VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYÊ
̃
N THI
̣
HA
̣
NH
A STUDY ON USING PORTFOLIO ASSESSMENT TO MOTIVATE
9TH FORM STUDENTS AT NAM HAI LOWER SECONDARY
SCHOOL TO LEAN ENGLISH
(NGHIÊN CỨU VIỆC SỬ DỤNG PHƯƠNG PHÁP ĐÁNH GIÁ TUYỂN
TẬP BÀI LÀM NHẰM TĂNG HỨNG THÚ CHO HỌC SINH KHỐI LỚP
9 TRƯỜNG THCS NAM HẢI HỌC MÔN TIẾNG ANH)

M.A. Minor Thesis Field: English Language Teaching Methodology
Code: 60.14.10


TABLE OF CONTENTS
Declaration
Acknowledgements
Abstract
Table of contents
List of figures, tables and abbreviations
i
ii
iii
iv
vi
PART A. INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale of the study
2. Aims of the study
3. Research questions
4. Significance of the study
5. Scope of the study
6. Methods of the study
7. Design of the study
PART B. DEVLOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW…………………………………
1.1. Theoretical background of motivation
1.1.1 Defining motivation
1.1.2 Motivation in second language learning
1.1.3. Strategies to motivate language learner
1.2 Theoretical background of portfolio assessment
1.2.1. Defining portfolios
1.2.2 Portfolios in Language education
1.2.3. Portfolios in ESL as Alternative Assessment
1.2.4. The advantages and disadvantages of portfolio assessment

2.1.3. The researcher
2.2. Data collection instruments
2.2.1. Questionnaires
2.2.2. Students' portfolios
2.2.3. Interviews
2.3. Data collection procedures
2.4. Data analysis procedures
CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS, DISCUSSIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS…
3.1. The participants
3.2. The effects of portfolio assessment on students' motivation and
proficiency in learning English
3.2.1. The effect of portfolio assessment on students' motivation
3.2.2. The effect of portfolio assessment on students' proficiency in learning
English
3.3. Students' difficulties in doing the portfolio assessment program
3.4. Teacher and students' recommendations for the portfolio assessment
program
3.5. Feasibility of motivating students to learn English through portfolio
assessment
PART C. CONCLUSION
I. Implications and suggestions for using portfolio assessment for 9th
form students in learning English subject
1. For teachers
2. Considerations when using the portfolio assessment program
II. Conclusion
III. Limitations and recommendations for further study
References…………………………………………………………………
Appendixes
18
18


Figure 1: Students’ needs and wants in the second semester
Figure 2: Students’ preferences about activities in English subject Table 1: The criteria assessment for grade 9 students' portfolios
Table 2: 45-minute test scores and portfolio scores

Abbreviations:
ESL: Second language learning
L2: Second language
S: Student
1

PART A. INTRODUCTION
This chapter presents the rationale, states the aims and research questions of
the study. It also describes the significance, the scope, as well as the methods of the
research. In addition, it further provides an overview of the research design.
1. Rationale of the study
The reform of teaching methods is one of the spirits of innovations in
education at all levels of our country. Nowadays people often mention about
education initiative or active learning, which is the transfer of the central role of
teachers in the classroom to the students. In this approach, students do not depend
too much on the training process and the main keys for them are self-study, self-
discovery, self-esteem, self-efficacy and self-assessment. Therefore, in order to
improve the quality of training, there must be not only focus on teachers, or
innovative teaching methods but also need to enhance methods of testing and
assessing students. Besides, evaluation must be organized systematically to see the
whole learning process of students, and assessment tools must combine multiple
and diverse forms.

secondary school. It aims specifically at:
- finding the attitudes of students and teacher towards the application of portfolio
assessment program on the English subject.
- exploring the effects of portfolio assessment method on students’ motivation and
proficiency in learning English.
- giving some recommendations for motivating students to learn English through
portfolio assessment.
3. Research questions
The research questions of the study are as follows:
1. What are the attitudes of students and teacher towards the application of portfolio
assessment program on the English subject?
2. What is the effect of portfolio assessment method on students’ motivation?
3. What is the relation between portfolio scores and the 45-minute written test
scores? 3

