESL as Alternative Assessment
It seems obvious that there are a large number of ESL teachers complaining
about the problems in which they have to deal with in giving evaluation and

10


assessment to their students. One of the facts is that with the traditional assessment
types, they found them difficult to match with the current teaching methods that are
focused on the central role of the learners, and the emphasis of current language
strategies includes thinking critically, learning to solve problems, and working and
communicating with others (Caner, 2010).
Also, the other fact is that "testing and written examination frequently used

techniques of assessment in traditional teaching or instruction. Such a technique of
assessment suggests that students be successful as a result of memorization are quite
likely to forget quickly the knowledge they try to learn [...]. In other words, the
traditional way of assessment remains to be insufficient in structuring the
knowledge and keeping it permanent. In addition, it does not provide satisfactory
information about the knowledge gained by students for teachers, students, and
students' families" (Hasan, 2008)
From the above reasons, it can be implied that there must be alternative
forms of student assessment in order to prove the effectiveness of the students'
learning progress as well the achievements that they can gain. At the moment, these
new types of assessment are known widely as authentic or alternative assessments.
According to Glasgow (1997), portfolio application which tries to assess the ability
of students and which is an alternative assessment application is regarded as the
most important teaching and assessment application.
Moreover, with the descriptions of portfolio stated above, it can be
concluded that the assessment of portfolio is definitely one of the techniques or
forms of alternative assessment. Still, it is demonstrated of its strengths and benefits
in comparison with traditional forms of assessment in ESL teaching and learning.
1.2.4. The advantages and disadvantages of portfolio assessment
It is well accepted that although portfolio assessment has been considered to
be an effective type of alternative assessment with its superior advantages; it still
has some disadvantages for teachers, educators or researchers to consider carefully
before conducting it in real situations or classrooms.

11


To start with, in Kemp and Toperoff's viewpoints (1998), portfolio
assessment can be used in the classroom for a number of the following reasons:
- can improve motivation for learning and thus achievement. Students are

empowered to prove achievement, so they will certainly be motivated.
- matches assessment to teaching. As portfolio represents students' performance in
the classroom, it can be entirely integrated into the curriculum. And, almost
products of classwork are the assessed product, so they are not separated from class
activities in contract to test items.
- develops independent and active learners. Portfolio assessment allows students to
take part in the evaluation of their own works because they can decide the content
as well the criteria to assess their portfolio under the directions of the teachers. They
also set their own learning goals and monitor the whole progress.
- gives a profile of learner abilities in terms of:
+ depth: Students are provided the opportunities to show the quality of their work,
which is carried out without pressure and a very limited period of time, and with the
help of reference materials, as well the corporation with their classmates or others.
+ breadth: Students can show a variety of skills. More clearly, the portfolio
assessment can be used to measure academic skills compared to "old style" tests.
+ growth: Students' efforts to enrich their knowledge and competencies are
presented and their learning progress is reflected over a period of time.
- develops social skills. Students are also assessed on work done together, in pairs
or in groups. Thus, their social skills will be advanced accordingly.
- has clear goals. They are decided at the beginning of instruction and are obvious
to teachers and students in the same way.
- serve to individuals in the diversified classroom. Because it is open-ended,
students can show work on their own level. Still, as there is choice, students who
have different learning styles can find it flexibly suitable and permit them to express
their strengths variously.

12


- is an efficient tool for demonstrating learning. Diverse types of products and

records of progress are presented in the portfolios so that students' changes over
time are also clearly shown.
Next, in the article "the use of portfolio to assess students' performance",
published in September 2007, the authors conclude that portfolio assessment
enables measuring high-level skills with meaningful and realistic activities for
students instead of measuring low-level skills in a limited-time, using multi
assessment methods instead of using only one measurement method, making
assessment not sometimes but continuously, and determining the student’s
weaknesses and strengths. Besides, it also encourages students to participate in the
assessment process actively and to make an affective communication with his
teacher and parents. As portfolio assessment places students at the center of the
teaching process, it permits them to direct teaching.
In spite of its advantages in education and language learning, portfolio
assessment still has some drawbacks. The most disadvantages of its must be timeconsuming for both teachers and students. Obviously, in the process of doing
portfolio, students have to fulfill more tasks and activities than usual, and they also
have to manage time wisely in order to complete all their works.
Moreover, researcher (for example, De Fina, 1992) assumes that it is rather
difficult for teachers to score students’ works and to assess students’ performance
over time in the crowded classroom. Thus, it is suggested to use checklists, rubrics
and digital portfolio form to reduce time for the assessment of it.
Another drawback is that "scoring a portfolio may be seen as less reliable or
fair than multiple choices test scores" (Cicmanec & Viecknicki, 1994). Hence, this
means that the reliability and validity of portfolio assessment is quite accepted in
the case the criteria for each entry of portfolio is specific and meaningful. It is also
requisite for the selecting and deciding assessment criteria and the aim of portfolios
should be considered carefully before implementing it in the classroom.

