The Effectiveness of Portfolio Assessment on EFL Students ' Writing Performance : The Case of Third Year Secondary Students in Algeria

The current study examines the effect of the portfolio assessment method to assess writing ability of third year foreign languages learners enrolled at a secondary school in Laghouat, Algeria. The objective was to find out whether a particular portfolio assessment model was successful in helping the students to improve their English writing ability in general, and writing strategies and processes in particular. In doing so, four experimental tools were implemented: Pretest/Posttest, English Writing Evaluation Exam, Self-Reporting Questionnaire, and Analytic Scoring Rubric. Accordingly, the findings of the posttest and postself-questionnaire displayed a notable improvement in English writing performance of the learners and in their writing product skills as well. Indeed, results indicated a significant increase in the students’ use of writing processes as a result of the portfolio assessment method. The study concluded that the portfolio assessment model is found to be an effective instructional strategy as well as an evaluation tool, besides that it enhances the learners' English writing performance by focusing efforts on writing products as well as writing processes.


Introduction
Algeria has assumed English as a foreign language in its schools and higher educational Institutions since the acquisition of EFL, as an obligatory subject-matter in the overall educational program in all streams.Meanwhile, the area of teaching English as a foreign language is always a theme to variant researches which aim at improving its learning process in general and learning skills in particular.Hence, the ability to write in foreign language is becoming a widely recognized as a needed skill in educational, business and personal reasons.
Grabe and Kaplan (1996) in their book "Theory and Practice of Writing" agreed that half of the world's population does not master how to write adequately and effectively.Writing has always been one of the most complex language skills.Hence, it is not an easy task to achieve since it requires difficult work, lengthy steps, additional time, and more practice.
In the field of teaching writing as a skill, using portfolio assessment is spreading.Indeed Portfolios have commonly been related to written performance.Thus, such type of assessment means more interaction and cooperation between the student and the teacher.More or less, portfolio can be a set of the activities taken on over time in the development of written products.Obviously, portfolio is not a new concept.The portfolio concept got strength in the 1980s.Most importantly, interest in portfolios as assessment procedures first came apparent in the literature in the area of composition.Correspondingly, the centre of the current research is how students improve as writers by highlighting process, multiple drafting, teamwork, and operational writing.With respect to the importance of the assessment process as one major element of school program, this study may change the view of assessment process.Indeed, portfolio assessment ought to be considered as basic part of teaching, and hence it could be used for instructional objectives.
According to the traditional grading method, writings are assessed, given grades, and returned while learners are passive participants in the assessment process.Thus, test scores cannot be trusted as a basis of making decisions concerning their writing performance.The method used is a product-based.Writing process is somewhat forgotten.Teachers seek the product: its clearness, originality, and correctness but they do not attend to the writing process.Nor do they attend to the writing performance.In such a method, the teacher is dominant and mistake-hunter while he/she ought to be assistant.Consequently, the researcher has been asked to argue for improving the process orientation in teaching and assessing writing performance.This is the actual situation of teaching and assessing writing in Laghouat and Algeria as well.Several research questions could be raised as: 1. What is the current level of the EFL learners' English writing ability? 2. How effective is the use of portfolio assessment stratagem on improving the students' English writing performance?3. What are the effects of portfolio assessment on the students' use of writing processes?The researchers hypothesize that: Traditional language tests no longer meet the needs of EFL students as a foreign language since their outcomes have been assessed at a specific point of time or at the end of the learning process.In addition, they do not better pupils' writing skills and portfolio assessment may improve the writing performance of third year EFL students at the secondary level -Lyons (2006) asserted that most of the literature concerning portfolios comes from first language writing and there is rare literature on the use of portfolios for L2 learners in assessment fields.There is also limited number of quantitative research considering the impact of portfolio assessment on EFL students' writing skill.In his descriptive research, Aly (2000) investigated the impact of using portfolio assessment on freshman first year students in writing course in Cairo University.The finding was about 95% of the pupils' final portfolios, which demonstrated that the students had used the portfolio positively.Concerning writing instruction, Aly (2002) proposed a process-based writing approach or "writing workshop" to improve the students' writing skills.The study was carried with second year, both male and female learners who were haphazardly appointed to the experimental group.Findings indicated that using writing workshop approach helped students to be more responsible towards individual and group work as well.Song and August (2002) ,through their quantitative investigation, compared the performance of two groups of advanced ESL learners in ENG 22, a second semester composition course, at Kingsborough Community College, City University of New York.One group was assessed on the basis of portfolios as well as the writing assessment test; however, the other was assessed using the formal assessment test only.The study found that the students prefer to pass into ENG 22 from ENG 2 in that they were assessed by portfolio which seems to be a more befitting form of assessment.