4. Significance of the study
The famous researcher Littlewood (1984) said, "In second language learning
as well as in every other field of human learning, motivation is the crucial force
which determines whether a learner embarks on a task at all, how much energy he
devotes to it, and how long he perseveres". Motivation can strongly help a language
learner succeed with the language. Therefore, the understanding of its role and
related theory is very necessary for all the teachers as well as learners of English.
If portfolio assessment method can indeed enhance students' motivation, then
using and applying it in teaching and learning English may have considerable
improvements for English classroom. The outcomes of the study and some
recommendations will supply with practical benefits to teaching and learning
English. Teachers and learners will come to know the useful role of portfolio

Chapter 1: Literature Review – introduces the literature related to the two main
parts: theoretical background of motivation, and theoretical background of portfolio
assessment.
Chapter 2: The study – focuses on the methodology used in this research including
the setting of the study such as the textbook and the current methods of testing and
assessment, the subject of the study, and the researcher, data collection instruments,
data collection procedures, as well as data analysis procedures.
Chapter 3: Findings, discussions, and recommendations – shows major findings,
discussions and offers recommendations for motivating students to learn English
through portfolio assessment.
Part C: Conclusion – is a summary of the study in which the implications and
recommendations for motivating students to learn English through portfolio
assessment are discussed, and the limitations of the study and suggestions for
further research are presented.

5

PART B. DEVLOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter studies a range of literature review related to the study. The two
main features presented are theoretical background of motivation and theoretical
background of portfolio assessment.
1.1. Theoretical background of motivation
1.1.1 Defining motivation
“Motivation is a very complex phenomenon with many facets […]. Thus, it
is not possible to give a simple definition”. These are the words of Gardner (2006,
p.242). From his point of views, it can be said that the term motivation is defined

distinct orientations for learning a language are integrative and instrumental
orientation. Specifically, integrative orientation refers to the interest in integrating
into the culture of the community speaking the language, whereas instrumental
orientation refers to the desire to learn a L2 for an immediate short term goal, for
example good grades, future career, passing the examination, searching and
translating material and so on. Moreover, the importance of needs analysis to
language learning and several motivational conditions such as interest in the topic
and activity, relevance to the students’ lives, expectancy of success and feelings of
being in control and satisfaction in the outcome are also provided specifically by
these authors.
Second, other researchers such as Dornyei (1994) and Oxford (1996) also
spend their time studying this particular issue. In his research, Dornyei specifies that
motivation is involved three levels as follows: the language level, the learner level,
and the learning situation level. The language level focuses on "orientation and
motivates related to various aspect of L2 learning". In other words, at this level the
basic learning goals and language studied are determined by orientation and motives.
The learner level contains the influence of individual characteristic of language
learners. Consequently, motivation is influenced at this level by the learner's needs
for achievement and self-confidence; furthermore, the learner level is concerned
with internal characteristic of the learner related to expectancy. Last but not least,
7

motivation at the learning situation level is influenced by many intrinsic and
extrinsic motives which are course specific, teacher specific and group specific.
Along with Dornyei, Oxford (1996b, p.4) assumes that "perhaps instrumental
motivation or orientation should have a greater prominence in theory and research,
at least in certain settings, most notably foreign language environments". She also
calls for further development of models into research on motivation in L2 learning
"For the sake of students worldwide, we cannot afford to restrict ourselves to a
small set of motivational variables, especially when we know form research in other

week and so on)
Finally, at the third level, learning situation, the strategies are presented in
three components, namely, course-specific motivational, teacher-specific
components, and group-specific components.
At first, in order to achieve course-specific motivational components, the
strategies which can be applied are:
- make the syllabus of the course relevant
- increase the attractiveness of the course content
- discuss with the students the choice of teaching materials
- arouse and sustain curiosity and attention
- increase students' interest and involvement
- match difficulty of tasks with students' abilities
- increase student expectancy of task fulfillment
- facilitate student satisfaction, e.g. allowing students to create finished products
that they can perform or display, encouraging them to be proud of themselves after
accomplishing a task, making a wall chart of what the group has learned, and
celebrating success.
Next, in teacher-specific motivational components, the strategies are:
- try to be empathic, appropriate and accepting
- adopt the role of a facilitator
- promote learner autonomy
9

