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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCT ION OF THE BACKGROUN DS TO THE STUDY 1.1 Rationale for the study The idea of conducting this study stemmed first and foremost from my own teaching situation It is a common irony among English and American Literature teachers at the English Department, College of Foreign Languages, that when we mark our students’ final exam writings, we are actually marking distorted versions of our own ideas and words, which have been expressed in class only as suggestions and prompts for students’ discussion and self-learning The truth is the majority of our students seldom have their own ideas about literary works In case some have their own comments and feelings, they are often at a loss to express themselves Thus, literature learning has frequ ently fallen into either parrot fashion or a tangled web of poorly expressed ideas While we agree that parrot fashion learning must be done away with, we must also face the challenge of finding ways to raise students’ self -expression abilities, if the pre sent dilemma is to be solved to its root Looking beyond my own situation, I realized that this dilemma also brings headaches to teachers of English in general Hence, in the picture I am trying to paint hereafter of my own teaching experience, many other teachers may see fragments of their own classrooms, their own problems and pains As a teacher of English and American literatures in a context where students learn English as their major, I have had a growing concern about students’ generally weak abilit y of self-expression in spoken and written English, which is reflected most clearly in their learning of foreign literatures This problem is closely related to students’ passive role in learning For English and American literatures, students usually come to class without any preparation for the lesson; during class time they just sit passively, sometimes listening to the teacher lecturing and sometimes not paying very much attention When the teacher asks students to answer a question concerning the literary text, they often make very little meaningful contribution because they have not done any thinking about the text at home With this lack of preparation and practice, they rarely think or feel about literary matters in a critical, original way, or in ca se they have their own thinking and feeling, they are unprepared and unable to express themselves coherently in English As a result, what they have gained from foreign literatures is little more than some mechanical memory of some famous authors and te xts However, this is not the goal of teaching English and American literatures Rather, the goal is to help students gain an understanding of and appreciation for great literatures in English, to give students a chance to voice their own opinions, thought s and feelings about great literatures, and through literatures, about life, culture and society, and not the least to learn the target language to express all those understanding, appreciation, thoughts and feelings efficiently Thus, critical thinking and open expression are vital in learning this subject The problem is these are very weak among the majority of the students, which has been reported by almost all the teachers at the English Department The portfolio approach can be a solution to this pro blem While it can benefit many other subjects, the portfolio approach would create the best chances for students’ self expression in both written and spoken English when it is applied to English and American Literatures In no other subjects would there b e a greater need and a wider scope for the fresh expression of personal responses, individual identities in the form of thoughts and feelings on a more sophisticated level than in English and American Literatures By working on a regular basis on their own portfolio projects, students are given every chance to exercise greater initiative and autonomy in responding to great literatures and expressing their feelings and opinions for themselves Arguably some of the most interesting aspects of the portfolio approach to the teaching of English and American literatures concern not only literary matters but also matters of interest to any learner of English as a foreign language: the matter of how to utilize the language efficiently, the matter of naturally thinking, feeling in the language, and actually living the language out, and the matter of how to express oneself coherently and convincingly in the target language, both in the written and spoken form First of all, besides its undeniable mind -broadening benefits, learning a foreign literature by doing portfolios in the target language helps students activate and utilize their linguistic reservoir, which might otherwise dry out as a result of blunt, functional conversations and somewhat mechanical, matter -of-fact expository writings that they often have to Nowhere else is language so beautifully and meaningfully used as in literature, and when students write about literature in the target language, they tend to try their best to inspire beauty of form and ri chness of meaning to their writings Thus, writings in the literature portfolio can be the convergence of students’ best efforts at language use Secondly, doing the portfolio project gives students a sense of being involved in the target language, while in the way of “spectator learning”, students normally feel detached from the language all the time it is spoon -fed to them With their own portfolio, they come very close to thinking in the language, feeling in the language on a much more sophisticated level than they usually in English Gradually students would have a feel for the language which would be impossible to achieve for all the teaching in the world In other words, doing the portfolio project would give students a chance to actually live the language Above all, doing the literature portfolio is a chance for students to express themselves convincingly with their own identity No longer valid is the view of language as only a dry, functional tool of knowledge and information perception Langua ge is learned to empower the learner to more than just take in knowledge: the most wonderful mastery of a language is in self -expression Working on the literature portfolios, students must a lot of literary reading, which provides a rich, authentic, high quality input of language, but more importantly, they need to express their thoughts and feelings about sophisticated literary matters in the target language, which would train them to express themselves