The Effectiveness of Portfolio on Developing the Reading and Writing Skills of EFL Students at the Secondary Stage

Abstract

It was the purpose of the present study to in vestigate the effecti veness of portfolio on developing reading and writing skills of EFL students at the secondary stage to explore whether it is feasible to apply it on Egyptian students. The subjects of the present study were 50 first year secondary students who were assigned equally to the two groups of the study. The tool s used in this study were the pre - post students' reading & writing test " The Pre-Post SRWT" , The pre - post student 's self - assessment questionnaire "The Pre­ Post SSAQ", The Marking Scheme "The MS", The Writing Analytical Scoring Rubric " The WASR " The Portfolio Holist ic Scoring Rubric "The PHSR ", a Checklist for Portfolio Sel f, Peer and Rater Assessment, Th e Post Students' Questionnaire "The PSQ" and The Students Working Pm1folio Program. The working portfolio program was admin istered to the experimental group in the second term of the academic school year 20011 2002 at one of the experimenta l secondary schools in Ca iro. Results showed that the work ing portfolio program was effecti ve in enhancing the experimental group reading, writing and self assessment skills. Analyzing students' portfolio content reflects increase of students' higher level thinking skills, variation of topics and styles, increase in fluency and in crease in accuracy. In addition, the results of the PSQ sh owed a degree of satisfaction among stud ents after using the po11folio program. Impli cation and recommendati ons as well as suggestions for further studi es were prov ided.