- model student interest in L2 learning
- introduce tasks such as a way as to stimulate intrinsic motivation and help
internalize extrinsic motivation
- use motivating feedback
Then, in the last component the group-specific, a list of strategies as follows:
- increase the group's goal-orientation
- promote the internalization of classroom norms

people still do not understand it adequately. The application of portfolios has been
in the United States language education for over twenty years.
Mariani (2001) states the two most important functions of language
portfolios are: "a reporting function and a pedagogic function". The former refers to
the administrative use and it often called a "showcase portfolio". In other words, she
considers this function as a way of alternative assessment, which could be used
together with the traditional assessment or even substitute it. The latter relates to the
classroom uses of the portfolio; otherwise, it is called "learning portfolio". She also
adds that this is a collection of something that is a part of a list of students' works
which record how a student implement the process of achieving particular
competencies, and it is not necessary to be considered as a tool of assessment.
Besides, the effectiveness as well as the advantages of the portfolio in L2 are
also viewed as: "[ ] increase the level of students' motivation and to give them a
sense of accomplishment and ownership in their own learning" (Crosby, 1997).
In summary, portfolio in language education is considered as a learning tool
and a form of alternative assessment. Besides, it is assumed that the students would
show their abilities and capacity significantly through the process of doing the
portfolio. Therefore, portfolio will certainly be viewed as a motive to encourage
students in obtaining their language learning aims.
1.2.3. Portfolios in ESL as Alternative Assessment
It seems obvious that there are a large number of ESL teachers complaining
about the problems in which they have to deal with in giving evaluation and
11

assessment to their students. One of the facts is that with the traditional assessment
types, they found them difficult to match with the current teaching methods that are
focused on the central role of the learners, and the emphasis of current language
strategies includes thinking critically, learning to solve problems, and working and
communicating with others (Caner, 2010).
Also, the other fact is that "testing and written examination frequently used

the classroom, it can be entirely integrated into the curriculum. And, almost
products of classwork are the assessed product, so they are not separated from class
activities in contract to test items.
- develops independent and active learners. Portfolio assessment allows students to
take part in the evaluation of their own works because they can decide the content
as well the criteria to assess their portfolio under the directions of the teachers. They
also set their own learning goals and monitor the whole progress.
- gives a profile of learner abilities in terms of:
+ depth: Students are provided the opportunities to show the quality of their work,
which is carried out without pressure and a very limited period of time, and with the
help of reference materials, as well the corporation with their classmates or others.
+ breadth: Students can show a variety of skills. More clearly, the portfolio
assessment can be used to measure academic skills compared to "old style" tests.
+ growth: Students' efforts to enrich their knowledge and competencies are
presented and their learning progress is reflected over a period of time.
- develops social skills. Students are also assessed on work done together, in pairs
or in groups. Thus, their social skills will be advanced accordingly.
- has clear goals. They are decided at the beginning of instruction and are obvious
to teachers and students in the same way.
- serve to individuals in the diversified classroom. Because it is open-ended,
students can show work on their own level. Still, as there is choice, students who
have different learning styles can find it flexibly suitable and permit them to express
their strengths variously.
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- is an efficient tool for demonstrating learning. Diverse types of products and
records of progress are presented in the portfolios so that students' changes over
time are also clearly shown.
Next, in the article "the use of portfolio to assess students' performance",
published in September 2007, the authors conclude that portfolio assessment

portfolios and to give feedback to them; otherwise, utilizing checklists or
observation lists could be a facilitator to analyze process.
In summary, as a matter of fact, each issue always exists two various sides,
which are positive and negative; accordingly, before conducting the using of
portfolio assessment, teachers should consider all its matters carefully, in detail and
predict in advance the unexpected problems that may occur in the history of its
conduct.
1.2.5. Portfolio Assessment Model
Surely, in the literature, the design and application stages of portfolio
assessment have been researched by many authors such as Barnhardt et al. (1998)
and Moya and O'Malley (1994).
First, in Moya and O'Malley's views, the proposed portfolio assessment
model for ESL includes six interrelated levels of assessment activities that are the
following:
a) identify the purpose and focus of the portfolio procedure
- establish a portfolio committee and a focus for the portfolio
b) plan portfolio contents
- select assessment procedures, specify portfolio contents, and determine the
frequency of assessment.
c) design portfolio analysis
- set standards and criteria for interpretation of portfolio contents, determine the
procedure for integrating portfolio information and schedule staff responsibilities
for portfolio analysis.
(d) prepare for instructional use
15

