This document discusses the definition of writing and approaches to teaching writing skills. It defines writing as using graphic symbols like letters and words to communicate ideas and expresses thoughts. The document also discusses two main approaches to teaching writing: the product approach, which focuses on the final written work, and the process approach, which focuses on the process of planning, drafting, and revising.

1. VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY-HA NOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGE & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES
*****************
ĐINH THỊ NHUNG
A STUDY ON THE APPLICATION OF WRITING
PORTFOLIO TECHNIQUE TO SECOND YEAR ENGLISH
MAJORS: AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT AT HANOI
COLLEGE OF COMMERCE AND TOURISM
Nghiên cứu về việc sử dụng hồ sơ bài làm trong môn viết đối với
sinh viên chuyên ngành tiếng Anh năm thứ hai: Nghiên cứu
hành động tại trường cao đẳng thương mại và du lịch Hà nội
M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS
Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60140111
Hanoi - 2016

2. VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY-HA NOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGE & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES
*****************
ĐINH THỊ NHUNG
A STUDY ON THE APPLICATION OF WRITING
PORTFOLIO TECHNIQUE TO SECOND YEAR ENGLISH
MAJORS: AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT AT HANOI
COLLEGE OF COMMERCE AND TOURISM
Nghiên cứu về việc sử dụng hồ sơ bài làm trong môn viết đối với
sinh viên chuyên ngành tiếng Anh năm thứ hai: Nghiên cứu
hành động tại trường cao đẳng thương mại và du lịch Hà nội
M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS
Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60140111
Supervisor: Dr. Đỗ Tuấn Minh
Hanoi - 2016

3. i
DECLARATION
I, the author of this research, certify that this thesis is result of my own work and that I
have provided fully documented references to the work of others. The material in this
research has not been submitted for a degree to any other university or institution
Hanoi,2016
Đinh Thị Nhung

4. ii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to express my most sincere gratitude and thankfulness to my supervisor,
Dr. Do Tuan Minh, for his detailed instructions from the beginning of the thesis to the
valuable comments till the end.
I would like to express my gratitude to all of my lecturers at faculty of post-graduate
studies as well, who provided me with precious knowledge and helped me gained
unforgettable experiences in pursuing my studies.
Certainly, this study would not have been completed without the participation of the
students at Hanoi College of Commerce and Tourism. I thank them for their enthusiastic
attitude in learning and participating in the study. Besides, I am deeply indebted to Ms Luu
Thi Duyen, the Dean of English Department at Hanoi College of Commerce and Tourism,
who helped and supported me all the time.
My deepest appreciation is for my husband who always supported and encouraged me
with his love so that I could finish my thesis
Without all their help, this thesis would not be completed as expected

5. iii
ABSTRACT
This action research explores the effects of writing portfolio technique on second year
students’ writing skill and the possible challenges encountering by both teachers and
students during the application process. Students created portfolios by including all the
final drafts and rough drafts into a folder; and together with students’ submitted portfolios,
two sets of questionnaires: pre and post-portfolio questionnaires, and interviews are also
used to collect the data for the research. The findings showed that the portfolio technique
not only helped to improve students’ writing skill, especially in terms of vocabulary, and
grammar, which meet student’s demands but also changed students’ attitude to the writing
skill positively and contributed to the development of students’ other skills such as
commenting, editing, reading, internet using, and group work skill as well. However,
during the process, there happened some problems. For example, this method requires
students to give written feedbacks to each other, which is quite challenging to them.
Especially, students quite easily got demotivated by negative comments from their peers.
Or, students felt boring and tiring when having to write up to three drafts for the same
topics. Nevertheless, the benefits of this technique outweigh all and prove to be effective in
helping students learning writing.

6. iv
LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS
Page
1.Chart 1: Students’ attitude to Writing 25
2. Chart 2: Students spending time on practising and developing the
writing skill
26
3. Chart 3: The subject with lowest score 27
4. Chart 4: What students want to improve in writing skill 28
5. Chart 5: Students’ knowledge about the use of portfolio 29
6. Chart 6: Students’ agreement to the improvement of their
vocabulary knowledge
30
7. Chart 7: What students improve in terms of vocabulary 31
8. Chart 8: Students’ agreement to the improvement of their grammar
knowledge
32
9. Chart 9: What students improve in terms of grammar 33
10. Table 1: Students’ attitude to writing 34
11. Table 2: Students’ opinion towards writing portfolio 35
12. Table 3: Summary of submitted portfolios 38

