VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES LÊ THỊ BÍCH LIÊN USING READING PORTFOLIOS AS AN ASSESSMENT AND L
INTRODUCTION
Rationale of the study
Not only recently, teacher and learners in advanced education have complained about serious shortcomings of traditional learning and testing, in which learning is only conceived as the accumulation of stimulus-response association Moreover, most testing systems used in Vietnamese universities consist of only written tests, and mainly focus on checking students‟ memorization of rules or concrete items of knowledge rather than assessing their effort, real understanding or ability to apply knowledge in real situations Meanwhile, the modern society and the labour market are requiring graduates to acquire higher-order cognitive skills such as problem solving, critical thinking, analyzing data, and being able to present facts and opinions orally or in written form (Dochy,2001; as cited in Birgin & Bakin, 2007) Those are particular skills that help employees fulfill their increasingly demanding jobs in a competitive environment In short, there seems to be a gap between what the society requires and what the educational system offers
To bridge the gap mentioned above, it is necessary for university education to provide learners with realistic knowledge and practical skills Furthermore, assessment is required to measure both on–going efforts and learning outcomes More importantly, training students to be active and independent learners should be the ultimate educational aim In order to do so, the only way is letting students take responsibility for their own learning, design their own learning plan, seek out additional learning materials, assess their own progress, and cooperate with others in learning In this regard, portfolio is claimed to be a teaching and learning tool that creates such activeness and autonomy in learners
In the world, various kinds of portfolio have been used since early of 1990s in teaching foreign languages and have shown promising results In Vietnam, portfolio has gradually become a favourable teaching tool at many universities as it combines both instruction and assessment Moreover, portfolio focuses on various language and learning skill not just concrete language items However, this tool has been mainly applied to English major students as it requires much time, effort and higher- order cognitive skills
For the above-mentioned reasons, the researcher would like to carry out the following research: “ Using reading portfolios as an assessment and learning activity to develop learners’ autonomy of freshmen in a college in Hanoi ”.
Objectives of the study
This study aims at investigating the implementation of reading portfolio and examining its effects on developing learners‟ autonomy of English-major freshmen in a college in Hanoi It is hoped to build up a feasible portfolio model and offer suggestions for teaching and learning English language Specifically, answers to the following research questions are sought:
1 What are the effects of reading portfolio on improving learners‟ autonomy?
2 What problems may emerge in the implementation process?
3 What are possible adjustments to tailor the common reading portfolio design and make it more suitable to English major freshmen?
Scope of the study
Portfolio, especially reading portfolio, can be used for various reasons- assessing learners‟ performance, teaching concrete language item, or assisting learners in improving their autonomy Within the scope of this study, reading portfolio is manipulated mainly as teaching and assessment tool to help students build up and enhance their awareness of developing learners‟ autonomy in university education
As mentioned above, it has become common to apply reading portfolios to students of English major freshmen Consequently, the study selects a class of 30 English-major freshmen in Ha Tay teacher training college as the tentative subjects to examine the effectiveness of applying reading portfolio as a learning and assessment tool to develop the learners‟ autonomy They can be altered to match specific teaching and learning conditions Selection of those adjustments is decided according to pedagogical theories of specialists and teaching experience of the writer of this thesis.
Methods of the study
The study is carried out in form of an action research, conducted by the writer herself as a practitioner in EFL teaching and concurrent with the teaching and learning process Both quantitative and qualitative data are collected in order to get a full view of the effects that the designed reading portfolio brings to learners‟ autonomy
To collect desired data, two research instruments are made use of, namely survey questionnaire and portfolio analysis As for the first instrument, there are three questionnaires- the pre-portfolio questionnaire and two its post- portfolio versions They were conducted to gather information to answer three research questions In addition, teacher‟s notes and informal talks between learners and the teacher- mostly occurring during break time – are used to obtain detailed information about students‟ feedback and suggestions However, these data, merely students‟ opinions in students‟ reflections; thus, are quite subjective Accordingly, to improve the validity of research results, submitted reading portfolios are analyzed from a pedagogical standpoint to reveal their effectiveness on developing learners‟ autonomy.
Design of the thesis
The study consists of three parts:
This part introduces the objectives, scope, and organization of the study
This is the main part of the study It is divided into four chapters
Theoretical background relevant to the topic and critical survey of related articles, books and other resources are presented
This chapter presents the detailed procedure of the study: the ESP course, population selection, and methodology for data collection and data analysis
This chapter deals with the findings drawn out from the analysis of the data The information gained through the three questionnaires, students‟ reflections as well as the students‟ reading portfolios
Chapter 4: Major findings and suggestions for using reading portfolios
This chapter shows some major findings which lead to some suggestions for using reading portfolios
This chapter summarizes the main points discussed in the paper and some limitations of the study Besides, implication for English teacher and recommendations for further research are presented
LIST OF FIGURES, TABLES AND CHARTS
Table 1: The impact of teacher‟s immediate feedback
Table 2: Students‟ views on their self-assessment skills
Table 3: The role of reading portfolio as a learning and assessment Table 4: The role of reading portfolio in promoting the learners‟ autonomy
Chart 1 The students‟ motivation in studying English
Chart 2 The student‟s frequency of reading English
Chart 3 The students‟ self-studying materials in the reading skill
Chart 4 Reasons for difficulty in reading English texts
Chart 5 The students‟ knowledge of reading portfolios
Chart 6 Students‟ awareness of the importance of reading portfolios Chart 7 Students‟ general assessment of the reading portfolio contents Chart 8 Students‟ preferences for the benefits of reading portfolios in learners‟ autonomy
Chart 9 Students‟ most gained knowledge through reading portfolios Chart 10 Students‟ preferences for task requirements on the reading portfolios
Chart 11 Students' preferences for contents of the reading portfolios Chart 12 Students‟ difficulties in implementing the reading portfolio Chart 13 Students‟ suggestions to improve the reading portfolio contents