Hamp
The efficiency of reflection as an essential constituent of the portfolio development was examined by kowalewski, Murphy, and Starns in 2002.The study was conducted to include strategies to boost student writing abilities.Five strategies were implemented to improve student writing skills.The results of this investigation exposed an obvious improvement in student writing scores for all classes.In the same token, portfolio assessment was chosen by Koelper and Messerge (2003) to make both learners and their parents aware of academic progress in writing for first and second grade learners and math for seventh grade learners who were from an elementary and a middle school.Results also showed that the pupils felt more privileged in their own learning and became reflecting about their writing process.In 2004, Apple and Shimo studied students' use of portfolio procedure in an EFL classes in Japan.The self report questionnaire demonstrated that students positively believed that portfolio creation assisted them ameliorate compositional and expressive writing proficiency.Two case studies about use of portfolio assessment at two institutions in the UAE were carried on by Coombe and Barlow (2004).The first study was done at Dubai Men College where a five writing portfolio was to be accomplished during the fall.Results indicated that portfolio proved its role in improving the students' writing.Dealing with the effect of portfolio assessment on pupils' ability in writing, Al-Serhani (2007) demonstrated that portfolio assessment had a positive effect on pupils' writing ability in general and the writing aspects such as purpose, content, organization, vocabulary, sentence structure and mechanics in specific.Sharifi and Hassaskhah (2011) , in a study to examine the effect of portfolio assessment on writing, suggested a time series plan.They used a traditional testing in the first half of the semester whereas in the second half a portfolio was used.They found that the portfolio had a favorable role in improving writing performance.
Since all the previous literature proved that the majority of the studies indicated positive impact of portfolio assessment on writing instruction, we want to use it so as to investigate its effectiveness on improving the writing performance of third year secondary students, and to explore if it is possible to apply it in the teaching of writing in EFL educational setting in Algeria and more particularly in the Secondary high schools in Laghouat.

Our Contribution
It is very difficult to arrange a true experimental design, especially in a school classroom.Hence, the current research adopts first a quasi-experimental method based on pretest/posttest to assess current proficiency in writing and later the improvement, besides a descriptive method since the aim of descriptive approach is to identify the real-life situation and to gather information of the events as they happen.

Sample of the Research
The compositions taken for this study were chosen from learners of EFL enrolled in the third year of the secondary education in Laghouat.The number of the first drafts was 120 papers; they were taken from 30 learners writing related to the four units within the syllabus.Subjects were 30 male and female students attending foreign languages classes in one school.The socio economic environs of the experimental school population range from upper middle class families.All subjects are taught in Arabic language except French as a second language and English as a foreign language.They have been learning English language for seven years.The average chronological age of the subjects is 18 years old.Moreover, there is some evidence of the resemblance of the learners' level in English writing competence proved by the preliminary test.

Tools of the Study
To examine the effect of portfolio assessment techniques on writing performance, five tools were used by the researcher.English Writing Evaluation Exam (EWEE) that is created to assess the pupils' writing ability in English.It is of an authentic assessment type.It includes one part that consists of one paragraph writing on a selected prescribed theme from their units and which is familiar to pupils ,i.e, exam materials represent activities of writing in 'New Prospects' textbook.All instructions are provided.They are written in simple English, It also involves information about the aim of the test, the time allowed to accomplish the test, as well as the criteria on which scoring will be based.The EWEE is scored analytically by using an analytic scoring rubric which is developed by the teacher.Learners' writing capacity can be evaluated separately on different criteria.However, the researcher decides to assess only grammatical structures and mechanics.The rater gives each pupil a score on mechanics and sentence structure out of five.
Analytic Scoring Rubric (ASR) that is used for grading English writing exam papers of the pupils.It evaluates the pupils' writing proficiency against a preconceived criterion.It involves the main constituents of mechanics and grammar.The teacher using the rubric can describe to what degree the pupil has met the criterion, i.e., the level of writing.Also, the rubric includes five levels of production: achieved writing, proficient writing, basic writing, and limited writing, and not applicable or poor (N/A).
Self-Reporting Questionnaire (SQ) which is provided to define writing processes that the students were using in the accomplishment of writing activities and to indicate whether they had already these processes or not.The valid questionnaire involved 23 items describing four distinguishing writing processes, mainly planning, drafting, revising, and editing.It was based on a 3-point scale: always, sometimes, and never.These were given numerical grades: always=2, sometimes=1, and never=0.Simple directions concerning pupils' answers to the questionnaire were presented in both English and Arabic languages as a cover letter.
Portfolio Assessment Sample (PAS).It is used to improve and to evaluate subjects' writing ability, and it is "a single measure which is incapable of estimating the diversity of skills, knowledge, processes, and strategies that combine to determine student progress" (Moya & O'Malley, 1994, p.15).It is the medicine given to the experimental group, in which 240 writing tasks at least are developed by the learners within the four units.The suggested portfolio model for EFL writing assessment contains factors like portfolio committee and general as well as specific learning objectives.
The quantitative analysis of data was carried out to evaluate the effect of the Portfolio Assessment sample on the writing ability of EFL third year secondary learners.The researcher tried to demonstrate the results in form of figures that can be analyzed and interpreted later.