confidently and effectively in English for the ir futures All the explanations above boil down to only one word: self -expression Students’ ability to utilize the language, their intellectual and emotional experiences in the language will all be shown in their spoken and written expression, which is after all the expression of themselves The literature portfolio is worth trying out precisely because it would train students’ ability of self-expression in the target language 1.2 Purpose and significance of the study The study is carried out with a view to investigating the effects of the portfolio approach on students’ ability of self -expression in English and American literatures Hopefully, by making the literature portfolio part of the course requirements, teachers could help students play greater rol es in their own learning, activate and practice their analytical power, critical thinking, deep feeling, as well as fresh ways of expressing themselves about great literatures Furthermore, it is also hoped that students’ writing skills and self-expressing abilities in English would be greatly improved as a result of practicing on a regular basis These skills and abilities would benefit not only the learning of English and American literatures but also the learning of all other language skills and language elements Equally significant is students’ expected satisfactory performance in formal tests of English and American literatures, resulting in significantly better scores than those of students who have similar starting points in this subject but who are not exposed to the portfolio approach Thus, this study serves both long -term and practical purposes 1.3 Aim and scope of the study The aim of this study is to find out the relationship between doing the literature portfolio project and students’ self -expression abilities as demonstrated in the process of learning and in their final scores on this subject The study also aims to explore students’ experiences and practices on the project It expected to find a positive and significant impact of this approach on students’ self-expression in English, as well as to find the project to be a worthwhile practice for students As regards the scope of the study, due to limited time, it was not possible for me to carry out the investigation for both English and Ameri can literatures, which would take two semesters Therefore, I only chose to investigate the application of the portfolio approach to the teaching of American literature, after students had finished one semester of English literature The reason why I chose American literature and not English literature to carry out my research was that by the time they finished English literature, I could have a fairly clear view of students’ literary self -expression abilities based on my observations and students’ scores on the English literature exam This would help me conduct my research better Furthermore, once they had learned literature for a semester, students would definitely be more acquainted with this subject, which would presumably help them their literature projects with more ease 1.4 Structure of the paper Apart from the introduction and conclusion, this paper contains three main chapters: - Chapter 2: Review of Literature, including a review on portfolio assessment and self expression - Chapter 3: Design of the American Literature Portfolio Project - Chapter 4: The study, including the context of the study, research questions and hypothesis, data collection, data and data analysis, and findings CHAPTER 2: REVIEW OF LITERATURE 2.1 Portfolio assessment The concept of portfolio has been around for a long time and has been the subject of accumulating studies Different educators and researchers have provided different views on this concept, but they have found many important common grounds Many an as pect of portfolio assessment has been explored, and this section carries no ambition to go deeply into each and every aspect The following sections will only briefly present the literature on the definitions and concept of portfolio assessment, its charac teristics, its advantages and disadvantages, its use, phases of portfolio development, and portfolio evaluation 2.1.1 Definitions and concept A portfolio is “a purposeful collection of student work that exhibits the student’s efforts, progress, and achievements in one or more areas The collection must include student participation in selecting the contents, the criteria for selection, the criteria for judging merit, and evidence of student self reflection.” (Paulson, Paulson and Meyer, 1991, 60) A portfolio is also defined as “a collection of artifacts accompanied by a reflective narrative that not only helps the learner to understand and extend learning, but invites the reader of the portfolio to gain insight about learning and the learner” (Porter and Cleland, 1995, 154) In literature, “the portfolio is a collection of revised and expanded essays that best demonstrate [one’s] mastery of selected goals of the literature major The portfolio contains concrete evidence of [one’s] abilities as a student of literature Furthermore, the portfolio allows [one] to revisit ideas and writings [one] began in earlier coursework, and pursue those ideas and writings through additional research, further development, and/or clarification of focus.” (Neiman, 1999) But basically, not matter which definition you choose, it comes down to these words: collect, select, and reflect Generally speaking, a portfolio is a collection of works selected by the student, with some form of reflection on the process and/or the products Most portfolios fall into the following categories: (1) showcase or selection and (2) developmental or process A showcase or selection portfolio is a collection chosen by the student and/or teacher which shows the student’s best work with a specific goal in mind (Johnson 1996, 30) For example, in writing, it may include the best pieces of a variety of writing styles including both expository and creative writing A developmental or process portfolio is a collection of work, which focuses on the student’s development of a process or a product The type of portfolio chosen, whether it is showcase or developmental, is dependent upon the purpose, which in turn determines the types of items selected from the collection for the portfolio In my American Literatu re course, the design of the portfolio is a combination of both the showcase and the developmental portfolio: the students selected their best assignment papers to put in the portfolio, but they also had to include all their class notes and the first