7. v
TABLE OF CONTENTS page
DECLARATION i
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ii
ABSTRACTS iii
LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS iv
PART I: INTRODUCTION 1
1.1 Rationale of the study 1
1.2 Objectives of the study 2
1.3 Research questions 2
1.4 Scope of the study 3
1.5 Method of the study 3
1.6 Design of the study 3
PART II: DEVELOPMENT 5
CHAPTER 1: Literature Review 5
2.1 Writing and Teaching Writing skill 5
2.1.1 Definition of Writing 5
2.1.2 Approaches to Teaching Writing skill 6
2.1.2.1 Product Approach 6
2.1.2.2 Process Aprroach 8
2.2 Portfolios in Writing 10
2.2.1 Definition of Portfolios 10
2.2.2 Characteristics of Portfolios 11
2.2.3 Types and Contents of Portfolios 12
2.2.4 The effects of Portfolios on Writing skill 16
2.2.5 Summary 17
CHAPTER 2: Research Methodology 18
3.1 Context of the study 18
3.1.1 The college 18
3.1.2 Teachers and students 18
3.1.3 The writing course 19
3.2 Participants 20

8. vi
3.3 Data collection instruments 20
3.3.1 Survey questionnaires 20
3.3.1.1 Pre-portfolio questionnaire 20
3.3.1.2 Post-portfolio questionnaire and interviews 21
3.3.2 Submitted portfolios 21
3.3.2.1 The type of submitted portfolios 21
3.3.2.2 Portfolio evaluation 22
3.4 Procedures 23
CHAPTER 3: Data Analysis and Discussion 25
4.1 Data analysis of students’ pre-portfolio questionnaire before the
application process
25
4.1.1 Students’ attitudes to the writing skill 25
4.1.2 Students’ time studying writing skill 26
4.1.3 Students’ score on writing 27
4.1.4 What students hope to improve most in writing 28
4.1.5 Students’ knowledge of portfolios 29
4.2 Data analysis of students’ post-portfolio questionnaire after the
application process
30
4.2.1 Students’ vocabulary knoweledge 30
4.2.2 Students’ grammar knowledge 32
4.2.3 Students’ attitude to writing skill 34
4.2.4 student’s opinions towards portfolio 35
4.3 Data analysis of interview after the application process 36
4.3.1 Problems of portfolio 36
4.3.2 Benefits fo portfolio 36
4.4 Data analysis of students’ submitted portfolios 38
4.4.1 Fluency analysis 39
4.4.2 Accuracy analysis 40
4.4.3 Complexity analysis 41
4.5 Summary 42
CHAPTER 4: Findings and Suggestions for Using Portfolio Technique in 43

9. vii
Writing
5.1 Major findings and discussions 43
5.1.1 Students’ attitude to writing skill 43
5.1.2 The effects of writing portfolio technique in students’view 44
5.1.3 Teacher and students’ difficulties in implementing writing portfolio
technique
45
5.2 Suggestions for teachers when applying portfolios in writing 45
5.3 Summary 46
PART III: CONCLUSION 47
6.1 Summary of the study 47
6.2 Limitation of the study 48
6.3 Suggestions for further research 48
References 49
Appendix 1: Pre-portfolio questionnaire I
Appendix 2: Post-portfolio questionnaire III
Appendix 3: Interview questions V
Appendix 4: Writing checklist VI

10. 1
PART I: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Rationale of the thesis
Nowadays, it cannot be denied that globalization is affecting every corner of the
world and that due to it most countries are experiencing changes in aspects like
economics, politics, education and culture; and in that globalised world, English is
considered a main medium of communication. Therefore, it seems obvious that if a
nation wishes catching up with others in those aspects, its government should raise
public awareness about the significance of English and motivate them to learn and
master the language.
Recognizing this social trend, Vietnamese educational authorities have
implemented specific policies encouraging their citizens to learn and use English.
Now, English is a compulsory subject which is taught from primary schools to
universities and an obligatory one in Vietnamese national exams. Furthermore, various
professional courses and conferences aimed at enhancing English teachers’ teaching
skills and language competence are provided to ensure a better educational service.
Also, English teachers are required to get appropriate certificates aligned with CEFR
to be qualified for the job.
What’s more? More and more state-owned or private companies, factories or
organisations prefer and employ only labor who demonstrate their ability to use
English at work and these employees are paid much higher and easily get promotion
than others. Apparently, English is one of measures for one’s career success.
The above reasons explain why teaching and learning English is recieving much
concern from society. Scholars, educators or teachers are continuously exploring
suitable and effective teaching approaches and teaching methods to improve the
English teaching and learning quality. Especially, teachers who directly work with
students and understand their needs, their intersts, their learning styles play an
important role in helping students achieve their academic and future professional
success. Therefore, it’s the teacher’s duty to discover and solve problems which the
majority of his students have.

