چكيده لاتين :
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of portfolio assessment on metacognitive reading strategy awareness of Iranian EFL senior high school students. A further concern of the study was to examine studentsי motivation for reading via portfolio and their attitude towards portfolio assessment as an alternative method of reading comprehension assessment. Participants comprised 60 female senior high school students. The portfolio assessment was integrated into the experimental groupיs English course to explore whether and to what extent their metacognitive reading strategy awareness may enhance. Both quantitative and qualitative procedures were used for data collection and analysis. Data were obtained through 1) a Likert scale questionnaire of Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies Inventory (MARSI), 2) a Likert scale Attitude and Motivation questionnaire, 3) an open-ended question eliciting the studentsי perceptions of the likely advantages and disadvantages of portfolio assessment of reading, and 4) studentsי portfolios which were independently assessed by three trained raters on pre-assigned criteria. Data were analyzed using SPSS Software and statistical techniques of the Mann Whitney U test, Wilcoxon Signed-rank test, and chi-square test. The results of data analysis indicated that portfolio procedures boosted studentsי awareness of metacognitive reading strategies and enhanced their motivation for reading comprehension as well. Over 85% of the students favored the portfolio assessment of reading and noted that compiling portfolios helped them immensely in self-assessment and awareness of their strengths and weaknesses in reading. Students commented on portfolio as a powerful tool for assessing reading ability. Along with tf&ese advantages, the length of time required for the learners to assemble the portfolios, work overload from assignments, and excessive effort for assigned tasks worried some students especially those deeply accustomed to traditional testing methods of evaluating reading ability typical of the Iranian ELT system. Despite these concerns, the benefits of portfolio assessment clearly outweigh the negative aspects. Finally, suggestions for portfolio use and possible future avenues of research are provided.
