Examining students’ perceptions of using portfolio as an assessment tool in an EFL writing classroom

Abstract

This research article aimed to investigate the perceptions stated by students regarding the use of portfolio as an assessment tool in an EFL writing class. The participants in this study were 28 Indonesian tertiary-level EFL learners. The purposes of this qualitative study were to explore students’ opinions regarding the use of portfolio as an assessment tool, and to analyze the extents to which portfolio assessment benefited students. The research methods used were students’ reflective essays and semi-structured interviews. The findings revealed two main points. First, most of the students argued that portfolio was an effective tool to assess their writing tasks. Second, portfolio seemed to benefit students through reflecting on their previous writing tasks. The pedagogical implications of this study were to provide insight to EFL teachers into how portfolio could be used as an assessment tool particularly in writing courses, and to inform EFL teachers with some suggestions to carry out portfolio assessment to help students improve their writing tasks.