13

Data from portfolio assessments is the next disadvantages of portfolio
assessment. Since the data here is thought to be a form of qualitative data, it is
pretty difficult to analyze. To solve this problem, according to some authors like
(Birgin, 2003; Chen et al., 2000), if it is possible, designing the computer-based
portfolio and electronic portfolios for students make it easier to examine the
portfolios and to give feedback to them; otherwise, utilizing checklists or
observation lists could be a facilitator to analyze process.
In summary, as a matter of fact, each issue always exists two various sides,
which are positive and negative; accordingly, before conducting the using of
portfolio assessment, teachers should consider all its matters carefully, in detail and
predict in advance the unexpected problems that may occur in the history of its
conduct.
1.2.5. Portfolio Assessment Model
Surely, in the literature, the design and application stages of portfolio
assessment have been researched by many authors such as Barnhardt et al. (1998)
and Moya and O'Malley (1994).
First, in Moya and O'Malley's views, the proposed portfolio assessment
model for ESL includes six interrelated levels of assessment activities that are the
following:
a) identify the purpose and focus of the portfolio procedure
- establish a portfolio committee and a focus for the portfolio
b) plan portfolio contents
- select assessment procedures, specify portfolio contents, and determine the
frequency of assessment.
c) design portfolio analysis
- set standards and criteria for interpretation of portfolio contents, determine the
procedure for integrating portfolio information and schedule staff responsibilities
for portfolio analysis.
(d) prepare for instructional use

14


- plan instructional use and feedback to students and parents
e) identify procedures to verify the accuracy of the information
i.e., establish a system to check the reliability of portfolio information and to
validate instructional decisions
f) implement the model
Another portfolio assessment model is presented in Nguyen's thesis (2006),
she quotes some experts' model of portfolio development like Barton and Collins
(1993). In Barton and Collins' opinions, this portfolio design contains three distinct
aspects, called purposes, evidence and assessment criteria. For the aspect
"purposes", they provide three steps to develop the portfolio's purposes as follows:
- Step 1: give five answers for the question: "What is it I really want my students to
learn in this course/time period?"
- Step 2: prioritize the lists of the answers i.e. determine which one is primary or
secondary.
- Step 3: consider carefully ways in which students can perform how they have
accomplished these purposes.
Furthermore, in the second aspect "evidence", Collins (1991) suggests four
classes of evidence: "Artifacts" are documents such as homework and student
papers that are produced during normal and academic work in classroom;
"Reproductions" are documentation of student work outside the classroom such as
special projects or interviews; "Attestations" are the documentation teachers
generate about the student's academic progress; "Productions" are documents
students prepare just for the portfolios. Besides, productions include several kinds
of materials, but the most important one is reflection. Moreover, about the last term
“assessment criteria”, it is believed that the purposes which teachers establish for
their students have the strong relationship to teacher’s approach to mark students’
portfolios. At the end, Nguyen summarizes that from Barton and Collins’ model for

portfolio assessment, we can generate that the quality of students’ efforts and the

15


accuracy of teachers’ assessment about their work depend heavily on how clearly
portfolio purposes are stated.
In conclusion, this chapter emphasizes the fundamental concepts for the
achievement of the study. At first, definitions of motivation are introduced and then
come the motivation in L2 learning and some strategies to motivate language
learner. In addition, the background knowledge of portfolio assessment is clearly
presented such as defining portfolio, portfolios in language education, and
portfolios in ESL as an alternative assessment. Finally, the advantages and
disadvantages of portfolio assessment as well as the portfolio assessment model are
discussed and analyzed as a main part for the study.

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CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY
The previous chapter has reviewed the literature work in motivation and
portfolio assessment. This chapter will focus on the details of the practical study,
including the setting of the study, data collection instruments, data collection
procedures, and data analysis procedures.
2.1. The setting of the study
2.1.1. The textbook and the current methods of testing and assessment
The major material for the English subject of grade 9 students is the “Tieng
Anh 9” textbook, which includes ten units for two terms. Each unit is divided into
seven parts, namely getting started, listen and read, speak, listen, write, and
language focus. In the time the research was carried out, the distribution for the

learning contents was the unit 9, and in the first period- getting started and listen
and read. In addition, after completing five units of this semester, students are
expected to obtain a wide range of competences and knowledge (see details in
Appendix 1). As for class schedule, students have two periods of English every
week during each semester. Within this tight timetable, the workload for students is
pretty heavy. Consequently, students have to make their best effort to study under
any circumstances, for instance in classroom or outside the classroom.
In terms of testing and assessment, students’ English performance is
measured by some types of achievement tests, e.g. progress achievement and final
achievement tests. The former type includes three kinds such as the short oral quiz,
the 15-minute written tests, and the 45-minute written tests. Normally, the final
grade is formulated as follows:
10% short oral quiz+ 20% 15-minute written tests+ 40% 45-minute written tests
+ 30% final achievement test

