Wang believes that writing practice combined with reading comprehension can improvelearners’writing ability.The level of foreign language learning efficiency is positivelycorrelated with the degree of integration of language comprehension and output,that is,thecloser the combination of the two,the stronger the synergistic effect,and the better theforeign language learning effect.Continuation writing closely links language comprehensionand output,while simultaneously meeting the characteristics of modern English teaching,such as relatively few opportunities for listening and speaking and many opportunities forreading and writing.
Therefore,continuation writing is theoretically possible.It can significantly improve theefficiency of foreign language learning and the learners’English writing ability.
2.2 Portfolio Assessment
2.2.1 Definition of Portfolio Assessment
The wide use of portfolio assessment in language teaching and learning has given rise toits various definitions in the past three decades.
Portfolio assessment,as a qualitative evaluation technique emerged with the evaluationreform movement in the 1980s to improve the isolation of evaluation from the intellectualcontext.The portfolio was seen as a selection of relevant materials,which combined theteacher’s and students’feedback.It provided a chance for the instructor to further evaluatestudents’progress in their writing portfolio assessment process(Moya,1994).Moya referredto the word‘evaluate’for the first time.
Moreover,Delett,Barnhardt and Kevorkian(1998)argued that portfolio assessmentswere systematic,longitudinal collections of students’work created for specific,known instructional goals and assessed against the same criteria.Ruo(2009)claimed that portfolioassessment was an assessment method combining students’learning,reflection,sharing andimprovement while learning and growth to give full play to the advantages of learning.Similarly,Brett(2014)stated that portfolios assimilated learning and reflection,and a capableprofessional was needed to collect these materials.
Thus,portfolio assessment is a process assessment tool,by means of which studentsselect,collect,and reflect on their writings to demonstrate their progress.In the meanwhile,teachers can appropriately help students,for example by explaining the assessment criteria tostudents.
Chapter Three Methodology.........................19
3.1 Research Questions..............................19
3.2 Participants.............................20
3.3 Instruments..................................20
Chapter Four Results and Discussion.............................31
4.1 The Effect of Portfolio Assessment on Students’Continuation Writing Self-efficacy................31
4.1.1 The Effect of Portfolio Assessment on Continuation Writing Task Self-efficacy.................33
4.1.2 The Effect of Portfolio Assessment on Continuation Writing Skill Self-efficacy.....................36
Chapter Five Conclusion..........................50
5.1 Major Findings...........................50
5.2 Pedagogical Implications...............................51
5.3 Limitations and Suggestions for Further Study......................53
Chapter Four Results and Discussion
4.1 The Effect of Portfolio Assessment on Students’Continuation WritingSelf-efficacy
It is necessary to test the presence of normality(Hair et al.,2010).The skewness andkurtosis tests were conducted to check whether the data were normally distributed.As seen inTable 4.1,the skewness and kurtosis indices ranged from-.415 to.519 and-1.177 to-.193,respectively,within the ranges of|3|and|8|recommended by Kline(2015).Thus,thenormality of the data was guaranteed.
As is shown by the 5-point Likert Scale,if the mean value of the item is between 2.4
