PART I: INTRODUCTION
Over the recent decades, educators all over the world have become more and more
interested in applying alternative assessment practices.

Other than traditional,

standardized forms of testing such as multiple-choice, these innovative practices can
properly assess students’ growth and development at school. Portfolio and project-based
assessment are two among such several authentic and non-traditional assessment
techniques in education, which are particularly applicable to EFL classes.
Despite the increasing popularity of using portfolio and project assessment tools
worldwide, learning English in Vietnam is still strongly examination-focused, especially
at high school level. Examinations in English are largely grammar-based, testing the
students' knowledge of grammatical structures and vocabulary. The final score during a
semester is generally the combination of the scores of two oral tests, two fifteen-minuteat-class written tests, two forty-five-minute-at-class written tests and one final semester
written examination. For gifted English students, some speaking tests are often added in
which the teacher normally asks students to give a small talk about one common topic.
At the end of the 12th grade, another national paper exam will determine high school
graduation and the exam results will be used as the basis for university entrance
admission. It cannot be denied that these traditional testing methods fail to take into
account students' growth and development as well as high-order skills required for
university-level study. As a result, different assessment methods should be used instead
of relying solely on a test aimed at measuring past achievement and learning. Other high
quality assessment methods such as portfolio and project should be employed to promote
students’ genuine improvement, which is especially important to English gifted students.
As far as the writers are concerned, portfolio and project have been more and more
widely used at many language-specialized universities right at the first year; however,
they are still “alien and complicated” methods to many high school teachers. Within the
limited scope of the paper, the authors aim to introduce the application of these two new
assessment methods in teaching writing paragraphs and speaking skill to English classes
at their own high school. Following the review of definitions, advantages and challenges

3. Selection: The selection stage is a decision-making process in which collected
artifacts are stored and selected for inclusion in the portfolio.
4. Reflection: Reflection stage is often considered the most important step in
portfolio development. During the reflection process, students justify their selections,
highlight important learning gains, explain relevant skills and knowledge, and identify
areas for improvement.
5. Connection: In the connection stage, students expand on their reflections to
connect acquired knowledge and skills gained from portfolio assessment with course
goals and learning objectives.
3. Writing portfolio
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In writing, portfolio assessment is a technique to improve students' writing performance.
Students are asked to choose their best pieces of writing to put in portfolio to submit
assessment. Students can also include those samples of writing that represent the
development of writing process, including writing plan, different drafts, and evaluation
sheets.
The whole procedure of using portfolio assessment for writing skill is summarized in the
diagram below:
Step 1

-Discuss the
purpose,
content of
portfolio

Step 2

1. Write up first

- Teacher’s
evaluation for
students’
portfolios

5. Write final
version
6. Students’
reflection
7. Teacher’s
evaluation

8. Put all the
stuffsprocedure
in the
Adopted portfolio
from the Training Material by MOET
In detail, the procedure isportfolio
divided into three main steps as follows:

• Step 1: planning
In the first piloted-portfolio writing class, the teacher and the students discuss together
about the purpose of portfolio. The aim of the portfolios is to help students identify their
strengths and weaknesses, to show their progress overtime and also for grading purpose.
Accordingly, the content of portfolios is also decided that include all the students’ stuffs
such as drafts, feedbacks, reflections, teacher’s evaluation sheets and final versions.
However, at last, students would choose three final versions in their favor and their

3


express what their favorite writing piece in their portfolios is and what writing piece they
are the most dissatisfied with, and state the reasons. To do this, students use Portfolio
reflection sheet.

4


Also, students are asked to select the necessary artifacts including three final versions and
their attached drafts, peer review feedbacks, teacher’s comments, teacher’s evaluation
sheets and self reflection sheets for grading aim. They are reminded to select carefully
and thoughtfully based on what versions they find the best ones or the most meaningful
to them. Then, students are asked to design the cover of their portfolios in their own
ways.
Finally, teacher collects and evaluated all the portfolios based on the Portfolio rubric.
4. Advantages of portfolio assessment
Portfolios offer a number of advantages to both teachers and learners.
To teachers, Hedge (2000) states that portfolio assessment is seen as a more
comprehensive portrait of students’ writing ability than one essay composed under
restricted circumstances. Thus, evaluating portfolios instead of only one impromptu
timed writing sample of students will put teachers in a better position to make
informed judgments about students’ writing ability. To put it in another way, by
employing portfolio assessment in addition to standardized testing, foreign language
teachers can understand their students’ strengths and weaknesses thoroughly, wrote
Shohamy (1992).
As regards students, they benefit the most when they receive feedback while they are still
working on a paper rather than after the paper has been graded. Portfolios can encourage
students to be independent learners, taking responsibility for their own learning. Students
have to review their writing and decide which pieces they will present to their teachers
and/or what they would like teachers to see in that writing” (p. 109) Hirvela and Pierson
(2000). In addition, the application of portfolio assessment enhances students’ skills in

