Speaking portfolios as an alternative way of assessment in an EFL context

Abstract

This thesis reports on research exploring students’ and instructors’ attitudes towards speaking portfolios with regard to certain advantages and disadvantages of these assessment tools at the tertiary level. The participants were 77 Turkish university students, five instructors and two administrators at an English preparatory program of a state university. At the end of one semester implementation of the Speaking Portfolio (SP), a questionnaire was administered to the students, and then five focal students, the instructors, and the program administrators were interviewed individually. The findings revealed that all stakeholders have positive attitudes to the implementation in general. In particular, an improvement in the students’ oral skills and self-reflection skills has been noted to be fostered through the use of the SP. While the stakeholders expressed their appreciation on these aspects, they also agreed that the SP increased the students’ level of anxiety and that the SP did not largely promote the students’ learner autonomy or motivation. The students and some instructors also thought that SP oral tasks were not authentic enough to fully reflect speaking skills. On some points there were discrepancies between the attitudes of the participants. Students did not see practicality as a big issue, whereas it caused a problem on the part of the teachers. While students stated that they have benefitted from peer-feedback, the instructors and administrators did not report a major improvement in this aspect. This study has enabled instructors, administrators, curriculum developers an alternative way to improve and assess speaking skills through speaking portfolios.