Discussion
After the subjects were administered the EWEE which is related to the first unit, the teacher has adopted AQ that is based on their common errors found in the preliminary test, so as to correct their works .The teacher will edit the pupils paragraphs using the proofreading abbreviations and ask the subjects again to rewrite the task to be corrected for second or may be several times until they make it better (correct or at least 2 mistakes per a work).The figure below displayed the results found by comparing the first drafts with the second ones: According to figure 1 and by comparing first the marks taken in the first draft and the second drafts, we notice that the number of mistakes have reduced .For example, the most frequent mistake (M1), i.e., past simple tense has been diminished from 85 to 40; and even the least frequent mistake (M10) has also been reduced from 40 to 20 times in 120 works.
Further, the taken marks have also changed.In the first draft, 13 pupils have taken 01/05 ; 10 have taken 1,5/05; whereas 1 pupil only has taken 2,5/05 .However, in the second draft, 6 pupils have taken 1/5, and 05 pupils have taken the best score 2/05.Thus ,it's obvious that by the decrease of mistakes' number ,the marks have increased.
After that, in unit 2, the population was given the EWEE related to the second unit .The pupils will accomplish the first drafts and they will give them to the teacher who will indicate the mistakes areas and ask them to correct them in the second draft.The given marks are secretly put and taken by the teacher to be compared later with the other results .The obtained results are displayed in figure 2: As the figure displayed in the first draft the pupils have made M1 (past tense problems) 72 times but in the second drafts, they made M1 (past tense) 33 times; The same thing for all the mistakes, it's obvious in figure 2 that the number of all the mistakes (M1_M10) in the first draft has diminished in the second draft.Moreover, concerning their marks and as figure 2 demonstrated 7 pupils have taken 1/05 as a lower mark in the first draft, however only 1 pupil has taken it in the second draft.And 9 pupils have taken 1,5/05 in the EWEE, but in the second draft their number has decreased to 6 pupils only ;and most interestingly a new mark has appeared in EWEE of unit2 that is 3/05 as the best mark .In the first draft only one pupil has taken it , however in the second draft ,the number of pupils who has improved increased to 04.Unlike the EWEE of unit1 where the best mark was 2,5/05,the best mark in unit 2 has improved to 03/05 ,which depict that pupils have progressed in their productions.
Later, in unit 3, the subjects were handled the EWEE related to the unit, then their products were assessed by the teacher two times at least; the results found are displayed in figure 3 : Figure 3 demonstrates that the number of common mistakes in the 120 copies was in a continuous reduction or decrease.Most importantly, marks also have greatly changed.9 learners had interestingly improved and had 3.5, in addition a new good level has been reached where 4 pupils had 3.5/05, the fact that ensures the improvement of pupils in writing ability.In unit 4, after the pupils are handed the exam, the teacher will revise the first draft using the proofreading abbreviations and symbols, and then he will give them their papers back for revision and rewriting of the second drafts.The results are displayed as follows in figure 4: It's obvious in figure 4 that the numbers of mistakes are in a persistent decrease.Furthermore, this decrease in mistakes' number has generated an increase in marks .As figure 4 shows 7 pupils have got the best mark that is 4/05.It's inevitable that pupils have improved their ability in writing skill.Later, and so as to ensure this progress in writing, the teacher decided to use a sort of summative assessment (a posttest) as a final component of the portfolio .The post test was administered to pupils as an Experimental BAC Exam and by following the steps of portfolio assessment method, the teacher has founded the following results in figure 5. Figure 5 demonstrated that the number of common mistakes (M1…M10) was diminished in the pupils' copies and the average of mistakes was 7,2 in 120 works.Also, figure 5 displayed a notable improvement in marks : pupils have largely improved their products and taken (2/2.5)out of 5 .Indeed, in the posttest results the progress of third year pupil's in English writing is definitely depicted and so is the effect of portfolio strategy on the writing performance.From all the figures above the number of mistakes is in a sustained decrease from the first drafts to the second drafts, and along the study's duration from the first unit until the fourth unit; in fact, the graph below confirms this downturn of mistakes' number in pupils' products; contrary to the pupils' marks that are in an ongoing betterment from the first to the last unit and from the first drafts to the revised ones, there is a noticeable contrastive relationship between number of mistakes and the obtained marks, when the pupils become aware of their mistakes, they try to improve their level and hence take better marks.Concerning the first process within the SQ which is "Planning" the obtained results are as follows:  It's obvious from the findings above that nearly the whole subjects (28) who represent 97% of the sample do not think about the topic or the reader; they do not prepare any outline or gather any ideas before they write.That means they just jet down words and phrases freely, without any thinking or organization.From the first section we can conclude that the pre-writing process is not used by the learners, and hence, it's totally neglected.The obtained results above demonstrate that, and even when they write drafts, they don't focus on grammar and mechanics in drafting that means they ignore the significance of this stage.However, according to the results; One pupil only focus on the content while using a draft.Hence, drafting as a stage also was not used when writing.According to the table above all the pupils 94% do not reread their works neither to check the content nor the coherence of ideas.Also, they do not prefer to exchange drafts with peers nor asking for their opinions.Furthermore, as it is displayed in the table, 97% of the learners do not edit their works individually, and they do not revise their works for grammatical, spelling , capitalization and punctuation mistakes.The Post self reporting questionnaire's results: At the end of the research the SRQ was given to the pupils again to check their use of processes while writing.126 As the table above demonstrates, the majority of pupils 88% responded always to the use of planning strategies.Nearly the majority of subjects thanks to the portfolio practice use to think about the theme before they write and prepare an outline that gather ideas about the topic to facilitate later writing.That means, they finally understand the significance of planning in writing process.The results above displayed that 78% of subjects start using drafts; they first describe their plans in drafting papers where they only focus on content and don't care too much of grammar and mechanics.The results indicate that the learners use well drafting strategies.It is obvious that the majority (82%) of pupils revise their drafts; they reread their compositions to check the theme besides the order of ideas in the paragraph, as well as the correctness (mistakes of grammar, spelling, and punctuation).The process that can improve their products.Finally, 92% of learners edit their works as the findings show; most of them do self editing .In fact, they edit their drafts for grammatical, spelling, capitalization, and punctuation mistakes so as to assure good marks for their products.