Then, the assessment will be evaluated with the following criteria: Students
with the average mark of 8.0 and over are ranked the good and excellent students.
Students with the average mark of 7.0 and over the rather good students. Students

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with the average mark of 5.0 and over the average students, and students with the
average mark below 5.0 considered as under-average students.
In short, from the above description, it can be pointed out that the syllabus
and the measurement and evaluation for grade 9 students in English subject are a
little bit difficult and challenging for them. Consequently, it is commonly agreed
that the major objective of the teaching English at lower secondary schools is to
help the students to get good marks in the achievement tests.
2.1.2. The subject of the study

The research is conducted at Nam Hai lower secondary school with the
participation of thirty-eight 9th form students in a class considered to be one of the
best classes at this school. Through the thesis, they are coded from S1 to S38
according to their classroom name's list. Frankly, to those students, English is not
their prioritized subject, compared to mathematics and literatures, which are the
compulsory subjects for them to take the entrance examination to the upper
secondary school. Accordingly, English is not paid much attention to by students, or
even by their teachers. To some extent, through the questionnaire, they also
mentioned a wide range of reasons why they were demotivated in learning English,
which will be discussed in details in the following chapter.
2.1.3. The researcher
The researcher and her collaborator are teachers at this school. They have
been teaching English for more than four years. Through the process of composing
the portfolio assessment project, the researcher is responsible for establishing,
instructing, observing, supervising and marking the portfolio. Before the project
started, the researcher and her collaborator had arranged to meet and discuss about
all the methods, contents, procedures and time allocation for the research. They also
anticipated the problems that might occur in the entire progress, and tried to find the
solutions to solve them. Furthermore, the researcher also asked for her opinions
about some related issues in teaching and learning English subject in the class she
was assigned to be the main English teacher. Apart from these, it must be noticeable

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that the teacher was invited to play the role of coordinator with the writer in her
research; on the other hand, she helped the researcher create the most advantageous
circumstances, and monitor the students for the procedure of the project to be
successful.
2.2. Data collection instruments

The three main instruments used to collect the data for the study are
questionnaires, students' portfolios, and interviews.
2.2.1 Questionnaires
As for the first instrument, the questionnaire was used as pre-treatment
questionnaire (see Appendix 3). In fact, it was employed since it is always
considered as one of the most common instruments in collecting data. Moreover,
Gillham (2000) assumes that a wide range of advantages of questionnaires can be
listed as: "low cost in time and money, easy to get information from a lot of people
very quickly [...], and can provide suggestive data for testing an hypothesis".
However, they still remain some disadvantages such as: it is rather difficult to build
up a reliable questionnaire since students might copy their partner's answer.
Responses might not always be correct as students are sometimes reluctant to give
truly negative answers about their teachers and school. To solve this problem,
students are assured that all their answers will be confidential. In addition, they are
reminded that their own answers are required and any copies would destroy the data
of the research.
The pre-treatment questionnaire was designed with ten questions in order to get
general information about the students and served as the basic information for the
study and need of applying the portfolio assessment program for the grade 9
students. It included two main parts: Part one aimed to collect information about the
students' background, i.e. their English learning experience. Part two aimed to
gather information about the students' attitudes towards learning English (question 2,
3, 4), students' needs and wants in the second semester (question 5), students'
attitudes towards the current achievement tests (question 6, 7), students' perception

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about portfolio and portfolio assessment (question 8, 9), and students' preferences
about activities in learning English subject (question 10).

Besides, it was piloted on three students to see whether they understood the
questionnaire clearly and provided correct answers. Before filling in the
questionnaire, students were given a brief and clear explanation about the aim of the
questionnaire. They were also instructed and helped by the researcher during the
process of answering the questionnaire. After collecting their questionnaires, the
writer found out that those students did not have any problem completing the
questionnaire, so she decided to distribute this pre-treatment questionnaire to all the
students in the class. She also guided and provided help for them when they were
completing the questionnaire in the class.
2.2.2. Students' portfolios
The students portfolios were utilized as one instrument to find out the valid
and reliable data for the analysis. All collected portfolios of the students were
analyzed so as to discover the attitudes of the students towards the portfolio
assessment project, the effects of this program on students' motivation and
proficiency in learning English (see samples in Appendix 7). On the other hand,
although there was abundant evidence collected from students' portfolios, within
this minor thesis only three portfolios' sources were used, i.e. cover letters, scores of
portfolios, and scores of a 45-minute written test. The cover letters of the students
were devised in the form of a questionnaire in which students were invited to
answer three questions as follows:
1. What can you increase from doing the portfolio?
2. In the process of composing the portfolio, what difficulties did you meet?
3. Can you give some suggestions to make the portfolio more interesting and
beneficial to you and your learning of English subject?
After analyzing and comparing the data of the other two sources, some
computation was made to display the relation between the scores of the portfolios

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