draft together with the second draft of the essay, which were used to assess their learning process and development 2.1.2 Characteristics of portfolio assessment Portfolio assessment is a multi -faceted process characterized by the following recurrent qualities: - It is continuous and ongoing, providing both formative (i.e ongoing) and summative (i.e culminating) opportunities for monitoring students’ progress toward achieving essential outcomes - It is multidimensional, i.e., reflecting a wide variety of a rtifacts and processes reflecting various aspects of students’ learning process(es) - It provides for collaborative reflection, including ways for students to reflect about their own thinking processes and meta -cognitive introspection as they monitor thei r own comprehension, reflect upon their approaches to problem -solving and decision-making, and observe their emerging understanding of subjects and skills (George 1995) 2.1.3 Pros and cons of portfolio assessment According to Andrew Epstein, Synapse Lear ning Designer of website www.teachervision.fen.com , some important pros and cons of portfolio assessment are as follows Pros: - It allows the teacher to see the student as an individual, each with his or h er own unique set of characteristics, needs, and strengths - It transforms the role of the teacher away from generating comparative rankings of achievement (grades, percentage rankings, test scores) and toward improving student achievement through evaluat ive feedback and self-reflection - It helps teachers standardize and evaluate the skills and knowledge we expect students to acquire without limiting creativity in the classroom - It helps students be more accountable for the work they in class and th e skills and knowledge we are asking them to acquire - It aids in the diversification of approaches to teaching and learning, thus increasing the connections with a wider range of learners and learning styles - It involves students in the assessment pro cess, thus giving them a more meaningful role in improving achievement - It invites students to reflect upon their growth and performance as learners Cons: - It may be seen by some as less reliable or fair than more quantitative or standardized tests evaluation such as test scores - It can be time consuming for teachers and staff, especially if portfolios are done in addition to traditional testing and grading - Teachers must develop their own individualized criteria, which can be initially difficult or unfamiliar - Data from portfolio assessments can be difficult to analyze or aggregate, particularly over long periods of time - It is often difficult to integrate meaningfully into school cultures where very high stakes are placed on comparative student ranking and standardized tests Interestingly enough, the disadvantages tend to be teacher -centered and the advantages tend to be student -centered In reality, however, the biggest disadvantage of portfolio assessment for some teachers is that it is somet hing new and different which demands study The biggest advantage of portfolio assessment for teachers is the knowledge they gain about their teaching and about their students Looking at students’ portfolios in my American literature class, I could adjust my instruction based on the data collected from these portfolios But, the best part was the insights I gained about my students and my teaching I had evidence to support that learning was happening in my classroom 2.1.4 Use and standardization of por tfolio assessment The use of portfolio assessment focuses around the philosophy of the classroom teacher Portfolio assessment at its best involves teachers and learners gathering and analyzing data and reflecting upon the impact of that data as it relates to those learners and teachers (Stowall and Tierney 1995, 82) This type of assessment demand that the teacher and learner act as collaborators and implies a learner -centered philosophy of education Like so many other educational reforms, the teacher is the key to the successful use of portfolio assessment If teachers believe that portfolio assessment is important and useful, and if they are inserviced adequately for its expanded use, portfolio assessment has a chance to succeed (Abruscato 1993, 477) Although portfolio assessment offers great flexibility and a holistic picture of students’ development, several technical issues must be addressed to make portfolios valid for ESL education evaluations These issues are summarized in three organizational guidelines which are based on current research and instructional practices in education Portfolios Must Have a Clear Purpose To be useful, information gathered for portfolios must reflect the priorities of the program It must be kept in mind that the purpos e of an education program evaluation stems from the goal of the actual program The first critical step, then, is to identify and prioritize the key program goals of curriculum and instruction As mentioned in chapter 1, the key goals of the Literature pro gram are for students to gain an understanding of and appreciation for great literary works and to express their evaluations, comments and feelings for those works and authors in the target language Thus, the clear purpose of the students’ American Litera ture portfolios is to show their processes of response to literature, as well as their abilities of self -expression in English Portfolios Must Interact With the Curriculum This issue also is known as content validity It is important that the information in portfolios accurately and authentically represent the content and instruction of the program Content validity can be maximized by making sure portfolios contain (a) a clear purpose of the assessment, (b) a close link between the behaviors or products collected and the evaluation goals, (c) a wide variety of classroom exercises or tasks measuring the same skill, and (d) a cross-check of student capabilities based on both formal tests and informal assessment (Navarete et al 1990) Apart from having a clear purpose of assessment as aforementioned, the American Literature Portfolio Project under study also has a close link between the works collected and the evaluation goals: all the students’ works were to show their self -expression abilities, which was also the key evaluation goal The class activities and tasks of discussion, response writing, and reports of written essays all measured students’ expression of themselves on literary subjects in the target language Moreover, formal pre and post-tests were designed to check and supplement the rather informal portfolio process With these