Conclusion
Portfolio assessment method affect learners' English writing proficiency by emphasizing efforts on writing -ISSN 2281-4612 ISSN 2281-3993 Academic Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies MCSER Publishing, Rome-Italy products/outcomes as well as writing processes.Also, the portfolio assessment sample is proved to be a successful instructional strategy as well as an evaluation method.Using portfolio is acceptable for EFL third year secondary learners especially for writing instruction since it permits learners to communicate more with their teacher.As a matter of fact, the teacher uses portfolios to analyze pupils' progress and to improve their writing product skills.For that reason, we recommend assessment to be a formative ongoing process providing feedback to learners as they improve toward an objective.As we recommend the use the portfolio assessment as a complementary to traditional tests, since opportunities ought to be given for our learners to practice reflection during classroom time.

Figure 1 :
Figure 1 : The First and Second Drafts' Mistakes and Marks in Unit1.

Figure 2 :
Figure 2 : The First and Second Drafts' Mistakes and Marks in Unit 2.

Figure 3 :
Figure 3 : The First and Second Drafts' Mistakes and Marks in Unit3 .

Figure 4 :
Figure 4 : The First and Second Drafts' Mistakes and Marks in Unit 4.

Figure 5 :
Figure 5 : The Pupils' Mistakes and Marks of Final Products (Posttest)

Figure 6 :
Figure 6: Comparison between Pupils' Mistakes and Marks of Pretest &Posttest By comparing the mistakes founded first in the Pretest and the ones founded in the post administration, we notice that the number of mistakes has greatly diminished: As an illustration, M1 was founded 101 times in the pretest but it has reduced to 41 times in the posttest.In the other hand, the marks have positively increased as figure displayed in the pretest the majority of pupils have taken average marks and a lot of pupils (15) have taken good marks (03/03,5), and 9 pupils among 30 have taken the best marks.From all the figures above the number of mistakes is in a sustained decrease from the first drafts to the second drafts, and along the study's duration from the first unit until the fourth unit; in fact, the graph below confirms this downturn of mistakes' number in pupils' products; contrary to the pupils' marks that are in an ongoing betterment from the first to the last unit and from the first drafts to the revised ones, there is a noticeable contrastive relationship between number of mistakes and the obtained marks, when the pupils become aware of their mistakes, they try to improve their level and hence take better marks.

Figure 7 :
Figure 7 : Comparison of Pupils' mistakes and Marks from Unit 1 to Unit 4

Table 1 -
Planning process

Table 4 -
Editing Process