DEVELOPMENT
LITERATURE REVIEW
As the study is centered on the effectiveness of using reading portfolio as assessment and learning tool to develop learners‟ autonomy of English major freshmen, three key terms are clearly defined, namely assessment, learners‟ autonomy and reading portfolio This chapter is entirely distributed to review relating theories and practical studies so that these terms are understood precisely and applied successfully to major English learners
1.1.1 Definitions of the concept of assessment
A number of specialized books, journals, seminal articles, conference papers, currently defended theses and dissertations were scrutinized in an attempt to find a comprehensive definition of the concept of assessment These references and other day- to- day classroom practices exhibit a number of functions, forms, tools and techniques available to the teacher, as well as numerous terms, phrases, concepts and descriptions of assessment To demystify these concepts and other pertinent concepts and issues previously mentioned in this section, a brief overview of these concepts is presented below
To begin with, terms like evaluation, measurement and testing have been closely associated with and related to assessment They are even sometimes used interchangeably as means used to gather information on student learning According to Mundrake (2000), “Assessment, testing, and evaluation are terms used to describe the outcomes of the educational process” (p.45) Mundrake (2000) further notes “Assessment is the term currently used to describe all aspects of evaluation and testing” (p.45)
According to Bachman (2004), “The term “assessment” is commonly used with a variety of different meanings Indeed, the term has come to be used so widely in many different ways in the field of language testing and educational measurement that there seems to be no consensus on what precisely it means” (p.6) Brown (2004) defined assessment as “any act of interpreting information about student performance, collected through any of a multitude of a means or practices” (p.304)
Furthermore, a number of other terms are frequently used more or less synonymously to refer to assessment Assessment is operationally defined as a part of the educational process where instructors appraise students achievements by collecting, measuring, analyzing, synthesizing and interpreting relevant information about a particular object of interest in their performance under controlled conditions in relation to the curricula objectives set for their level
Kratochvilova (2011) defines 4 main and basic functions of assessment
Kolar and Sikulova (2009) have however added several other functions
Good self- assessment should be characterized by four attributes It should be authentical, factual, should be higher informational value and should be motivational for pupils, however, it should be also mistake – oriented at the same time
The concept of learner autonomy emphasizes the role of the learner rather than the role of the teacher It focuses on the process rather than the product and encourages learners to develop their own purposes for learning and to see learning as a lifelong process (Jacobs and Farrell, 2001) Teachers are expected to create environment where learners learn in their own way and hold responsible for their own learning through decision making about their own learning This idea first came into language teaching in the late 1960s and the early autonomous language learning projects were carried within the council of Europe‟s Modern Languages Project in the 1970s
Holec 1(1981: 3) defined learner autonomy as the “ability to take charge of one‟s own learning This ability is not inborn but must be acquired either by „natural‟ means or (as most often happens) by formal learning To take charge of one‟s learning is to have the responsibility for all the decisions concerning all aspects of learning such as determining object, defining the contents, the progression, selecting method and techniques to be used, monitoring the procedure of acquisition, and evaluating what has been acquired
It is not a simple way to see autonomous learners as the students who have responsibility for their own learning since many aspects should be taken into account of autonomous learning for instance it is a capacity or behavior, it is characterized by learners responsibility or learner control
There are some variations on the definition of learner autonomy For instance autonomy is the „capacity‟ (Little, 1991), and the „ability‟ or „skill (Holec, 1981)‟
Benson (2001: 49) argues that „Little‟s definition is complementary to Holec‟s‟, it makes explicit the cognitive processes underlying effective self- management of learning Benson (2001: 47) prefers to use the term „control‟ over learning, because such a construct allows for easier investigation than
„charge‟ or „responsibility‟ Others define autonomy in terms of what it entails or implies, „self-regulation‟ (Schunk & Zimmerman, 1998; Wenden, 2001) or
„self-direction‟ (Candy, 1991; White, 1999) In language teaching and learning, Little (2007) gave three basic pedagogical principles that characterized autonomous learners (a.) Learner involvement – engaging learners to share responsibility for the learning process (the affective and the metacognitive dimensions); (b.) Learner reflection – helping learners to think critically when they plan, monitor and evaluate their learning (the metacognitive dimensions); (c.) Appropriate target language use – using the target language as the principal medium of language learning (the communicative and the metacognitive dimensions)
1.2.2 The roles of learners’ autonomy
The autonomy of learners is considered as an important factor in making progress in learning According to Bonnet & Cuypers (2003, 2006), the learner‟s own thinking has to be respected in educational context
Specially, Jiao (2005: 28) gives four substantial reasons in support of learner autonomy for English learning:
(i) It enhances the learner‟s motivation and leads to more effective learning;
(ii) It provides learners with more opportunities for English communication in a non-native environment;
(iii) It caters to the individual needs of learners at all levels; and
(iv) It has a lasting influence
Thanasoulas (2000) points out that: “If learners labor under the misconception that learning is successful only within the context of the “ traditional classroom”, where the teacher directs, instructs, and manages the learning activity, and students must follow in the teacher‟s footsteps, they are likely to be impervious or resistant to learner-centered strategies aiming at autonomy, and success is likely to be undermined” (Thanasoulas,2000:9)
Strongly believing in the importance of learners‟ autonomy in learning, Austin (2006) emphasizes:,
“There is no magic solution and encouraging learner autonomy takes time and a lot of patience on the part of the teacher as well as the learner In some cases it seems almost impossible to achieve and can leave both parties confused and frustrated However, as professionals it is our duty to remember that no matter how tempting it is to revert to spoon course in a manner that gives our learners every opportunity of developing their independence to the greatest extent possible.” (p.186 )
The earliest definition may belong to Paulson, Paulson and Meyer
“A portfolio is 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 self- reflection.”