and evaluate students in this process.
Another criticism surrounding portfolio assessment is the issue of reliability and validity.
According to O’Malley et al. (1994) there might be a possibility of subjectivity and lack
of consensus with other teachers because portfolio assessment relies on teacher
judgments to produce a score. Without reliability while producing the same score with
different raters, there might be concerns about inconsistent rating in portfolio assessment.
If an assessment system is not reliable, it is not also valid. Validity is about determining
how adequately portfolios exemplify students‟ work, development and abilities, and
whether portfolio purposes and the decisions made according to these purposes match
(Brown & Hudson, 1998). Dealing with these challenges is not easy for teachers and
requires commitment. Despite these challenges, it is important to ensure the balance
between the benefits and challenges of portfolio implementation with a careful design
and clear guidelines for the contents of the portfolios.
6. Authentic sample

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10th grade gifted students were asked to write paragraphs of different genres (i.e.
description, advantages and disadvantages, cause-and-effect, comparison and contrast)
during the term. The students completed the writing plan for the topics they choose and
write their first drafts at class, which were then commented by their peers at home on the
peer-comment worksheet. The next day, at class, the students wrote the second drafts
based on their peer comments. All the second drafts were submitted to the teacher who
will further commented before they wrote the final drafts (version 3). It is noteworthy
that the teacher signed at the end of the first and second draft to minimize any chances of
cheating. In short, the portfolio project required that students write paragraphs of
different genres. They revisited, reflected on and revised the paragraphs in response
to peer and teacher feedback during the term. For each genre, the students collected all
the related papers in one entry, including the writing plan, first draft, second drafts, final



12


13


14


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PARAGRAPH SCORING BY MOET (2014)
Mô tả tiêu chí đánh giá
1.

Bố cục
-

2.

0.40

Câu đề dẫn chủ đề mạch lạc (Câu chủ đề (Topic
sentence) nêu ý chính của đoạn văn
Bố cục hợp lí rõ ràng phù hợp yêu cầu của đề bài
Có thể có câu kết luận (Concluding sentence) tóm
tắt ý chính của đoạn văn, hoặc đưa ra một gợi ý,


-

5.

Đủ thuyết phục người đọc
Đủ dẫn chứng, ví dụ, lập luận
Độ dài: số từ không được nhiều hơn hoặc ít hơn so
với quy định 5%
Ngữ pháp, đấu câu, và chính tả
-

-

0.25

Sử dụng đúng dấu câu
Chính tả: viết đúng chính tả
+ Lỗi chính tả gây hiểu nhầm/sai lệch ý sẽ bị tính
một lỗi (trừ 1% điểm của bài viết)
+ Cùng một lỗi chính tả lặp lại chỉ tính là một lỗi
Sử dụng đúng thời, thể, cấu trúc câu đúng ngữ
pháp.

Tổng

1.50

CHAPTER TWO: PROJECT ASSESSMENT
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challenging and motivating such that students can develop and have the flexibility to
work at their own level, while team members within the group offer advice and
assistance. This is an important feature as it contributes to a successful outcome.
2.2. Developing the project: this stage involves the research which is undertaken
by all group members either individually, in pairs, or as a group. This should be
decided by the group before commencing the project. Students search for
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information to answer their driven question, note down the results they achieve,
any problems they encounter and ways to solve them. This is an efficient process
that can be used to improve the project as it progresses.
2.3. Reporting to the class: this stage involves presenting and receiving
feedback from other students on the progress of and improvements to the project. The
steps occurring throughout the project are assessed to make sure that students
comprehend the problems and apply the skills and concepts necessary to complete
the project.
2.4. Assessing the project: the final product can be evaluated by an
individual student, students as a group, a teacher or external audience. This stage allows
students to apply and present what they have learned.
3. Assessment of project
Assessment of PBL can be difficult and challenging compared to the assessment of
traditional learning. Students in PBL are assessed by various means such as “traditional
paper-and-pen tests to new modes of assessment: case-based assessment, self and peer
assessment, performance-based assessment and portfolio assessment”. However, there
are some arguments that standardized tests are inappropriate to evaluate students’
learning outcomes in PBL.
In disciplines rather than language teaching, various assessment practices can be
integrated. For example, homework assignments, laboratory exercises, final project
papers and presentations can be employed to measure learning outcomes, while