11. 2
Working as a teacher at Hanoi College of Commerce and Tourism and teaching four
skills: reading, writing, speaking and listening to English majors, there has always
been a question for me that why students are not very interested in writing class and
their performance in writing tests prove disappointing results. Being aware of the
unsolved problem and of a teacher’s responsibility, I would like to investigate the
situation. That is the reason why I am going to conduct this research with the hope that
a new teaching method will benefit students, making them keen on the subject, and
improving their writing skill.
1.2 Objectives of the thesis
This research intends to investigate the possible issues happening during the application
process of writing portfolio technique and examine its effects on second-year
students’writing skill at Hanoi College of Commerce and Tourism
The specific objectives of the thesis are:
(1) To find out what the effects of portfolio on improving learners’ writing skill are.
(2) To find out what problems emerging in the application process are.
The research hopes to benefit students and teachers at Hanoi College of Commerce and
Tourism and to be useful for reference.
1.3 Research questions
The thesis is carried out in order to find out the answers to two research questions:
(1)To what extent do second year students at Hanoi College of Commerce and Tourism
improve their writing skill through the application of writing portfolio technique?
(2) What challenges may teacher and students encounter in using writing portfolio
technique?

12. 3
1.4 Scope of the study
The study focuses on only second year English majors at Hanoi College of
Commerce and Tourism because these students have already learnt writing skill for one
semester in the first year of college. Therefore, they can probably identify their difficulties
in writing skill. Besides, they do not know portfolio technique. As a result, it is easier to
examine the effects of portfolio technique on students and explore the difficulties emerging
in the application process.
1.5 Method of the study
To improve the validity of the research result, both qualitative and quantitative data will
be collected in order to explore the effects of portfolio technique on students and the
difficulties in the application process
Two main research instruments will be used to collect the data: survey questionnaires
(pre and post-portfolio questionnaires) and submitted portfolio analysis. Besides, teacher’s
notes and informal talks between teacher and students are also manipulated to increase the
reliability of student’s information about the effects and difficulties of using portfolio
technique
1.6 . Design of the study
The study consists of three parts:
Part I: Introduction
This part presents the rationale, the objectives, the scope and the organization of the
study
Part II: Development
This is the main part of the study. It is divided into three chapters
Chapter 1: Literature review
This part presents the theoretical background relevant to the topic
Chapter 2: Methodology

13. 4
In this chapter, detailed procedure of the study is presented: population selection, and
methodology for data collection and data analysis
Chapter 3: Data analysis
In this chapter, all the data collected from pre- and post- portfolio questionnaires,
informal interviews as well as the portfolios will be analyzed in detail.
Chapter 4: Findings and suggestions for using portfolio technique in writing
The findings drawn out from the analysis of data will be dealt with in this chapter.
The findings and discussion base on the information gained through the two
questionnaires, informal conversations between participants and the researcher, as well as
through the students’ submitted portfolios.
Part III: Conclusion
In this part, the researcher will summarize major findings of the study and also she
provides the implication for English teachers as well as recommendations for further
resrearch

14. 5
PART II: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1. Writing and Teaching Writing skill
2.1.1 Definition of writing
Writing can be considered a very important means of communication. However, the
context of writing is through words alone and there is no immediate or direct interaction
between the writer and the audience so it is highly required that the author needs to provide
a clear and comprehensive message to avoid misunderstanding for readers.
So, specifically what is writing?
“When we write we use graphic symbols that is letters or combinations of letters which
relate to the sounds we make when we speak” ( Byrne, 1979 ) or “Writing can be said to be
the art of performing graphic symbols” ( Byrne 1990:1). Words, sentences are then formed
by symbols being arranged properly and in an organised way. Besides, when our
communication is done by writing, ideas will be expressed by different ways of combining
and arranging words or sentences which lead writers to drafting, revising or even
redrafting. “Good writing gets your ideas out of your head and into the reader’s head
without losing or distorting those ideas” (Leki 1976:4). Our thoughts and ideas are
translated into language and are represented through writing, which is expected to be able
to communicate with our readers successfully. Those above processes could be the nature
of writing, which clearly include the sub-skills such as drafting, editing, revising or
organising, etc.
Writing is really a complicated process, which, according to Murray (1978:29) and Perl
(1979:43) is “a creative discovery procedure characterized by the dynamic interplay of
concten and language: the use of language to explore beyond the known content.” In a
social perspective, “Writing is therefore an engagement in social process, where the
production of texts reflects methodologies, arguments and rhetorical strategies constructed
to engage colleagues and persuade them of the claims that are made” (Candlin and Hyland
(1999:107).