METHODOLOGY
In this chapter, methodology applied to conduct the research is to be clarified Most important is information about the course in which the study was carried out, the participants, and adjustments made to tailor a suitable reading portfolio for those participants Data collection and data analysis instruments are also presented
This study was conducted from December 2017 to June 2018 in a class at a college in Hanoi Thirty students with only two male students, aged from
19 to 34, participated in the study They mainly came from the countryside In general, they had learnt English for over 7 years However, their proficiency is not high as revealed in their low entrance examination results, and their learning style is quite passive In addition, they hardly acquired any effective skills in reading, especially with long and complicated texts As a result, they were almost beginners in reading comprehension when entering the college
After a semester studying at this college, their language skills regarding listening, speaking, reading and writing had improved gradually In terms of reading skills, the students, after the first semester, had been accustomed to basic reading skills like reading for main ideas, reading for specific information, recognizing the reading structure and summarizing and had chances to practice on these skills
Besides, the researcher plays the role of the teacher in this study She is qualified to be an English teacher and has four year experience in English language teaching
To understand the participants‟ background on English learning, it is necessary to describe briefly the time allocated for this language in my college in general and the specific course within which the study was conducted in particular
At the time of conducting the research, the students had just finished the first semester and were entering the second semester The teaching of reading to the freshmen at the second semester had to meet basic requirements defined in the syllabus One major objective of reading program for students was that after the 15 week semester, their level of proficiency was at PET (Preliminary English Test) PET is one of five “Main Suite” examinations offered by Cambridge ESOL The level of PET is described as low- intermediate and is at B1 in the Common European Framework of Reference
In the reading syllabus for freshmen, students had a weekly 90 minutes lesson in 15 weeks This means that they would have about 22.5 hours of reading in the class, which is not sufficient for students to reach the targeted level of PET To enhance their reading proficiency as well as their reading comprehension ability, students need to do various extensive reading besides classroom activities Therefore, it required a supplementary program to facilitate and motivate student‟s reading
The main course book for first year English major student at my college is Active skill for reading Book 1 and 2 Its objective is to build and develop reading skills for learners Active skill for reading Book 1 is used for students in the first semester and Active skill for reading Book 2 is used in the second first semester
Active skill for reading Book 1 consists of the first thirteen units which introduce basic reading skills such as Predicting the text, Reading for main ideas, Recognizing titles and paragraph topics, Recognizing reading structure, Understanding explicit stated information and Reading Comprehension In this section, the reading texts are familiar topics such as student life, food, inventions, money, language and communication, festivals and celebration, human achievements, Olympics Its objective is to help students to practice the reading skills they have learned and provides them with plenty of useful information in order to enhance students‟ linguistic competence and background knowledge
Active skill for reading Book 2 includes thirteen units The objective of this book is to deepen students‟ reading skills already acquired in the first semester In addition, two more advanced reading skills are introduced and practiced The language of reading texts in this section is more complicated The comprehension questions after each text not only check students‟ understanding of the text but also provide them with background knowledge about the world and complex language structures and vocabulary
Among the reading skills which are targeted at in the Active skill for reading Book 1 course book, five skills were sorted out as targeted skills in this paper They are:
Five skills were chosen as main skills in the course for three reasons First, they are among the most common reading skills Second, from the researcher‟s experience these skills, especially understanding vocabulary from the context and making inference are perceived as difficult to students The last reason is that they are skills that readers “typically need to develop” (Alderson, 2000, p.1)
2.3 Using reading portfolios as assessment tool in the college
In this study, the teacher established the reading portfolio assessment procedures that was adapted from the frameworks of Johnson, Mins-Cox, and Doyle- Nichols (2009) and Delett, Barnardt and Kevorkian (2001) These procedures were presented step by step below
Step 1: Planning the reading portfolio
This is the initial and crucial step because it affects the success of the reading portfolio project There were four sub-steps in planning reading portfolio assessment: setting purpose, specifying the content of the reading portfolio, establishing criteria for assessment and planning classroom procedures
The first sub-step was setting purpose (See Appendix 1) This project was designed to help students develop five targeted reading skills, which were reading for main ideas, reading for specific information, summarizing, understanding vocabulary from the context and making inferences Besides, the self- assessment skills, self- study and active learning of students were encouraged Through finding materials, the ability of material searching skills was expected to develop well
The second step was determining the reading portfolio content (See Appendix 1) In this step, what to put in the portfolio and how to organize the information were decided The reading portfolio contents included five entries of targeted reading skills in the second semester Normally, each portfolio entry had to contain:
(i) One sample of text chosen by students
(ii) Lists of new-words and idioms, phrase verbs that found out by students
(iv) Teacher‟s assessment and feedback
A students‟ final feedback indicating their reactions towards the whole reading portfolio project and advantages and disadvantages of reading portfolio assessment was attached in the final students‟ reflection
Step 2: Introducing the reading portfolio to the learners
DATA ANALYSIS
In this part, the researcher will present the treatment of all data collected from the survey questionnaires conducted on 30 English major freshmen at a college as well as the final feedback reflections in the last time of project
3.1 Data analysis of the students’ survey questionnaire before the reading portfolio process
As mentioned previously, the pre-portfolio questionnaire aims at identifying the participants‟ background as well as their needs and wants Such information was used as criteria to compare the portfolio itself and the participants‟ improvement in reading From that, the conclusion about appropriateness and effectiveness of the reading portfolio can be made
Among interesting facts about thirty participants identified through this questionnaire, the most prominent ones can be described as follows:
3.1.1 Students’ motivation in studying English
In terms of awareness, the majority of the students (90%) emphasized that English was very important to them Besides, almost all of them, except for two students, have clear learning targets, ranging from short-term such as to pass the final exam to long term such as to prepare for future jobs, from theoretical such as to widen knowledge to practical such as to get a good job Such positive attitude can be an advantage to the teaching and learning process as learners tend to try harder when they are well aware of the subject‟s importance and have definite learning objectives However, the learners did not perceive due importance of reading skill in particular when the most common order of increasing importance is speaking- listening- reading- writing Surprisingly, this perception differs from linguist‟s emphasis that reading is the most important skill to English majors Nevertheless, most students acknowledge that reading is not an easy skill In fact, 26% think that reading is very difficult, while nearly three fourths claimed that the skill is difficult Thus, it is necessary for the teacher to raise the students‟ awareness of the important role of reading skill and guide them to read effectively
