Self-assessment of Writing in a Portfolio Program: A Case of Iranian EFL Learners

Abstract

After moving away from the psychometric and the integrative language testing paradigms toward the communicative language testing paradigm, experts in writing and assessment have been concerned with creating conditions under which learners can experience and display writing in an authentic way so that their writings will tally the ones in non-test situations. As an alternative assessment option, portfolio-based writing assessment has recently received considerable attention in the field of ESL/EFL writing. However, self- assessment as a corner stone of portfolio pedagogy has received scant empirical attention in the second/foreign language teaching literature. Therefore, the present study aimed at comparing teacher assessment and students' self-assessment of writing in a portfolio program in Iranian EFL context. Also, it aimed at eliciting students' perceptions about self-assessment. To analyze data, independent samples t-test was used. The results showed that there is a significant difference between teacher's assessment and students' self-assessment at the beginning and the end of the portfolio program. Students' perceptions were also elicited through interviews. The results seem to have some implications for curriculum development and teaching and assessment of L2 writing.