fulfillments, my portfolio project can be said to interact with the curriculum to a great extent Portfolios Must Be Assessed Reliably Reliability in portfolios may be defi ned as the level of consistency or stability of the devices used to assess student progress Although there are no set guidelines, there are several criteria which are recommended in establishing the reliability of portfolios for large-scale assessment Teachers and administrators must, at a minimum, be able to - design clear scoring criteria in order to maximize the raters’ understanding of the categories to be evaluated; - maintain objectivity in assessing student work by periodically checking the consis tency of ratings given to students’ work in the same area; - ensure inter-rater reliability when more than one person is involved in the scoring process; - make reliable and systematic observations, plan clear observation guidelines; - use objective terminology when describing student behavior; - allow time to test the observation instrument and its ability to pick up the information desired; - check for inter-rater reliability as appropriate; - keep consistent and continuous records of the students to meas ure their development and learning outcomes; and - check judgments using multiple measures such as other tests and information sources In the American Literature Portfolio Project under study, some actions which correspond with those suggested criteria we re taken to ensure a relatively reliable assessment: right from the planning stage I had drawn up a clear set of scoring criteria for each component of the portfolio, as specified in the marking sheet (see appendix 1); I also frequently and objectively com pared the students’ ratings in each component, making quite sure the ratings were fair; moreover, systematic observation plans were designed and used to record students’ progress; the students’ work was also continuously evaluated (through weekly grading and reviewing of their writings); and finally, the portfolio constituted only part of the whole-course assessment, its rather informal judgment complementing the formality of the end-of-term exam These are the ways in which the portfolio assessment of my project was made more reliable A major issue that arises in the use of portfolios relates to the problem of summarizing data within and across classrooms in a consistent and reliable manner Using the guidelines suggested above in the planning and organiz ation of portfolios will provide for reliable and valid assessment These guidelines, however, are only a framework for the assessment procedures and will need to be applied by teachers to determine their effectiveness and practicality (Navarete et al 199 0) 2.1.5 Phases of portfolio development IRI/Skylight Publications on www.ed.gov/pubs/OR/consumerGuides/classure.html mention three phases of portfolio development Phase One: Organizing and planning: This initial phase of portfolio development entails decision making on the part of students and teachers This phase helps students fully understand the purpose of the portfolio and its status as a means of monitoring and evaluating their own progress In the American Literature course, this phase was conducted within one week My students and I worked together discussing the purpose of the project, the things that they would have to do, and the judging criteria for their work I handed o ut to them the guidelines for doing the project and the marking sheet, and we spent one lesson discussing these together If the students had any contribution or objection to make to the judging criteria, their views would be considered by the whole class and a decision would be made whether to accept the proposals or not, as well as how to adapt the criteria to suit the majority of the students During this phase, moreover, I made sure that each and every project student understood clearly what they would have to and the goals that they would need to reach (See appendix for the guidelines) Question 2: How does the portfolio project help students express themselves better in written and spoken English? Firstly, the ALP Project was able to improve the students’ self -expression by helping them see and fix their own expression problems This was done through class remedial sessions, the teacher’s on-going comments and suggestions for correction, peer reviews, the students’ reflection on their own works and self -correction (for example, they were encouraged to produce second drafts of writings to improve their quality) Secondly, the project helped by creating multiple chances for the students to practice written self-expression in the form of class note responses, assignment writings, essays, extension writing projects and reflections; spoken self -expression was practiced through class discussions and presentations Apart from creating ample occasions for expressive speaking and writing, the project also made sure that the students’ written tasks aided and bettered their performance in oral tasks The assignment writing that the students had to complete before each lesson, for instance, carefully prepared them in both idea and language for better-quality class discussions Thirdly, the project helped the students express themselves better in written and spoken English by encouraging them to learn from their mates’ strengths and weaknesses in self-expression through the pee r review task The students were required to read and review on two others’ essays In reflecting on their peers’ successful and unsuccessful attempts at self-expression, very probably they would also look back at their own attempts and reflect on their own problems in a more critical light than they would have normally done Thus, the students would definitely learn to improve their self -expression in both written and spoken English The project, moreover, helped the students build critical reading and cr itical thinking skills In order to write good responses to literary works, the students had to read the works more carefully, and to apply themselves more to the reading than they would have done without the need to expose themselves on it In a student’s words, “the first and foremost thing is that we learn the way to read and think critically ( ) Critical reading helps me discover the real value and beauty of the works ( ) We need to read the works at least three times to understand them thoroughly to the assignments.” [Phan Kim Chung] When the students critically read and reflected on literary works, they could, in the first place, actually learn from great literature the ways to express ideas and feelings successfully in