Chart 1 The students’ motivation in studying English
The students take notice of the importance of the studying English and it is shown apparently in chart 1 that 100% of students under investigation agree that the purpose of studying English is to make a successful communication and get high salary jobs in the future Getting high score in the subjects is also another purpose to work on learning English with 60% of the students Ten out of thirty students (30%) state that they study English to satisfy their hobby From the chart, it is presented that most of the student may not be actively responsible for their own learning, which urgently requires teachers‟ effort to reform the teaching methods
About their background in English learning, 92% of all participants have learned English for years as a compulsory subject at school Thus, they are supposed to accumulate not a modest amount of English vocabulary and structure Besides, as far as the teacher knows, reading is the main skill trained at secondary and high school Accordingly, the participants‟ reading skill cannot be too bad
Besides, an interesting fact was revealed that not a small number of participants (42%) put extra time, effort and also money in extra classes for improving their English proficiency However, those classes may focus on roughly grammar not skills Accordingly, only 28% said reading skill was included in those extra courses To make the matter worse, most students do not spend much time reading English texts Nearly three fourths show low frequency in English reading The chart below will illustrate that fact in details:
Chart 2 The student’s frequency of reading English
To improve reading ability, some participants share that they have been working hard on it outside class because of the short time limit of reading lessons each week As can be seen from the chart, 10% of the subjects admit they read English materials very often and six out of thirty students state that they often practice the reading skill at home A great population of students (63%) claims that they rarely practice reading English texts after class Meanwhile, it is noticeable concerned that 7% of the students do nothing to improve their reading ability Teachers may wish to employ more appropriate teaching methods and encourage students‟ self- learning
Chart 3 The students’ self-studying materials in the reading skill
It is apparently shown in the chart that most of the students practice the reading skill throughout their course books To some extent, it is a duty, not extra effort in learning Another common kind of texts is those for entertainment accessed through the Internet such as pieces of advertisements, chat texts (50%) Not many students read new articles in English – only 4 in
30 students It is noticeable that only a negligible number of students ( 3 students, equivalent to 10%) read English books on a specific subjects Difficulty of the content and interest may be two main factors affecting students‟ selection of texts to read The habit of reading frequently and selecting mostly easy texts for entertainment as such may result in negative consequences including slow reading speed, limited vocabulary, etc Accordingly, it is understandable that reading was claimed to be difficult by most participants
Chart 4 Reasons for difficulty in reading English texts
The chart presents difficulties in reading English texts of the participants There are both subjective and objective ones Two main reasons are that there are too many new words, phrases and idioms in reading texts (80%) and learners have no appropriate reading strategy (75%) The first reason is actually predictable as having many terminologies is a mentioned feature of academic texts Besides, freshmen English major have not been trained properly; thus, the fact that they do not know how to deal with difficult reading text is unavoidable Difficult content (50 %) or boring topics (35%) and slow reading speed (40%) are also other major reasons
3.1.3 Students’ knowledge of reading portfolios
Chart 5 The students’ knowledge of reading portfolios
When being asked about reading portfolios, 19 in 30 students, which account 63.3% in total, confirm that they know nothing about it 36.7% state that they have ever heard of the term “portfolio” and applied it in writing skill before However, no-one cannot give a thorough explanation of a reading portfolio In other words, the students confuse if portfolios in reading and writing are the same
In conclusion, the participant‟s background shows that both chances and challenges mainly exist when the reading portfolio is applied It can be advantageous when most of the participants have learned English for not a short time They are also thoroughly aware of the importance of this foreign language, and have clear learning purposes However, reading skill- a difficult skill to themselves- is not paid due attention and adequate practice The direct consequences are limited vocabulary and lack of good reading strategies Hence, the assumed tasks of the teacher through the reading portfolio are emphasizing the role of reading skills so that the learner can gain widely their words and also improve reading speed effectively Moreover, the participants have quite vague understanding of portfolio as a teaching and learning tool, so the teacher is required to introduce and guide them carefully on how to compose a reading portfolio With these inexperienced reading portfolio composers, a collection combined with simple reflection tasks seems to be the best choice
3.2 Data analysis of the students’ survey questionnaire after the reading portfolio process
3.2.1 Students’ attitudes towards the reading portfolios
As can be seen from chart 6, half of the subjects (50%) are conscious of the importance of reading portfolios in their language proficiency as well as to their autonomy Especially, 23% of the participants believe in the very important role of reading portfolios because it helps continue their life-long learning process Meanwhile, an amount of participants do not highly appreciate the role of portfolios in enhancing reading ability They may find it not interesting and suitable enough for their preferences and language needs
Chart 6 Students’ awareness of the importance of reading portfolios
Chart 7 Students’ general assessment of the reading portfolio contents
According to chart 7, it is clearly seen that most students, which account for 40% and 17%, find the reading portfolio contents useful and interesting, respectively Indeed, the students state that they are able to enrich the background knowledge, improve the reading skill, and enlarge their source of vocabulary and grammar structures However, 37% of the participants say that the contents of reading portfolios are difficult because of new vocabulary, phrases and idioms… Only 3% say that the reading portfolio tasks are easy for them The rest of the students ( 3%) claim that they feel boring about the portfolio contents
Chart 8 Students’ preferences for the benefits of reading portfolios in learners’ autonomy
Chart 8 illustrates students‟ preferences for the advantages reading portfolios bring to their autonomy It is clearly seen from the chart above that the biggest proportion of the participants, which accounts 87%, believe implementing the portfolios help them build the habit of practicing reading frequently Specifically, most of them share that they often spend appropriate time doing reading articles, newspapers, story, novel, etc at least twice a week They also suggest their teacher to provide them with more useful and reliable source of materials; therefore, they are able to keep practicing at home More than two third of the informants agree that improving autonomy in learning English is another benefit of the application of portfolios The majority of the students (75%) state that they are also able to apply reading portfolios in developing other language skills like writing, speaking and listening It is considered as an assessment tool for learners‟ effort in learning and a half of the participants (50%) show the interest and curiosity in this a new assessment tool Indeed, all of the reading contents are related to the topics in students‟ course book Hence, with the language inputs provided by teacher in advance, students have the opportunity to test their outcomes Additionally, a large quantity of them (33,4%) confirms that doing the reading portfolios enhances their approach to a new teaching and learning method that make them to feel interesting, flexible in learning
Chart 9 Students’ most gained knowledge through reading portfolios
MAJOR FINDINGS AND SUGGESTIONS
This chapter gives the findings of the study and pedagogical suggestions for both teacher and students to apply reading portfolio in learning and teaching