15. 6
What’s more, Writing is an important skill needed to develop for communicating with
others and one should keep in mind that to become a good writer, for both native speakers
or non native speakers, it requires a very hard work. Besides, as for teachers teaching
writing skill, it is necessary for them to understand that there is not much difference
between the process of learning writing skill in first and second language. According to
Fitzgeral (2006) , second language learners’ developmental process of writing skills in
English does not differ much from native speakers of English, except that “one special
aspect that target language learners bring to their writing is their bicultural and bilingual
experiences” (Hyland, 2003). It is due to the fact that foreign language learners have a
tendency of using their first language knowledge and their different strategies when writing
in the second lanuage, which is perhaps caused by the gap in the learners knowledge
between their first and second language. In other words it is “the use of linguistic or prior
skills to assist in comprehension or production” (O’Malley and Chammot, (1996:120)).
Hence, while students write in second language, there will be some interference of their
first language like phonology, vocabulary or grammar.
In short, writing can be defined differently according to different views and the nature
of writing, and obstacles while studtents write in second language are issues that a teacher
teaching writing should deeply understand.
2.1.2. Approaches to Teaching Writing Skills
There are various ways and approaches applied to teach writing. However, “One of the
most controversial aspects of writing pedagogy has been the tension between process and
product approaches to the teaching of writing” (Nunan, 1999, p.272).
2.1.2.1 Product Approach
This approach focuses on the text, the final output of writing process. Teachers who
follow this approach will mark or grade students’ final product. Readers are teachers who
play such different roles as an examiner, an editor, or a proof reader. This leads to a fact
that students will view “the major function of writing is to produce texts for teachers to
evaluate, not to communicate meaningfully with another person” (Nunan, 1991, p. 88).

16. 7
Besides, teachers’main interest is not the quality of ideas or expressions but the correct use
of formal linguistic features (Kroll, 1997). Then, writing instruction involves mainly in
training grammatical accuracy . “Foreign and second language writing “mainly involves
linguistic knowledge and the vocabulary choices, syntactic patterns, and cohesive devices
that comprise the essential building blocks of texts” (Hyland, 2003). If teachers follow this
approach, “students are taught incrementally, error is prevented, and fluency is expected to
arise out of practice with structures” (Reid, 1993, p.24). In other words, this product
approach is defined as the emphasis on grammatical correctness and adherence to given
models or guidelines (White, 1988). Also, it has the focus on the production of neat and
grammatically correct pieces of writing (Mahon, 1992). As a result, it favors activities like
organizing ideas to ideas, emphasizing on grammar exercises and correctness (Nunan,
1991) or exercises which can be copying , combining, substitution ones to provide students
with “no freedom to make mistakes” (Pincas, 1982, p.91). What’s more? “ The product
approach to writing usually involves the presentation of a model text, which is analyzed
and then forms the basis of a task that leads to the writing of an exactly simliar or a parallel
text” (Evan and St John, 1998: 116). Students’ final product is made according to this
sequence “Model text - Comprehension / analysis/ manipulation - new input - Parallel text”
(Robinson, 1991 cited in Evan and St John, 1998). Also, the focus on language structure
as a basis for the teaching of writing was indicated by Hyland (2003) through a four-stage
process which includes:
1. Familiarization : learners are taught certain grammar and vocabulary, usually
through a text
2. Controlled writing: learners manipulate fixed patterns, often from substitution
tables.
3. Guided writing: learners imitate model texts
4. Free writing: learners use the patterns they have developed to write an essay, letter
and so forth
To sum up, this product approach put emphasis on students’abilities of memorising and
applying grammar rules. Students are asked to do tasks whose main goal is syntactic
accuracy; and the teachers, when marking students’ final work will simply find out and
correct grammatical and mechanical errors without give students suitable feedback to
students’ writings. Clearly, this approach cannot fulfill enough the teachers’job of