English Obviously, liter ary works provide the brightest examples of inspiring expression of the Self, and when the students were deeply engaged in reading them, the subtle learning of self -expression surely took place, either consciously or intuitively, naturally In the second p lace, the critical mind awakened and trained through doing the project also made the students think twice before writing and speaking out their ideas Thus, they were able to express themselves better in written and spoken English Last but not least, during the project, the students were encouraged to express their own ideas and feelings, independent of the teacher’s opinions During the semester, I kept on telling my students that there were no right or wrong answers to literary issues and that all their personal views would be welcomed and dearly cherished, provided that they were convincingly supported and developed I also made the students see that the whole point of the project was to help them express themselves on literary subjects, so their own comments were much more valuable than the teacher’s words The students understood this very clearly, as one wrote in her reflection: “Our ideas are appreciated by the teacher, who always encourages us to think for ourselves.” [Pham Phuong Oanh] Because the students knew that their personal opinions and impressions would be highly appreciated, they were motivated to express themselves more frequently and find ways to it better Presented above are the five ways in which the portfolio project helps student s express themselves better in written and spoken English and which have been proven through the experimental students’ portfolio process I shall conclude the answer to research question two by quoting a student’s reflection upon the project: “Concerning the lesson assignments and essays, we should write them with our own words and feelings because this is not only always highly appreciated by the teacher but also helps us greatly develop critical thinking Last but not least, we should write careful peer reviews for our classmates in order to help them improve the final essay, and to learn from their weak and strong points.” [Le Thi Ngoc] Question 3: In what ways does the portfolio approach to teaching literature produce better learning processes and resul ts for students (than the traditional approach)? First of all, the ALP Project brought the students a lot of motivation, interest and inspiration to study literature In their reflections, most students wrote of their positive attitudes to the project, suc h as excitement, enthusiasm, great involvement, support, as well as feelings of gains These positive attitudes and feelings were undeniably one of the factors leading to a better learning process in the American Literature subject Compared with the control group, the experimental group appeared to have much higher motivation, which contributed to their much more meaningful class activities and home work Furthermore, the ALP Project is based on the student -centered approach to teaching literature In this approach, the students were trained to exercise greater initiative to think and feel for themselves, as well as to express their own thinking and feeling in English With teacher and peer help, the students had to find their own ways of self -expression, which undoubtedly led to more critical thinking and greater autonomy in learning than they would have had if literature understanding had been spoon -fed to them like in the traditional method Thus, by furthering the students’ autonomy and critical thinkin g, the portfolio approach was able to exploit their role as active learners, which brought about better learning processes and results than those produced by the traditional approach The ALP Project also led to better learning experiences for the student s in the sense that it provided frequent practice in critical reading and self -expression During the semester, the students were required to read and reflect on literary texts on a regular basis Meanwhile, the traditional approach of pure lecturing makes much less room for students’ practice in these areas, and students normally feel it would suffice to come to class with only a last-minute skimming of the text This general feeling seemed to be shared by the majority of the control group’s students, whos e only real practice with critical reading and self-expression was in getting through their class presentations and midterm test A student, in her reflection, wrote about her different experiences with the two approaches to teaching literature: “Last semester [when they studied English Literature in the traditional way], I just read works and understood their contents before taking the final exam In contrast, now, weekly I had to spend a lot of time reading and writing reflections This was really good be cause it helped me understand each work deeply.” [Truong Thi Thu Thuy] Finally, even though we have found little statistical evidence to prove that the portfolio approach to teaching literature produced significantly better test results than the traditional approach, we have a lot of qualitative evidence to prove the project students’ important progresses and achievements in self -expression and other skills In other words, while we have not been able to see a superior effect of the portfolio approach on th e students’ test scores, it evidently produced better learning processes and results for the students in terms of what they actually gained through doing the project: improved critical thinking and critical reading skills, better self -expression in written and spoken English, as well as greater autonomy in learning These results were convincingly proven through the students’ portfolio process By comparison, the gains of the control group’s students in these aspects were much more modest under the traditio nal approach, which was shown clearly through their class activities, presentations, and midterm writings In the case of our study, the students’ actual gains from the teaching approach can be considered to be more meaningful and revealing results than fo rmal test scores Reflecting on her own learning process and results under the ALP Project, a student wrote: “It [the project] was essential and useful for my study process First, it encouraged me to read all the works in the course book before class I s pent more time reading and thinking and then writing about many American authors and their works, so my reading and writing skills have been improved considerably This also helped me understand the teacher’s lectures more easily Moreover, through my