In the light of the above data analysis, the findings of the study aiming at giving to the research questions can be drawn out as follows:
4.1.1 Students’ previous motivation and learning experiences in learning as well as in the use of reading portfolios
The questionnaire results demonstrated that most of the students were quite inactive in their learning They did not have the habit of practice reading English outside the class They just read and do the tasks in course book that teacher requires them in the class In addition, the purposes of their study are mainly for the sake of getting good future job, satisfying the school requirements instead of interests Because students did not learn actively, a great number of them knew nothing about reading portfolios as well as their use Actually, the reading activities in the class were not much of use and unable to create favorable conditions for students‟ interest motivation and autonomy development
4.1.2 Students’ attitudes towards the effects of the reading portfolio activity
At first, the students did not know what the portfolio was about and how to use it Nevertheless, after compiling the reading portfolio, the students began to enjoy this activity Although some of them complained that they had to spend a lot of time making the reading portfolio It seems that this is the disadvantages of reading portfolio In general, the students have a clear concept about how to compile the portfolio Especially, almost of the students have positive attitude towards the portfolio reading activity because of numerous benefits of which it has brought to them
Firstly, the reading portfolio enhances students‟ awareness of self- study The students take more responsibility for their learning process They think that portfolios will help them keep the habit of reading English regularly Every day, they will read a piece of news or story, etc and then they will list new words, phrases, idioms and write down the short summary about that news or story Needless to say, reading portfolios are a great usefulness for home-learning and self- study activities It seems that without reading portfolios, the students have little chance to have access to different sources of reading material It is the reading portfolios that help students increase their willingness to learn more actively
Secondly, thanks to the reading portfolios, the students‟ reading skill has been improved The reason behind this improvement might be the frequent practice in reading from different sources Initially, the students had to read numerous reading texts or articles and then they choose the most suitable texts according to the given topics They also meet new words, phrases or idioms in the various texts to broader their glossary and vocabulary
Thirdly, the reading portfolios can give the students much learning freedom as they can work with their own interest and ability Furthermore, making the reading portfolio can help students to monitor their learning goals
4.1.3 Students’ difficulties in implementing the reading portfolios
The new reading activity points out several weaknesses For instance, some students believe that making the reading portfolio is time- consuming The students had to collect reading texts which were the most suitable to the given topics They also had to read and find out new words, phrases, idioms, then guess their meanings Moreover, a few students thought that finding materials for the reading portfolio was sometimes a real challenge Other students supposed that making the portfolio was costly because of extra materials Another exclaims that writing short summaries for text is quite difficult to them
4.1.4 Students’ suggestions to improve the self- learning portfolio
The subjects confirmed that designing more suitable reading portfolio contents with varieties of requirement topics and tasks might improve the quality of the self- learning portfolio Actually, the students would be attracted if the topics of portfolio were interesting and updating Other factors which influence the improvement of the self-study portfolio are that teachers should provide clear guidelines for implementing portfolios Besides, a few students agree that it is advisable that teachers provide them with more useful website, or reliable resources The final suggestion is that the teacher should make the students more aware of the importance of self-study
4.2 Suggestions for applying the reading portfolio
Based on the foregoing findings from the research on the reading portfolio to develop the learners‟ autonomy, some suggestions are put forward for the teachers and students as follows:
The fact shows that it is essential for the teachers to introduce to the class the idea, objectives, plans, contents and assessment criteria If possible, a sample portfolio should be introduced at the beginning of the course This step is extremely important as poor performance in some portfolios can be found due to the misunderstanding of the plan and content of reading portfolios Besides, the contents applied by the teacher in the reading portfolio should be purposeful, meaningful, and suitable to students‟ interest and levels of language proficiency In order to design such contents, it is advisable for the teachers to have a discussion with the students about the suitable reading portfolio contents
Under the light of the analysis of the present data, it is clear that the subjects of this study are aware of the advantages and benefits of portfolio assessment in their language classes; however, they find it time- consuming and costly Therefore, before the portfolio process, the teacher should help the students to formulate a sound plan to make the portfolio Actually, compiling the reading portfolio is not time- consuming if the students are provided necessary information of ways to make it effectively When the students are familiar with making the reading portfolio, they will spend less time compiling it Moreover, the teacher can require students to work in groups of four or five and exchange another to check and design their own reading exercises in their groups Group members will share the work with one another It cannot be denied that it costs the students an amount of money to implement the portfolio because they have to print plenty of extra materials to submit to the teachers Therefore, the teachers can require groups to send their reading portfolios by email Using the internet in the library is free for the students It is also the most convenient and fastest way to exchange their reading portfolios
In addition, it is necessary for the teachers to raise the students‟ awareness of the importance of self- studying From the findings mentioned above, most students are passive learners waiting for their teachers to assign them the tasks and explain everything to thing Thus, the students should be told that they are the most crucial factor for their success, not the teachers or someone else
Next, the teacher should take into account such things as the students‟ feelings, motivation as well as attitudes towards the use of portfolios reading activity The teachers should help the students to recognize the importance to improve their reading skill
The data also shows that some of the students feel that the concept of reading portfolio is quite new and difficult to understand They think that finding materials for the portfolio is challenging Therefore, it is recommended that the teachers play a role as a guide, a facilitator who understands students‟ needs and wants Recommending useful websites and sources will help the students to find materials for the reading portfolio much easier and more effectively
In terms of evaluation, it is advisable that the teachers provide feedback on the portfolio that is more than just a grade If possible, the teachers write a letter about the portfolio, which details strengths and weaknesses and generates a profile of students‟ ability Consequently, the students will have the faith what they are doing and continue to make the reading portfolio in the future
To ensure the success of the project, it is recommended that the students participate in making the portfolio actively Certainly, it takes time and great effort to overcome obstacles to complete the reading portfolio Therefore, active participation is needed
What‟s more, the students should self- study and self- discover to widen their knowledge because the project is conducted successfully only when the students obtain certain language competence
Finally, most of the work is done outside the class, so it is likely that some students could ask more competent students for help
In short, the chapter has discussed the crucial parts of the study- the main findings and suggestions for applying the reading portfolios for students‟ self-study to the context of Foreign Language Department, Ha Tay Teacher Training College.
