The Effect of Portfolio-Based Assessment on Jordanian EFL Learners’ Writing Performance

Abstract

This study examines the effect of portfolio assessment on Jordanian EFL tenth grade learners’ overall writing performance and their performance on the sub-skills of focus, development, organization, conventions and word choice. The study is quasi-experimental in which an experimental group and a control group of 20 students each were purposefully drawn from tenth grade classes at the public schools for girls in the North-Eastern Badia Directorate of Education. The experimental group was instructed on how to generate ideas, structure, draft, and edit their written pieces following Hamp-Lyons and Condon’s (2000) while the control group was instructed conventionally as prescribed in the Teacher’s Book. The findings revealed that the portfolio group outperformed the conventionally instructed group (at a≤ 0.05) in their overall writing performance and in their performance on the writing sub-skills of focus, development, organization, conventions and word choice.

Keywords

• EFL
• Jordan
• portfolio assessment
• writing performance