preparation for our project, I gained a lot of knowledge, such as how to conduct a portfolio, how to take notes in class and how to write a literature essay with my own critical thinking Finally yet importantly, I think that doing this portfolio gave me a cha nce to actually learn and gradually prepare for my final examination All these things are very important to my learning process ( ) I myself think that it is a good idea to the literature portfolio project It not only helped me have improvements in this subject but also gave me many chances to learn and practice my other skills.” [Le Thi Phuong Thao] Hypothesis: Doing the literature portfolio helps students develop their abilities of self expression in written and spoken English and have higher resul ts in American Literature (than the traditional approach) The three research questions presented above are specifications of the research hypothesis, and in answering them, we were actually building up the answers to the hypothesis I therefore shall not repeat here what has just been presented, but only draw up a conclusive summary of the main points The first part of the hypothesis – doing the literature portfolio helps students develop their abilities of self-expression in written and spoken English – can be readily certified We can definitely conclude that doing the literature portfolio does help students develop their self-expression abilities in written and spoken English Both qualitative and quantitative evidence (i.e the students’ grade improvem ent, the gradual reduction in the number of major expression errors that they made, the students’ reflections on their works, the quality of class presentations and discussions) prove that the project can really bring about remarkable progresses and achiev ements in students’ written and spoken expression of themselves More specifically, this project is able to this by helping students see and fix their own expression problems, creating multiple chances for them to practice responding to literature, enco uraging students to learn from their peers’ strengths and weaknesses in self-expression, helping them build critical reading and thinking skills, and motivating them to find fresh ways to express themselves The second part of the hypothesis – doing the literature portfolio helps students have higher results in American Literature – implies a comparison between the portfolio approach and the traditional approach to teaching literature The anticipated superiority of the portfolio approach over the traditio nal one in terms of test score difference cannot be readily concluded under this study The large p -value of our independent samples T -test means that we have found little statistical evidence to prove a significantly higher result in terms of test scores However, the portfolio approach, embodied by the ALP Project, has been proven to produce remarkably higher results than the traditional approach in terms of the students’ actual gains from it: improved critical thinking and critical reading skills, better self-expression in written and spoken English, as well as greater autonomy in learning In view of the test scores, we should not forget the result of our Pearson product moment correlation test, which indicates a strong positive relationship between stud ents’ portfolio scores and formal test scores This suggests that if students’ portfolio quality could be improved, their test results would be higher, probably high enough to make a significant difference in scores from the traditional approach Despite t his anticipation, the present study can only partly prove the second proposition of the research hypothesis, and it is still open to further research to prove a significantly higher result in test scores that the portfolio approach to teaching literature c an produce 4.6.2 Conclusion To sum up, this section smoothly followed and developed from the data analysis It presented the findings of the study, which are actually the answers to the research questions and hypothesis In the inclusive conclusion for the whole study in the following chapter, we shall find some meaningful reflections on and expansions from the data analysis and findings CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIO N 5.1 Summary of the paper In summary, with the topic Raising students’ ability of self -expression in English by applying the portfolio approach to teaching American Literature at the College of Foreign Languages – an action study, this paper presented the process and results of a study that I conducted in 2006 -2007, with two groups of fourth -year students as my subjects After a general introduction of the backgrounds to the study in chapter 1, the paper proceeded to give a literature review on the concepts of portfolio assessment and self expression in chapter 2, which provided the theoretical ba ckgrounds for the research Chapter prepared readers for a fully informed journey through the study by disclosing the design of the American Literature Portfolio Project Chapter 4, with a thorough, painstaking presentation of the study itself, is by far the most important part of the paper After a specification of the context of the study came the research questions and hypothesis, followed by the data collection process, which focused on describing the subjects and sampling, the research method and pro cedure, as well as the detailed implementation of the ALP Project The data that had been collected through this process were then analyzed both statistically and interpretively More particularly, the hard data of post-test scores and portfolio scores wer e analyzed using statistical procedures (i.e the independent samples T -test and the Pearson product -moment correlation test), while the soft data obtained through the students’ portfolio process were largely analyzed interpretively The aim of these two a nalyses was to provide a fuller view of the portfolio approach to literature teaching, so that we could look at its effects from different angles Following the data analysis were the findings, which provided some of the answers to the research questions and hypothesis There is one unproven part to the hypothesis, however, that is still open to further research 5.2 Conclusions First of all, we must acknowledge that this study has provided some, but not all of the answers to the research questions and hy pothesis It has been able to answer that the ALP Project did raise the students’ ability of self -expression in English to a great extent Even though the superiority of the portfolio approach to teaching literature over the traditional one has been proven