THE EFFECT OF KEEPING PORTFOLIOS ON WRITING ABILITY OF ADVANCED EFL LEARNERS

The present study attempted to discover the impact of keeping portfolios on the improvement of the advanced English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ writing. In order to have homogeneous groups, a Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) proficiency test was given to 60 participants of the study and 48 of them were selected, and then they were randomly assigned to comparison and experimental groups. Since the study concentrated on writing ability a writing pretest was administered to both groups to make sure they were also homogeneous in terms of writing ability. The experimental group was exposed to portfolio assessment and instruction while the comparison group received the traditional writing instruction and assessment. After 10 sessions of treatment, a posttest similar to the pretest was administered. The result of the study indicated that there was a statistically significant difference between the groups. The conclusion was that keeping portfolios can contribute to progress of the students in terms of writing ability and it can be used as a promising testing and teaching tool in English language classes.