CONCLUSION
Summary of the study
As for the merits of the study, the findings reveal that reading portfolios can benefit students‟ reading skill development as well as the learners‟ autonomy
These benefits can be summarized as follows:
● Reading portfolios could promote learner autonomy both inside and outside the class Therefore, portfolios help students take more responsibility during the learning process
● Reading portfolios motivate students to learn reading skill Many subjects believe that their reading skill has been improved after making portfolios Hence, they have a positive attitude towards portfolio activity and reading skill
● Reading portfolios can improve learner- teacher interaction through selection and review of portfolio contents
● Reading portfolio making gives students a right to control the selection of the contents of portfolios Students can select and justify portfolio choices, monitor progress and set learning goals
● Reading portfolios also develop the ability of time management and dealing with deadlines
Nevertheless, applying reading portfolios in teaching and learning as a learning tool and an assessment tool has some weaknesses:
● Making reading portfolios is time- consuming because students have to collect reading texts which are the most suitable to the given topics
● Compiling portfolios cost students a lot because extra materials are involved
● Sometimes, students feel difficult to find materials for portfolios because of the lack of sources.
Limitations of the study
The study would be more objective and more reliable if:
- The number of students taking part in the study was much larger
- The researcher was much better at academic language proficiency and had more experience in implementing the study
- The researcher had more time to measure the effects of the reading portfolio by testing subjects
Despite such limitations, the researcher strongly believes that this study is successful to some extent It really provides some helpful recommendations as new teaching and learning approach and an effective assessment tool to improve the learners‟ autonomy for English major freshmen in a college though this is just a small- scale on the issue.
The students‟ motivation in studying English
The students take notice of the importance of the studying English and it is shown apparently in chart 1 that 100% of students under investigation agree that the purpose of studying English is to make a successful communication and get high salary jobs in the future Getting high score in the subjects is also another purpose to work on learning English with 60% of the students Ten out of thirty students (30%) state that they study English to satisfy their hobby From the chart, it is presented that most of the student may not be actively responsible for their own learning, which urgently requires teachers‟ effort to reform the teaching methods
About their background in English learning, 92% of all participants have learned English for years as a compulsory subject at school Thus, they are supposed to accumulate not a modest amount of English vocabulary and structure Besides, as far as the teacher knows, reading is the main skill trained at secondary and high school Accordingly, the participants‟ reading skill cannot be too bad
Besides, an interesting fact was revealed that not a small number of participants (42%) put extra time, effort and also money in extra classes for improving their English proficiency However, those classes may focus on roughly grammar not skills Accordingly, only 28% said reading skill was included in those extra courses To make the matter worse, most students do not spend much time reading English texts Nearly three fourths show low frequency in English reading The chart below will illustrate that fact in details:
The student‟s frequency of reading English
To improve reading ability, some participants share that they have been working hard on it outside class because of the short time limit of reading lessons each week As can be seen from the chart, 10% of the subjects admit they read English materials very often and six out of thirty students state that they often practice the reading skill at home A great population of students (63%) claims that they rarely practice reading English texts after class Meanwhile, it is noticeable concerned that 7% of the students do nothing to improve their reading ability Teachers may wish to employ more appropriate teaching methods and encourage students‟ self- learning.
The students‟ self-studying materials in the reading skill
It is apparently shown in the chart that most of the students practice the reading skill throughout their course books To some extent, it is a duty, not extra effort in learning Another common kind of texts is those for entertainment accessed through the Internet such as pieces of advertisements, chat texts (50%) Not many students read new articles in English – only 4 in
30 students It is noticeable that only a negligible number of students ( 3 students, equivalent to 10%) read English books on a specific subjects Difficulty of the content and interest may be two main factors affecting students‟ selection of texts to read The habit of reading frequently and selecting mostly easy texts for entertainment as such may result in negative consequences including slow reading speed, limited vocabulary, etc Accordingly, it is understandable that reading was claimed to be difficult by most participants.
Reasons for difficulty in reading English texts
The chart presents difficulties in reading English texts of the participants There are both subjective and objective ones Two main reasons are that there are too many new words, phrases and idioms in reading texts (80%) and learners have no appropriate reading strategy (75%) The first reason is actually predictable as having many terminologies is a mentioned feature of academic texts Besides, freshmen English major have not been trained properly; thus, the fact that they do not know how to deal with difficult reading text is unavoidable Difficult content (50 %) or boring topics (35%) and slow reading speed (40%) are also other major reasons
3.1.3 Students’ knowledge of reading portfolios
The students‟ knowledge of reading portfolios
When being asked about reading portfolios, 19 in 30 students, which account 63.3% in total, confirm that they know nothing about it 36.7% state that they have ever heard of the term “portfolio” and applied it in writing skill before However, no-one cannot give a thorough explanation of a reading portfolio In other words, the students confuse if portfolios in reading and writing are the same
In conclusion, the participant‟s background shows that both chances and challenges mainly exist when the reading portfolio is applied It can be advantageous when most of the participants have learned English for not a short time They are also thoroughly aware of the importance of this foreign language, and have clear learning purposes However, reading skill- a difficult skill to themselves- is not paid due attention and adequate practice The direct consequences are limited vocabulary and lack of good reading strategies Hence, the assumed tasks of the teacher through the reading portfolio are emphasizing the role of reading skills so that the learner can gain widely their words and also improve reading speed effectively Moreover, the participants have quite vague understanding of portfolio as a teaching and learning tool, so the teacher is required to introduce and guide them carefully on how to compose a reading portfolio With these inexperienced reading portfolio composers, a collection combined with simple reflection tasks seems to be the best choice
3.2 Data analysis of the students’ survey questionnaire after the reading portfolio process
3.2.1 Students’ attitudes towards the reading portfolios
As can be seen from chart 6, half of the subjects (50%) are conscious of the importance of reading portfolios in their language proficiency as well as to their autonomy Especially, 23% of the participants believe in the very important role of reading portfolios because it helps continue their life-long learning process Meanwhile, an amount of participants do not highly appreciate the role of portfolios in enhancing reading ability They may find it not interesting and suitable enough for their preferences and language needs.
Students‟ general assessment of the reading portfolio contents
According to chart 7, it is clearly seen that most students, which account for 40% and 17%, find the reading portfolio contents useful and interesting, respectively Indeed, the students state that they are able to enrich the background knowledge, improve the reading skill, and enlarge their source of vocabulary and grammar structures However, 37% of the participants say that the contents of reading portfolios are difficult because of new vocabulary, phrases and idioms… Only 3% say that the reading portfolio tasks are easy for them The rest of the students ( 3%) claim that they feel boring about the portfolio contents.