by the students’ learning processes and results, it has not been proven by formal test scores This failure to find statistical proof of a significant difference in test scores can be explained in eight possible ways: the actual similar effects of the two approaches on students’ abilities, the project students’ insufficient effort and autonomy, the shortage of time for the project implementation, the small sample size, the autonomous frequent practice of the control group’s students, the students’ score -oriented attitude to the exam, the slackened practice of the project students just before the exam, and the subjective nature of the literature test and the marking process Among these possible explanations, the most likely reason is that the post -test was also a real exam, which undoubtedly evoked a score -oriented attitude and fear of self -exposure among the students Regardless of what they had achieved from the project, most of them would feel that the most secure way to get high marks was to copy the tea chers’ words and ideas This common feeling was borne out by the fact that the majority of the students’ exam writings were very alike: they followed almost the same patterns in idea and expression Moreover, due to the subjective nature of the literature test and the marking process, the post -test results might not have been objective enough to allow fair judgment of the difference between the two groups These problems, however, could be solved by administering a separate post-test for the experiment to set it apart from real-exam pressure and psychology This would be an occasion on which students would feel secure and free to respond to literature in their own ways A separate post -test would also ensure a more consistent marking process whereby all the students’ writings would be marked by the same teacher(s) On the other hand, our achieved statistics show a significant positive correlation between portfolio scores and posttest scores, which strongly suggests that if students’ performance on their portf olios could be improved, their test scores would be raised as well Thus, instead of dismissing the portfolio approach as not score -effective, we should focus our effort on helping students conduct better portfolios Maybe then we would be able to find a significant difference in test scores Moreover, failure in this particular research in proving the superior effect of the portfolio approach on students’ test scores does not mean that it does not exist – perhaps it only needs further research to become ev ident The research cycle is by nature an on - going, continuous process, whereby each piece of research opens a path of continuation for future ones In this study, we have used the term portfolio approach to mean the ALP Project actually But maybe the ALP Project is not the perfect realization of the portfolio approach to literature teaching Hard as I tried to build and implement the project, I believe it still needs further construction and adaptation to the real teaching and learning context of foreign language colleges in Vietnam It is quite probable that with some future changes and adaptations, the project will be able to prove the full merits of the portfolio approach to teaching English and American Literatures The statistical comparison betwe en the new and the old approach is very important to the study, but only constitutes part of it Equally important is the project implementation itself, as well as its proven favorable effects on students’ self -expression ability Until the superiority of the portfolio approach over the traditional one has been statistically established, if ever at all, it is inspiring enough just to claim we have found an effective alternative to the method of pure lecturing After all, proving a new teaching method effective does not necessarily mean refuting an existing one All teaching methods have their own strengths and weaknesses, so a fair -and-square comparison, though highly desirable, is not always easy to reach or vital in deciding the worth of a study Thus, regardless of the extent to which the portfolio approach has been proven to be “better” than the traditional one, it suffices to say that this study simply found another good way to teach and learn literature, another good choice for teachers and students, or even a complementary activity to the existing method that would make it more productive This finding, together with the enlightening experimentation of a new method, rather than any comparison to its favor, is what makes the research worthwhile 5.3 Limitations of the study To start with, the number of subjects for the research was small (only 45 students from the English Department) This sample size might not have been large enough to produce a significant difference in the T -test Also, the generalization of our study results to a larger population would have been easier with more research subjects Moreover, the time spared for the ALP project implementation did not span the whole semester (only 13 weeks) Therefore, it is possible that the project students did not have enough time to complete their portfolios with the best quality Another limitation is that for the practicability of the experiment, there was no random assignment of the subjects to the experimental and control group Instead, two intact groups of roughly equal self -expression abilities were selected, which made the experiment only a quasi-experiment and not a real one During the experiment, it was also possible that I was not able to control all the factors that might interfere wi th the students’ learning processes and results, such as their amount of self-study, learning autonomy, and exam psychology Furthermore, for the convenience of research, the end -of-term American Literature test was used as the post-experiment test The real exam pressure, score-oriented psychology and marking process might have affected the results of the post -test This limitation could be solved in future experimentation by designing and administering a separate post-test with a focus on self-expression rather than scores The most obvious limitation of the study, above all, is that is failed to find statistical evidence to prove a significant difference in the scores of the two groups In other words, the study could not prove that the portfolio approac h to literature teaching produced significantly higher test scores than the traditional approach This task is therefore left for future research to complete 5.4 Relevance of the literature portfolio project to education Despite all the limitations of t his study, the literature portfolio