17. 8
developing student’s writing skill.
2.1.2.2 Process Approach
This approach is a shift from product to process which shows:
-How do I write this?
-How do I get started?
In other words, this approach focuses on the writer rather than the text. Writing is then
seen as a process of discovering meaning and developing organisation (Matsuda, 2003).
Students will be trained to generate ideas for writing, to think of purpose, audience, ways
of communication and so on. Those who follow this approach believed “a research-based,
audience-focused, context-based approach to the process of writing” (Reid, 1993). Writing
can be understood in two different views. In the Expressivist view, writing is seen as a
creative activity and “writing is learned, not taught, so writing instruction is nondirective
and personal” (Hyland, 2003). Meanwhile, in the Cognitive view, writing is viewed as a
non-linear, recursive process (Emig, 1983; Zamel, 1983). White and Arndt (1991) view
“writing as a complex, cognitive process that requires sustained intellectual effort over a
considerable period of time”. Therefore, to produce a writing text, students may go through
six steps:
Drafting
Structuring Reviewing Focusing
Generating ideas Evaluation
From Process Writing (P.4), by R. White and V. Arndt, 1991, Harlow United Kingdom:
Longman.

18. 9
There is another model of writing process created by Flower and Hayes which is “the
most widely accepted by L2 writing teachers” (Hyland, 2003):
Selection of topic: by teacher and/ or students
Prewriting : brainstorming, collecting data, note taking, outlining, etc.
Composing: getting ideas down on paper
Response to draft: teachers/ peers respond to ideas, organisation, and style
Revising: reorganising, style, adjusting to readers, refining ideas
Response to revisions: teacher/ peers respond to ideas, organisation and style
Proofreading and editing: checking and correcting form, layout, evidence, etc.
Evaluation: teacher evaluates progress over the process
Publishing: by class circulation or presentation, noticeboards, website, etc.
Follow-up tasks: to address weaknesses
A Process Model of Writing Instruction from Second Language Writing (p.11), by K.
Hyland, 2003, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
From the above models, it can be recognised that in the teaching of writing to help
students “discover and engage a topic”, firstly, invention techniques or pre writing
techniques are used (Myer, 1997, p.1) . Students formulate and organise their initial
thoughts using such techniques as free writing, listing, wh-questions, clusters and looping
to choose the ideas that interest them or are worth developing (Leki, 2000, p.20). After
that , students will move on the planning and composing process and during this stage,
response to or feedback on students are provided by both teacher and students. Students,
then, revise their work and refine their ideas, adjusting content and organisation so that
their work will be suitable for readers. Finally, students will proofread, edit their work and
pay much of their attention to grammatical and mechanical errors, layout, evidence and so
on.
The process approach aims to help students improve their writing skillsthrough the
changes in the teacher’s or students’ roles and attitudes. Teachers act as supporters and
students as independent writers and the collaboration between them will help develop
students’writing skill over several drafts (Furneaux, 1998). Hence, providing feedback and

19. 10
responses are crucial in this appoach. Furthermore, language accuracy such as grammar
patterns, collocation and word choices can also be enhanced through revision and editing
stages. However, the question of how learners learn to write or how they approach a
writing task has not a satisfying answer yet because “process models are hampered by
small scales, often contradictary studies and the difficulty of getting inside writers’ heads
to report unconcious processing” (Hyland, 2003, p.13). Additionally, psychological factors
are probably not the only factors in developing writing skills. Therefore, there should not
be an over emphasis on this process.
In conclusion, a writing teacher should make use of these two approaches in teaching
writing because writing can be interpreted, according to Arndt (1987) in several ways: it
can be the product of a composition or the act of composing itself; and the process
approach should be considered as “formative feedback” aimed at refining student’s works
and the product approach as “summative feedback” to students which help teachers know
how much their students have achieved and how well the intended learning outcomes have
been fulfilled.
2.2. Portfolios in writing
2.2.1 Definition of portfolios
Initially, portfoilio were used by artists for presenting their work. Nevertheless, it was
later adapted to other jobs such as writers, photographers, architects and so on. In the field
of education, portfolio is not a new term because it has been widely used as a part of
teaching and learning. Educators and language experts have provided different definitions
for portfolio. According to the McGraw-Hill Higher Education webpage, portfolios are:
“collections of student artifacts which can be thought of as both objects and methods of
assessment. As objects, they are a place for holding materials such as papers, photographs,
or drawings that are representative of students’s work and progress. As methods of
assement, portfolios provide ways for teachers to continuosly collect and assess student
work”. Portfolio, according to Collins (1992: 452), is “a container of collected evidence
with a purpose. Evidence is documentations that can be used by one person or group of
persons to infer another person’s knowledge, skill”. Portfolio can also be “ a purposeful
collection of student work that exhibits the students’ efforts, progress and achievements in