- plan instructional use and feedback to students and parents
e) identify procedures to verify the accuracy of the information
i.e., establish a system to check the reliability of portfolio information and to
validate instructional decisions

come the motivation in L2 learning and some strategies to motivate language
learner. In addition, the background knowledge of portfolio assessment is clearly
presented such as defining portfolio, portfolios in language education, and
portfolios in ESL as an alternative assessment. Finally, the advantages and
disadvantages of portfolio assessment as well as the portfolio assessment model are
discussed and analyzed as a main part for the study.

17

CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY
The previous chapter has reviewed the literature work in motivation and
portfolio assessment. This chapter will focus on the details of the practical study,

and the measurement and evaluation for grade 9 students in English subject are a
little bit difficult and challenging for them. Consequently, it is commonly agreed
that the major objective of the teaching English at lower secondary schools is to
help the students to get good marks in the achievement tests.
2.1.2. The subject of the study
The research is conducted at Nam Hai lower secondary school with the
participation of thirty-eight 9
th
form students in a class considered to be one of the
best classes at this school. Through the thesis, they are coded from S1 to S38
according to their classroom name's list. Frankly, to those students, English is not
their prioritized subject, compared to mathematics and literatures, which are the
compulsory subjects for them to take the entrance examination to the upper
secondary school. Accordingly, English is not paid much attention to by students, or
even by their teachers. To some extent, through the questionnaire, they also
mentioned a wide range of reasons why they were demotivated in learning English,
which will be discussed in details in the following chapter.
2.1.3. The researcher
The researcher and her collaborator are teachers at this school. They have
been teaching English for more than four years. Through the process of composing
the portfolio assessment project, the researcher is responsible for establishing,
instructing, observing, supervising and marking the portfolio. Before the project
started, the researcher and her collaborator had arranged to meet and discuss about
all the methods, contents, procedures and time allocation for the research. They also
anticipated the problems that might occur in the entire progress, and tried to find the
solutions to solve them. Furthermore, the researcher also asked for her opinions
about some related issues in teaching and learning English subject in the class she
was assigned to be the main English teacher. Apart from these, it must be noticeable
19



about portfolio and portfolio assessment (question 8, 9), and students' preferences
about activities in learning English subject (question 10).
Besides, it was piloted on three students to see whether they understood the
questionnaire clearly and provided correct answers. Before filling in the
questionnaire, students were given a brief and clear explanation about the aim of the
questionnaire. They were also instructed and helped by the researcher during the
process of answering the questionnaire. After collecting their questionnaires, the
writer found out that those students did not have any problem completing the
questionnaire, so she decided to distribute this pre-treatment questionnaire to all the
students in the class. She also guided and provided help for them when they were
completing the questionnaire in the class.
2.2.2. Students' portfolios
The students portfolios were utilized as one instrument to find out the valid
and reliable data for the analysis. All collected portfolios of the students were
analyzed so as to discover the attitudes of the students towards the portfolio
assessment project, the effects of this program on students' motivation and
proficiency in learning English (see samples in Appendix 7). On the other hand,
although there was abundant evidence collected from students' portfolios, within
this minor thesis only three portfolios' sources were used, i.e. cover letters, scores of
portfolios, and scores of a 45-minute written test. The cover letters of the students
were devised in the form of a questionnaire in which students were invited to
answer three questions as follows:
1. What can you increase from doing the portfolio?
2. In the process of composing the portfolio, what difficulties did you meet?
3. Can you give some suggestions to make the portfolio more interesting and
beneficial to you and your learning of English subject?
After analyzing and comparing the data of the other two sources, some
computation was made to display the relation between the scores of the portfolios