Smat Nurlygul Torebekkyzy, Kozhakhmetova
Gulsara Amangeldiyevna
smat.nurligul@gmail.com, gulsarateacher@mail.ru
L.N.Gumilyev Eurasian National University, speciality “Foreign languages: two
foreign languages”, Astana, Kazakhstan
ADVANTAGES OF
USING LANGUAGE PORTFOLIO IN ELT
The concept of foreign language education of the Republic of Kazakhstan
stated that one of the main principles of education system is self-reflexive is
interpreted as understanding the ability of oneself (self-assessment) and the
environment. Acquired new experience should be included to teaching process and
gradually monitored, and the reflection and self-reflection should be made by
not only teacher, but also by students. And also another important principle is
the personal and individual orientation of the learning process, which is
expressed in terms of educational content and the form of its organization and
ensures the variability of growth. Language portfolio (LP) stands for a student-centered
kind of assessment. The LP is also intended to be used as a means of making the language
learning process more transparent to learners, helping them to develop their
capacity for reflection and self-assessment, and thus enabling them gradually
to assume more and more responsibility for their own learning.
Nowadays, the importance of teaching foreign language in our country
increases with the speed of information exchange. The understanding of
traditional language teaching has been replaced to communicative approach. It
is aimed the students to use the language not only to learn the grammatical
structures but also to communicate with foreigners functionally. The
innovations in language teaching have also affected evaluation process in the
same way. The importance of process based evaluation in language teaching is
can be clearly shown. And it can also be seen that the importance is given to
process rather than the product in latest approaches of language teaching.
Considering the transition from teacher-centred approaches to student and learning-centred
approaches, it can be said that process-based approaches should be adopted in
curriculum drafts. The basic hypothesis in process-based approaches is that
certain skills and strategies used for understanding or producing the speech
exist on the base of each language behaviour.
Language portfolios consist of three major parts:
1) The passport. It is the part of language portfolio where the
language learner expresses his or her linguistic identity. This process is very
important for the language learner using this particular language portfolio.
While the studied language will dominate in the context of their education, it
is important to acknowledge the identity that language support learners express
through their mother tongues. In this section language learner includes factual
information about himself, also the history of the learners’ language learning
experiences. Student may also include certificates or qualifications, which
show achievements of learner, and development of the learner’s language level.
Sometimes it may include the certificates that they received, when they
attended course of currently learning language in language learning centre, or
when the student participated in language learning camp. Beside these
certificates, it may contain tickets to the theatre, where the learner watches
the performance in foreign language, also the list of films that the learner
watches, or list of books that he or she read in foreign language that the
learner currently learning. And lastly it may contain qualification that the
learner got from taking a language exam at school or other language learning
centres.
2) The language biography. The Language Biography is the focus for all
the learning activities and process that take place in language learning
classes. Major part of this section contains themed checklists. Each statement
suggests a task or activity that the learner should carry out so that he or
she, with the support of the teacher, can then colour the relevant symbol to
indicate that this has been achieved. This helps the learner take
responsibility for student’s learning and record progress.
This section includes learner’s
personal history of language learning experience. It may be written with short
narrative stories about his achievements and ways of learning the language. For
example, it may be a short story about the learner’s summer camp, where the
leaner attends in order to improve his learning language. Also it may contain
narrative peace of writings about the learner’s feelings about the process of
the learning and his or her achievements during this process.
In addition, this section may include learner’s self-assessments, his opinion
about his progress during the learning process, also his aims for the future of
his studies. It may be the list of courses or camps, where the leaner wants to
attend, or language examinations, which the learner wants to take. Or it may be
a list of books and films, which he wants to read and watch, respectively, in
future.
3) The Dossier. The Dossier is a very important part of the language
portfolio where learners can collect and keep their work. Some activity pages
are provided, but the main contents of the Dossier are developed throughout
language classes so that each learner has a substantial file of his work.
This section is a collection of course work which shows learners’ level
and progress during the language learning process. It may include checked and
corrected class or homework, papers of tests and exams or any other piece of
work with its marks which illustrates learner’s achievement. In this part of a
Language portfolio, a learner may include voice or
video recordings or any part of project work they have done, that are saved in
CDs or flash cards, or printed as photos.
Given that the language portfolio
is the property of the owner, this principle of learner ownership applies to
the pedagogical procedures that the language portfolio stimulates including
assessment. In other words, ‘teacher assessment should always be separate from
learners’ self-assessment and should not be used to correct it’ [1]. However,
‘separate spaces for assessment by others must be available elsewhere’. Thus
self-assessment should be separate from but combined with and scaffolded by
teacher assessment. In this way, learners’ responsibility for self-assessment
is respected and, at the same time, the teacher’s mediating role in developing
self-assessment skills is emphasised.
Some researchers have referred to the countless advantages of language
portfolio assessment. As learnt in the literature, what makes a language
portfolio assessment so beneficial is that it examines students' progress
toward targets and goals by collecting a variety of documents of instruction
over an extended period of time, instead of a specific separate point of time,
as Davis maintains that language portfolio can monitor and assess learners’
progress over time. Learner’s autonomous learning ability can be developed
through the activity of keeping a language portfolio developed. By compiling a
language portfolio, the learners are able to frequently set goals, reflect on
their learning results and check on their progress, conduct self-assessment and
peer-assessment by consulting the criteria with the teacher’s guidance. In
addition, Baume claims that language portfolios are a very effective method for
stimulating, supporting, integrating and assessing student’s work. Another
major strength of portfolio assessment strategy is that it provides involvement
and collaboration in the learning process and its assessment [2].