Students‟ preferences for the benefits of reading portfolios in learners‟ autonomy
Chart 8 illustrates students‟ preferences for the advantages reading portfolios bring to their autonomy It is clearly seen from the chart above that the biggest proportion of the participants, which accounts 87%, believe implementing the portfolios help them build the habit of practicing reading frequently Specifically, most of them share that they often spend appropriate time doing reading articles, newspapers, story, novel, etc at least twice a week They also suggest their teacher to provide them with more useful and reliable source of materials; therefore, they are able to keep practicing at home More than two third of the informants agree that improving autonomy in learning English is another benefit of the application of portfolios The majority of the students (75%) state that they are also able to apply reading portfolios in developing other language skills like writing, speaking and listening It is considered as an assessment tool for learners‟ effort in learning and a half of the participants (50%) show the interest and curiosity in this a new assessment tool Indeed, all of the reading contents are related to the topics in students‟ course book Hence, with the language inputs provided by teacher in advance, students have the opportunity to test their outcomes Additionally, a large quantity of them (33,4%) confirms that doing the reading portfolios enhances their approach to a new teaching and learning method that make them to feel interesting, flexible in learning.
Students‟ most gained knowledge through reading portfolios
The chart provides what knowledge students gained most after weeks of compiling reading portfolios The largest amount of students (32%) believe that at the end of the portfolio process, useful daily phrases and expressions are what they gained most It is apparently shown in the chart that there is no big discrepancy between Background knowledge for specific topics and Improvement of using reading strategies More than 16% of the subjects claim that they can enrich glossary from reading portfolios The smallest proportion of participants (10%) confirms their improvement in other skills as writing, speaking and listening throughout reading portfolios
3.2.2 Students’ preferences for tasks requirements on reading portfolios.
Students‟ preferences for task requirements on the reading
In the study, the researcher designed different task requirements with each of reading topic weekly in order to figure out students‟ preferences for types of task in the portfolios The chart indicates that more than half of the students (57,3%) consider looking for the meaning of new words as the most popular task requirement On the other hand, summary, guessing the meaning of phrases, idioms and summarizing the texts or articles are less popular with 14%, and 17,6%, respectively Writing a reflection is considered as the most difficult one; thus, only 10,9% of the students prefer this task type By designing a variety of task type should be employed to encourage students‟ learning.
Students' preferences for contents of the reading portfolios
The chart reveals that 36% of the students always to choose the texts with general contents to their reading materials outside the class because of familiar society contents without a huge of new difficult words Especially, most of students (38%) said that relaxing short texts as funny story, short piece of news, etc are the most popular choice of reading resources for them to save time to study Only four out of thirty students found that they are attacked with new update information texts like daily news with various fields and 8% of the subjects stated that they often practiced reading skill throughout magazines, professional journalists, novels, blogs, etc Hence, most of these students might not actively interest in economic texts with difficult contents and most of academic words that make confusing their understanding to do their studies
3.2.3 Students’ difficulties in the reading portfolios process.
Students‟ difficulties in implementing the reading portfolio
The chart presents difficulties which subjects might encounter when they compile the reading portfolio The greatest difficulty that the students complained about making the reading portfolio was time- consuming The students had to collect reading texts or articles which are the most suitable to the given topics They also listed and guessed the meaning of the new words, phrase verbs and idioms Besides, if they are familiar with making the reading portfolio, they will not find it time-consuming 20% of the subjects agree that they got trouble in finding materials suitable with the topics To them, finding materials for the portfolio was sometimes a real challenge Related to this, 29,6% of the students thought that the topics of reading portfolios are quite boring and difficult Having new words, phrase verbs or idioms (36,3%) is also mentioned as one of the factors affecting students‟ reading portfolio process The reasons might be that these students are a bit lazy and inactive, they rarely surf internet for their self- learning Moreover, lack of reading strategies are conductive to students‟ difficulty in the reading portfolio process with 42,8% of their votes The last major factor was confirmed that Cost of compiling the portfolio affected on the students‟ portfolio making directly with 55% of their votes because they spent much of money on the extra materials were often involved
3.2.4 Students’ suggestions to improve the reading portfolios contents.
Students‟ suggestions to improve the reading portfolio contents
From the chart, we can see that nearly 89,30% of the subjects confirmed that designing more suitable portfolio contents might improve the quality of the self- learning portfolio Actually, the students will be attracted if the contents of portfolio are interesting and updating Other factors which influence the improvement of the self- study portfolio were teacher should have provided clear guidelines for implementing portfolios (66,30%) and teacher should also have made students more aware of the importance of self- learning (71,70%) Another important role of teacher in the success of reading portfolio process is recommending reliable resources and interesting topics for the students to find suitable materials easier and save more time for them with more than half of the students‟ recommendations Additionally, nearly half of the participants show their expectation of receiving more the teacher‟s feedback in their writing
3.3 Data analysis of students’ perception of impact of reading portfolio on learners’ autonomy questionnaire
3.3.1 The impact of teacher’s immediate feedback
The following table (Table 1), which is excerpted from the questionnaire, sums up the student‟s awareness of impact of teacher‟s immediate feedback
1 Teacher‟s immediate feedback helps me understand my strengths and weaknesses
2 Teacher‟s immediate feedback helps me correct my common mistakes
3 Teacher‟s immediate feedback helps me to avoid the previously mistakes
4 Teacher‟s immediate feedback helps me learn structures and vocabulary more exactly and easily
5 Teacher‟s immediate feedback helps me do the next exercises and tests better
Table 1: The impact of teacher’s immediate feedback
As Table 1 reveals, in the students‟ opinions, the teacher‟s prompt feedback had great effect on the students‟ learning progress Twenty- five out of thirty students supposed that they released their strengths and weaknesses thanks to the immediate feedback from their teacher They also agreed that the feedback helped them correct their common mistakes as well as avoid the mistakes they made in the previous weeks 28 participants strongly believed that they remembered structures and vocabulary much more easily and faster after reading interesting texts with doing highlight new words, guessing the meanings of phrase verbs and idioms appeared in these texts As a result, they saw that the reading portfolios in the following weeks became quicker and easier than the one in the previous week Obviously, immediate feedback of the teacher contributed to their learning achievement