is a worthwhile experience for both the learner and teacher of literature It turns the focus of teaching and learning from the teacher to the student, thus making the teaching approach student centered It makes students actively take charge of their learning with a lot of motivation and initiative; through doing the portfolio project, students also learn to think and express their own ideas, which is stimulating in itself Furthermore, students develop self -respect, self-confidence in expressing themselves and not merely repeating what the teacher says; they see clearly what they have learned and monitor their progress; they also develop a sense of achievements by looking at and thinking about all the works they have don e during just one semester More practically, the portfolio helps them revise and prepare for the end-of-term literature examination For the teacher, the literature portfolios give information about students’ levels of success in the subject, thus helping the teacher adjust his/her own teaching Obviously, the application of the literature portfolio has a lot of relevance to the teaching and learning of English and American literatures, and, hopefully, this kind of project would be adopted and adapted in s uitable teaching contexts 5.5 Recommendations for future application and adaptation of the literature portfolio First, teachers and students should work together to set a clear goal for the portfolio in terms of what skills or abilities they want to pra ctice and improve They can then adapt the portfolio components and criteria accordingly Second, teachers should find ways to harmoniously incorporate students’ portfolio process into their class routine, so that the portfolio project will not only aid cl ass instruction but also reveal to students its practical benefits for their study and exam preparation Third, in order to raise the portfolio quality, teachers should focus their effort on improving learners’ autonomy, and at the same time give frequent guidance and help, especially when their students ask for them Fourth, for those teachers and students who prefer group work, it is highly recommended that the portfolio project be conducted in small groups (of three students, for example) rather than individually However, group work will only be productive if teachers can find ways to ensure the grouped students’ equal shares of work and close collaboration Fifth, for busy teachers, it is not vital to grade students’ writings weekly They can this every fortnight or so On the other hand, it is advisable to engage students more frequently in evaluating and even grading their peers’ work Finally, teachers should, on the one hand, create multiple chances for students’ self reflection and improvement o f their own works; on the other hand, they should give class remedial sessions whenever possible as these are vital to students’ learning process and progress 5.6 Suggested paths for further research It is suggested that future research concerned with this topic continue experimenting the literature portfolio project, with an effort to repair the limitations of this study The goal to bear in mind should be to find statistical evidence to prove a significant difference in test scores that the portfolio approach makes from the traditional one Apart from experimentation, other approaches to researching this subject are also suggested, such as ethnographical research, survey, and case study The effects of the literature portfolio project on students’ se lf-expression ability can be proven using these research methods, without the need for a formal experiment This study is only concerned with raising students’ self -expression ability using the literature portfolio, but researchers interested in finding wa ys to improve other English skills or abilities will probably find this project useful as well Thus, the potential strengths of the literature portfolio can open up many paths for further research REFERENCES Vietnamese authors: Phung Thi Kim Dung (2004), A study on teachers’ written feedback on the writings by the second-year students at the English Department, College of Foreign Languages, VNU-Hanoi (MA thesis), College of Foreign Languages, VNU, Hanoi Nguyen Thuy Huong et al (2001), American Literature, a course book, College of Foreign Languages, Vietnam National University, Hanoi Foreign authors: Abruscato J (1993), “Early results and tentative implications from the Vermont portfolio project”, Phi Delta Kappan 74, pp 474-477 Allen S (1987), Writing to Learn in English: A Synthesis of Research and Instructional Practices, Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC), USA Retrieved from ERIC website http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b /80/13/21/41.pdf Allington, R L., Cunningham P M (1996), Schools that Work Where All Children Read and Write, HarperCollins College Publishers, New York Barnet S et al (1984), Literature for Composition, Little, Brown & Company, Boston Brandt R (1992), “On performance assessment: A conversation with Grant Wiggins”, Education Leadership 49, pp 35-37 Brumfit C J., Carter R A (1986), Literature and Language Teaching, O.U.P., London Bryndal M (2007), “Dogme ELT”, from website http://www.developingteachers.com/articles_tchtraining/dogme2_malgorzata.ht m 10 Campbell D., Stanley J (1963), “Experimental and quasi 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activities: Portfolio conferences”, Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy 40, pp 348-360 Websites: 50 IRI/Skylight Publications on http://www.ed.gov/pubs/OR/consumerGuides/classure.html 51 Loras College website http://depts.loras.edu/eng/student_handout html 52 West Chester University of Pennsylvania website http://www.wcupa.edu/_ACADEMICS/sch_cas.eng/baport.htm 53 http://www.answers.com 54 http://www.socialresearchmethods.net 55 http://www.teachervision.fen.com/teaching -methods-and-management/experimentaleducation/4528.html?page=2 56 http://www.thefreedictionary.com/self -expression 57 http://www.wikipedia.org ... and which students are free to choose from (see appendix 8) Then, they have to explore deeply into one aspect of the text of their choice; for instance, they can choose to analyze and discuss... only chose to investigate the application of the portfolio approach to the teaching of American literature, after students had finished one semester of English literature The reason why I chose... These two groups were chosen from five groups which were randomly selected from the 18 non fast-track fourth-year groups of the English Department in 2006 These two groups were chosen on the basis