20. 11
one or more areas. The collection must include student participation in selecting contents,
the criteria for selection, the criteria for judging merit and evidence of student self-
relection.” (Paulson, Paulson and Meyer, 1991:60). Similarly, According to Arter and
Spandell (1992, p.210) portfolio is seen as “a purposeful collection of student work that
tells the story of the student’s efforts, progress or achievement” or it can be “ a collection
of materials assembled by students to demonstrate achievement” (Freeman and Lewis,
1998, p.271). Portfolios, therefore, can allow teacher to track progress, view individual
growth and foster student reflection (Baack, 1997; Melville, 1996). Grace (1992: 1)
considers portfolio as a record of the child’s process of learning: “what the child has
learned and how she has gone about learning; how she thinks, questions, analyzes,
synthesizes, produces, creates; and how she interacts-intellectually, emotionally and
socially-with others”. Likewise, Winson and Ellefson (1995: 68), share the same opinion
about the definition of portfolios but develop it more. They describe portfolios as “a fusion
of process and product. It is the process of reflection, selection, rationalization, and
evaluation, together with the product of those processes”. In addition, “portfolio is a
cumulative and ongoing collection of entries that are selected and commented on by the
student, the teacher and/on peers, to assess the student’s progress in the development of a
competencey” (Simon and Forgette-Giroux, 2000:36). In the context of writing instruction
and assessment, a portfolio can be defined as “ a colection of texts the writer has porduced
over a defined period of time” (Hamp-Lyons, 1991:262). In this study, portfolios are
understood as that way and also a way to reflect the students’ performance, efforts,
progress, and achievement over a period of time.
2.2.2 Characteristics of portfolio
The characteristics of a portfolio are determined differently by different researchers.
For example, according to Sharon S.Moya and Michael L’Malley (1994) in an article A
portfolio Assessment Model for ESL, the following five characteristics feature a portfolio:
*Comprehensiveness: the potential for determining the depth and the breadth of a
student’s capabilities can be realised through comprehensiveness data collection by the
students

21. 12
*Predetermined and systematic: what should be included in the portfolio was informed by
the teacher before she starts using portfolio and she should provide guidance or possible
standard guidelines in using portfolios as well.
*Informative: the information in the portfolio should be meaningful and useful for students
and teacher which show student’s progress in learning
*Tailored: it should be tailored before implementing to make sure there will no problem in
the applying process
*Authentic: portfolio should provide students with authentic learning materials
Meanwhile, Yancey (1992) stated that there are three common characteristics shared by
all portfolios, regardless of the particular context. They are longitudinal in nature, diverse
in content, and collaborative. In the class, teacher often sets the time necessary and suitable
for the writers to develop. It means that the writing piece initiated on Monday need not be
submitted a week or two later for a final evaluation. It can be revised in days or weeks or
even a month or two later. Furthermore, portfolio is open rather than closed and its
contents are intended to be diverse and inclusive. Especially, portfolios are created
collaboratively by the students as author, working with their partners and the teacher who
help them revise, evaluate their writings.
2.2.3 Types and contents of porfolios
It is quite obvious that the purpose of the portfolio determines what goes in it. Portfolios
can include various items such as, rough drafts, graded assignments, peer responses and so
on. Therefore, portfolios can be classfied into many different types by different specialists.
According to Cooper & Love (2001) there are two basic types of portfolios: formative
portfolio and summative portfolio. While the former is considered to have the focus on the
process of learning of a particular student which consists of samples of a student’s work to
“demonstrate changes over the period of time” , the later places its focus on learning

