CALPER Language Assessment

Center for Advanced Language Proficiency Education and Research at The Pennsylvania State University

Portfolios

Overview

Portfolio assessment is a compilation of self-assessed student work that chronicles development over a period of time. Submissions are selected by the student, often with teacher facilitation, to be exemplars of progress toward or achievement of clearly defined, predetermined benchmarks. The process of creating a portfolio involves student self-assessment as learners engage in evaluating their work to determine which pieces of evidence make the strongest case for their own development. As a product, the portfolio may be subsequently evaluated by the teacher.

In contrast to a one-off assessment, such as a test or quiz, a portfolio can be used to track a student’s progress over a period of time. At the outset, specific objectives with individual criteria are outlined. As students meet each of these objectives they compile evidence of their development. At periodic intervals, students select work that they deem as appropriate to represent progress toward or achievement of an objective. Often they may receive teacher input as they select work to include in their portfolio, but over time they become more autonomous in their decision-making. Each entry in the portfolio is accompanied by a reflective essay that explains the specific contribution of the particular piece to the whole portfolio. The reflection and autonomy of the process represent the greatest strength of portfolio assessment as they require a critical awareness of language development on the part of learners.

Background

Portfolios have long been employed in professional or training contexts but have been used primarily to showcase an endpoint, rather than to chronicle a learning process. The portfolio in an educational context offers the reviewer benchmarks of achievement and a sense of progress over time rather than a collection of stand-alone final products. Of course, a holistic grade may be assigned to a portfolio after it has been submitted at the end of a period of study, and rubrics are available to suggest evaluation criteria. As with the other components, these should be made clear to learners at the outset. This dual approach makes a language portfolio a hybrid of self and project-based assessments. [include links to these two topics]

Computer and web-based technologies have led to the emergence of electronic portfolios or e-portfolios. For advanced language learners, e-portfolios represent a significant opportunity to include audio, video and digitally enhanced elements alongside the more traditional ones.

Applications

An especially innovative use of portfolio assessment has been developed by Christiansen & Laplante (2004) in their work preparing future language teachers. The teacher trainees, who themselves are advanced language learners (at least the equivalent of intermediate-mid on the ACTFL proficiency scale), are first asked to identify their own learning objectives that are in line with the program’s curriculum. They then create an action plan detailing how they will meet these objectives, and over time they contribute exemplars of progress they make. Additionally, each piece included in the portfolio is accompanied by a reflective essay. The portfolios are framed by an introductory language biography, which follows the European Language Portfolio model (see below), and a closing summary.

European Language Portfolio. The Council of Europe’s Language Portfolio is an open-ended, lifetime language portfolio that includes, for example, sections for a language passport, language biography, and a dossier of student work. It has been adapted by the Virginia Public Schools for K-12 use.
Several universities require portfolios to accompany study abroad transcripts before awarding credit. These are designed with a dean or advisor prior to departure, compiled during the experiences, and submitted with reflective essays focusing on learners’ experiences abroad, particularly their language development and growing cultural awareness.


 

Suggested Readings and References:

Portfolio Tutorial, developed by the National Capital Language Resource Center (NCLRC), goes through the steps of designing, developing and evaluating second language portfolios. Archived Website.

LinguaFolio Online is an online language learning portfolio that promotes autonomous learning through formative assessment. https://linguafolio.uoregon.edu/

http://connect.educause.edu/blog/jeffvand/e_portfolios_of_the_future_foreign_language_focus/14135?time=1170428813 This is a blog entry that outlines how blogs could be used as second language eportfolios, an idea soon to be put into practice by the UNC-Chapel Hill Germanic Language Department.

CARLA Vitual Assessment Website . This site has an annotated bibliography on assessment, including portfolio assessment.

“Why e-portfolios make sense in 21st century education”. An essay by Gabriela Appel (CALPER)in the April 2013 issue of The Language Resource, a newsletter by the NCLRC.

CALPER is in the process of developing an e-portfolio resource site, which will become available soon.

 


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