The impact of portfolios and conferencing on Iranian EFL learners’ writing skill

Abstract

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of portfolios and conferencing techniques on Iranian EFL learners' writing skill. The experiment involved Iranian intermediate students that were randomly assigned to two experimental groups and one control group. The participants of the first experimental group were asked to provide portfolios of their 4 paragraphs during the course and after each paragraph they were supposed to assess themselves and answer a self-assessment checklist (they were supposed to write four paragraphs during the course). The participants in the second experimental group were asked to take part in four whole class and two individual conferences after writing each paragraph. The participants of control group based on the traditional approach just received their scoured writings without any oral and written feedback by the teacher. The result of the study showed that there was significant difference between performance of the two experimental groups and that of the control group on the post test. No significant difference was found between the performance of the two experimental groups after implementing portfolios and conferencing techniques