3.3.2 Students’ views on their self- assessment skills
The table sums up the student‟s views on their self- assessment skills
6 I can self- aware of my strengths and weaknesses 3 19 5 3
7 I can self- evaluate my reading ability after each reading
8 I can self- improve my vocabulary widely 22 8 0 0
9 I can self- gain more ideas for specific topics 17 12 1 0
10 I can self- learn more expressions, difficult structures, useful phrases and idioms
11 I can self- write a paragraph fluently 5 17 4 2
12 I can learn to control my time 6 17 5 1
13 My speed of reading has improved 22 6 1 1
14 My reading skills and strategies are enhanced 13 15 2 0
Table 2: Students’ views on their self-assessment skills
As can be seen from the table, by doing reading portfolios on their own frequently, most of student released that their self – assessment skills were improved quickly The workload of reading portfolio also provide the students with the chance to self- assess their ability after each exercises as well as their strengths and weaknesses A large number of students confirmed that their vocabulary as well as structures, phrases, idioms are also gained a lot, so that their marks in those tasks become higher than the previous days and it made them feel interested in reading more materials Moreover, no one can negative that their speed of reading at the end of the project increased Similarly, their reading skills and strategies as well as their writing are enhanced due to the helpfulness of portfolio assessment To sum up, the data in this table proved that using reading portfolio as an assessment tool contributed significantly to establishment and development of self- assessment skills for the students
3.3.3 The role of reading portfolio as a learning and assessment tool
15 I feel that portfolio assessment is more reliable than traditional testing
16 I feel that portfolio assessment can both assess and assist my learning
17 I prefer to be evaluated by portfolios 2 17 6 5 Table 3: The role of reading portfolio as a learning and assessment tool
The data in table 3 suggested that reading portfolio could be used as a useful tool for learning and assessment There are 22 out of 30 students who prefer using reading portfolio as an alternative assessment When using reading portfolio, they could learn and self- assess at the same time Briefly, most of students supported the view that portfolio assessment is more reliable than traditional testing because their long time learning process were evaluated accurately
3.3.4 The role of reading portfolio assessment in promoting learner autonomy
18 I am more motivated in reading English texts 2 22 4 2
19 Portfolio make me to work harder 20 10 0 0
20 I am more interested in doing reading at home than in class 12 17 1 0
21 Portfolios allows me to choose suitable reading text level 9 18 3 0
22 Portfolios allows me to choose comfortable and interesting texts 25 5 0 0
23 Portfolios allows me to do exercises in my suitable time 27 3 0 0
24 Portfolios make me build my own habit in learning English naturally 5 20 5 0
Table 4: The role of reading portfolio in promoting the learners’ autonomy
The Table 4 showed that the reading portfolio assessment promoted self- study and active learning, which lead to develop the learners‟ autonomy in the students All of the participants acknowledged that they were required to spend more time on learning and making reading portfolios However, they all agreed that doing reading portfolio tasks weekly at home was certainly less stressful than sitting in the class and doing the given boring exercises The students voted the ideas that they were empowered to choose the reading texts with suitable their own level and the interesting topics Therefore, the students‟ interest and motivation for reading and their reading habits, of course, are built and grow up quickly
In conclusion, the students‟ detailed views about reading portfolios as a means of assessment of reading comprehension ability were conveyed through questionnaire items It was indicated that the students‟ learning progress was enhanced through the teacher‟s prompt feedback In addition, the self- assessment skills of students were encouraged Moreover, there was a strong belief that reading portfolios was a reliable tool for learning and assessment in order to raise the learners‟ autonomy effectively
3.4 Data analysis of students’ final reflection for reading portfolio project
The reflections in the reading portfolios provided the researcher a deeper insight towards the portfolio use an assessment tool Both the negative and positive sides of reading portfolio assessment were mentioned Except some critical attitudes, most of the students perceived their progress in learning of reading skills It was noticed that their learning became more active and autonomous when they could manage to examine their improvement and be aware of their strengths and weaknesses
3.4.1 Reading portfolios as a learning tool to improve language ability
As stated at the beginning of the reading portfolio assessment project, the primary purpose of portfolio project was to develop student‟s reading skills in order to enhance their language ability The students‟ reflections quoted below revealed the beneficial impact of portfolio program on enhancing the reading skills Most of students reflected:
- I can improve my reading and analyzing skill The best skill that RP (reading portfolio) give me is skimming I can understand the main idea of some paragraphs or that of the whole essay (Sample reflection 1)
- I think Reading portfolios bring many huge of benefits to improve
English well When I studied English, I did not find a good skill My teacher directed me “You try to write portfolios” After I wrote some portfolios, I realized my skill in English improved (Sample reflection 2)
- In my opinion, I think Reading Portfolios is very important not only in Reading skill but also in English Firstly, It brings to me a lot of benefits during the time I learn English, for example: increase my vocabulary, improve my reading skill (skimming, scanning) (Sample reflection 3)
- Reading portfolios help us how to find main information and the most important information that I don’t know where to start And making to read portfolios help me to find the starting and it also supply many useful skills such as guessing word meaning, understanding reference, skimming, scanning, finding the main idea (Sample reflection 4)
For the tasks regarding other skills they can develop as broader vocabulary with more new words, phrase verbs, idioms as well as writing skill by summarizing texts Some students‟ views posed “ The kind of exercises in Reading portfolio are really various to choose, but the effective exercises with me is vocabulary exercise because it helps me learn a lot of new words (both closest and opposite meaning)”; “ Writing skill is the most advanced skill during the time I study Reading with the simple way is writing the summary about the content of the topic I have found in the Internet.”; “It also helps me improve reading skill and writing skill I can write better document in business such as confirm letter, report, or email, etc.”
In short, it was evident that all targeted skills were practiced during the
15 weeks of the semester As a result, the improvement in their language skill as reading skill, writing skill, gaining vocabulary, at a certain level, could not be denied
3.4.2 Reading portfolio as an assessment to develop learners’ autonomy
The program also achieved its second purpose, which was to enhance the students‟ self- study, self- assessment skills and active learning Students reported that reading portfolio assessment allowed them to get more involved in their learning process and assess their own learning Some typical students‟ comments were:
- Not only has more benefit but it also helps learners improve autonomy I can make an essay for myself and creative, etc Moreover, I can also self learn new words (Sample reflection 5)