Practical Examinations
These examinations are used to ensure that students are able to apply skills learned during
the course.
Concept maps
Much of learning that goes on during problem-based learning is more than just a
compilation of facts. As such, written examinations may not be an adequate measure of
student growth. Requiring students to generate concept maps, in which they depict their
knowledge through the creation of identified node and links, may present another option
to determining their cognitive growth.
Peer assessment
Because life outside the classroom usually requires working with others, peer assessment
is a viable option to measure student growth. Providing students with an evaluation rubric
often helps guide the peer evaluation process. This process also emphasizes the
cooperative nature of the PBL environment.
Self assessment
An important element of problem-based learning is to help students identify gaps in their
knowledge base in order for more meaningful learning to result. Self assessment allows

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students to think more carefully about what they know, what they do not know, and what
they need to know to accomplish certain tasks.
Facilitators/tutor assessment
The feedback provided by tutors should encourage the students to explore different ideas.
It is important that facilitators not dominate the group, facilitate learning and exploration.
Tutor assessment may consist of how successful individuals interacted with their group
and their cognitive growth.
Oral presentations
Because so much of work life revolves around presenting ideas and results to peers, oral

• Developing higher-order thinking skills
• Increasing motivation
4.1. Enhancing academic achievement and content knowledge relevant to the
course.
As PBL allows students to have first-hand experience of the topic being studied
through their project, it is evident that students can reflect on their experience and
make a meaningful transition between the in-depth project and the topic of the study.
4.2. Increasing autonomous learning.
PBL offers students an opportunity to direct their own learning by setting their
own objectives. They acquire the knowledge of the targeted theme at their own pace
and in their own time and they become more responsible in their learning to achieve
education value from the outcome
4.3. Gaining important life skills.
PBL allows students to be actively involved in their own education through
projects. Students have opportunities to undertake field work, speak to experts, carry
out a variety of investigations and gather materials to develop the project. When
students enter the real world, knowledge construction and life skills are necessary
(Markham, et al., 2003). PBL develops not only knowledge of the topic but also
boosts “learner’s problem-solving skills, research skills, collaboration and resource
management skills, negotiation, organisation and interpersonal relations” (Stanley,
2000, p.4).
4.4. Developing higher-order thinking skills.
Higher-order thinking skills are one of the main benefits of undertaking PBL;
students develop skills in analysing and interpreting data and other cognitive processes
that lead to in-depth understanding (Curtis, 2002; McGrath, 2002-2003). To
accomplish learning goals, students need to think, plan, analyse, research, develop
technology, learn inquiry skills and complete the process, and this leads to the
production of high-quality outcomes.
4.5. Increasing motivation.
As students choose their own project and set their own goals, they are aware that

5.2 Crafting questions.
According to a study on integrating PBL into science classrooms (Marx,
Blumenfeld, Krajcik & Soloway, as cited in Thomas, 2000), students had difficulty
creating important scientific questions because their experience in and concept
of crafting questions was limited. Additionally, analysing and assessing data and
developing reasons to support the data and the conclusions were mentioned as
problems.
5.3 Keeping focus.
In a study of ESL students and their use of PBL (Beckett, Moulton & Holmes, as
22


cited in Beckett & Slater, 2005), it was revealed that 57% of students felt that the
project work took their attention away from their learning. As the students had
enrolled in an English language course, they expected English grammar and
vocabulary which they believed could improve their language learning. They
felt unhappy to produce non-linguistic assignments.
5.4 Concerns of teachers.
Teachers sometimes have difficulty selecting topics for the study that
match the curriculum plans to the needs of the students (Marx, Blumenfeld,
Krajcik, and Soloway, as cited in Curtis, 2002). In addition, the same study found
that time limitations can also be a problem with in-depth exploration of
projects often requiring more time than expected. Teachers were concerned
regarding the role of the teacher in setting task requirements, scaffolding
activities, creating rubrics, and assessing students’ projects. Similarly, the study
of integrating PBL in social studies by Okolo and Ferretti (2001) found that
some teachers are not well-practised in managing the goals and needs of
student groups engaging in individual learning activities, which can lead to
chaotic and negative student behaviour.
6. Authentic sample

- Apply knowledge acquired in lessons of Physics, Chemistry, Geography, Biology, and
Technology to identify causes, consequences and solutions to hometown pollution
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- Language: role-play
- New words: words related to nature in danger
2. Skills:
- collect and analyze information
- apply inter-subject knowledge
- group work, presentation and role-play
II. Method: integrated, mainly communicative, role-play
III. Teaching aids: projectors, pictures, handouts
IV. Procedure:
Time
Session 1
Date
15/12/2014

Teacher’s activities
-

Introduce

Ss

Students’ activities

“Project-based -


Group 2: Water pollution

Week

Group 3: Soil pollution

information, submit scenario

2:

Research
Analyze

and
and

collect
process

- Supervise Ss to determine the Week 3: Set the play
outline with 3 main parts – causes, Week 4: Role-play
consequences and solutions
- Provide Ss with some information
resources:

library,

Internet,

observation in real life, interview…