Language portfolio is the organized form of learners’ termly or yearly
studies according to certain standards. It is the collection which reflects
leaner’s individual studies, effort, process, studies in one or a few fields,
effort, stages that passed through and success. Therefore, it provides students
to see their strengths and weaknesses of the learner. In defining the content
of this collection, the student should also be active [3]. Language portfolios
are the purposive, organized and systematic accumulation of the products that
tells the story of learners’ efforts, progresses and successes in certain
areas, which provides the students to evaluate their learning in more unique
way The common point in the definitions above is the purposive collection of learners’
studies. It shows that learners’ studies should be collected in a systematic
and organized way rather than randomly. It is understood that every product
cannot be placed in the language portfolio. The studies that will be placed in
the language portfolio should represent, within the objectives stated in the
curriculum, the prominent studies that reflect learner’s performance best and
the documents that prove the learner’s progress and development towards these
objectives. Language portfolio not only shows the learner’s finished studies
but also shows his or her learning process. Learner’s studies collected in
various periods constitute the learner’s learning process and a document of the
progresses in this process. It shows the time spent within the learning process
of learner’s studies, performance, deficiencies and corrections in a detailed
way [4].
Five features typify model language portfolios that can be used as a
systematic assessment tool in instructional planning and student evaluation.
Each of these features has implications for ESL classrooms.
1) Comprehensiveness. The potential for determining the depth and
breadth of a student's capabilities can be realized through comprehensive data
collection and analysis. A comprehensive approach (a) uses both formal and
informal assessment techniques; (b) focuses on both the processes and products
of learning; (c) seeks to understand student language development in the
linguistic, cognitive, metacognitive, and affective domains; (d) contains
teacher, student, and objective input; and (e) stresses both academic and
informal language development.
Although comprehensiveness is a critical component of a good portfolio
procedure, a portfolio can too quickly become an aggregation of everything a
student produces. A screening procedure needs to be established that will
include only selected, high-priority information in the portfolio. The degree
of comprehensiveness should be tempered by practical limitations of the
evaluation environment such as teacher-student ratios and teacher workload.
Setting realistic goals for portfolio assessment increases the probability of
sustained teacher interest and use.
2) Predetermined and Systematic. A sound portfolio procedure is planned
prior to implementation. The purpose of using a portfolio, the contents of the
portfolio, data collection schedule, and student performance criteria are
delineated as part of portfolio planning. Each entry in the portfolio has a
purpose, and the purpose is clearly understood by all portfolio stakeholders.
3) Informative. The information in the portfolio must be meaningful to
teachers, students, staff, and parents. It also must be useful for instruction
and curriculum adaptation to student needs. A mechanism for timely feedback to
the teachers and students and a system for evaluating the utility and adequacy
of the documented information are characteristics of a model portfolio
procedure. In ESL settings, a portfolio can be particularly useful to
communicate specific examples of student work to students, parents, and other
teachers.
4) Tailored. An exemplary portfolio procedure is tailored to the purpose
for which it will be used, to classroom goals and objectives and to individual
student assessment needs. Assessment instruments and procedures are adapted to
match information needs, to reflect student characteristics, and to coincide
with student linguistic and developmental capabilities. With ESL students,
assessment procedures are designed to reveal information about student
performance in all curriculum areas relevant to the students.
5) Authentic. A good portfolio procedure provides student information
based on assessment tasks that reflect authentic activities used during
classroom instruction. In ESL, authentic language may be assessed across
several contexts: formal classroom activities, natural settings (such as the
playground), and informal classroom settings (e.g., cooperative learning
groups). An effective portfolio procedure will include assessment of authentic
classroom-based language tasks, i.e., tasks that the student encounters
naturally as part of instruction. Focusing on authentic language proficiency
across sociolinguistic contexts and naturally occurring language tasks
acknowledges the holistic and integrative nature of language development and
focuses on communicative and functional language abilities rather than attainment
of discrete, fragmented skills [5].
There are many advantages for teachers and learners. They enhance
learners’ motivation by providing something personal and tangible which they
can build up and develop over the course. They help learners to reflect on their
own learning and achievement by asking them to make choices, review, compare
and organize their own work. They enable learners to look for new cultural
experiences by opening their eyes to the possibilities available to them. Part
of portfolio work involves ‘show and tell’ sessions where learners talk about
their experiences and look at other portfolios. From a teacher’s point of view,
portfolios lead to greater learner autonomy since they involve self-assessment,
learner responsibility and parent involvement. Learners can work in their own
time on different sections of the language portfolio.
Bibliography:
1. Council of Europe
(2006). European Language Portfolio (ELP): Key reference documents.
Strasbourg: Council of Europe (DGIV/EDU/LANG, 2006, 4). 4-8
2. Baume, D. (2000). Portfolios for learning and
assessment. The Open University: Centre for Higher Education Practice. 5-14
3. Bahar, M. , Nartgün Z. , Durmuş S. &
Bıçak B. (2006). Geleneksel-alternatif ölçme ve değerlendirme teknikleri: Öğretmenler için
el kitabı. Ankara : Pegema Yayıncılık. 159-167
4. Güven, E. (2007). Portfolyonun ilköğretim 6.
Sınıf fen ve teknoloji dersi vücudumuzda sistemler
ünitesinde öğrenci .aşarısına etkisi. Yüksek
Lisans Tezi, Gazi Üniversitesi, Ankara. 5-17
5. Sharon S. Moya; J. Michael O'Malley “A PORTFOLIO ASSESSMENT MODEL FOR
ESL” The Journal of Educational Issues of Language Minority Students, v13 p.
13-36, Spring 1994.