22. 13
outcomes. Also, Cooper & Love (2001) suggest three distinct forms of summative
portfolio:
 The competency-based or outcomes-based portfolio. It may show samples of a
student’s work collected as evidence of his/her skills and knowledge, which is
relative to the curriculum or syllabi
 The negotiated learning portfolio in which the outcomes of the negotiated learning
processes are assessed through a portfolio
 The biographic portfolio, which is a record of achievement. This type may have a
collection of work experience of a student which is collected over a period of time
and arranged chronologically
Similarly, William P. Banks, in his article “ Preparing Your Writing Portfolio” suggest
only two types of portfolios : complete and showcase portfolios. He states that complete
portfolio is a collection of everything the writer has done during the semester- all the major
essays and their drafts and all the pieces are used for evaluation purpose; the showcase
portfolio may include all the writings the student has done but the student is allowed to
choose which projects will count for evaluation purposes.
Following are samples of these two mentioned types:
a. Complete portfolio sample organisation
(students are required to put all four assignments for evaluation)
Section 1 Analytical Cover letter
Section 2 Final drafts of four projects
Section 3 Essay 1 archive (rough drafts, peer review,
instructor comments, etc)

23. 14
Section 4 Essay 2 archive (rough drafts, peer review,
instructor comments, etc)
Section 5 Essay 3 archive (rough drafts, peer review,
instructor comments, etc)
Section 6 Essay 4 archive (rough drafts, peer review,
instructor comments, etc)
Section 7 Free-writing exercises, journal activities,
etc.
Section 8 Other (anything else you’ve written for
class and want credit for)
b. Showcase portfolio sample organisation
(Students are required to put three out of five assignments for evaluation)
Section 1 Analytical Cover letter
Section 2 Final drafts of three projects
Section 3 Essay 1 archive (rough drafts, peer review,
instructor comments, etc)
Section 4 Essay 2 archive (rough drafts, peer review,
instructor comments, etc)

24. 15
Section 5 Essay 3 archive (rough drafts, peer review,
instructor comments, etc)
Section 6 Essay 4 archive (rough drafts, peer review,
instructor comments, etc)
Section 7 Essay 5 archive (rough drafts, peer review,
instructor comments, etc)
Section 8 Free-writing exercises, journal activities, etc
Section 9 Other (anything else you’ve written for
class and want credit for)
Whereas, Portfolios are classified into three types by Columba & Dolgos (Cited in
Ramazan 2012) but in different way.
 Showcase: this type focuses on students’ best and most representative work
 Teacher-student portfolio: it is often called “working portfolio” or “working
folder”. This is an interactive teacher-student portfolio that aids in communication
between teacher and student. The teacher and student conference to add or delete
within the content of the show-case portfolio
 Teacher alternative assessment portfolio: all items in this type of portfolio are
scored, rated, ranked, or evaluated. Teachers can keep individual student portfolios
that are solely for the teacher’s use as an assessment tool
Portfolios are aslo grouped into three types by Slater (1996): Showcase, open-format
and checklist portfolio.

25. 16
A showcase portfolio is a limited one where students are only allowed to present a few
pieces of evidence to demonstrate mastery of learning objectives.
An Open-format portfolio is one in which sudents are allowed to submit anything they
wish to be cinsidered as evidence for mastery of a given list of learning objectives.
A checklist portfolio is composed of a predetermined number of items (for example: a
number of assignments for students to complete.)
Meanwhile, Valencia and Place (1994) classfied portfolios into four types:
 The showcase portfolio (including students’best work)
 The evaluation portfolio (including specified and marked work)
 The documentation portfolio (including student work kept by teachers but not
marked)
 The process portfolio (including ongoing work and student’s self-reflection)
Clearly, there exists different types of portfolios which are classified differently by
different researchers so teachers should choose proper ones and adjust them to suit their
teaching context.
2.2.4 The Effects of Portfolio on Writing skills
Nowadays, there are more and more teachers choosing portfolios as their teaching
technique because it has many advantages. “It enables students to have a self assessment
for their studies and learning, and to review their progress” (De fina, 1992). And it also
provides “visual and dynamic proofs about student’s interest, their skills, strong sides,
successes and development in a certain time period “ (Baki & Birgin, 2004). In writing
classes, portfolios prove to help students to have “self-improvement in the subject and
sharpen their writing skills. Portfolios are proved to have positive effects on helping
students overcome their writing anxiety as well (Hande ÖZTÜRK & Sevdeğer ÇEÇEN,
2007). Furthermore, Murrey (1994), Wade and Yarbrough (1996), and Wade, Abrami and
Sclater (2005) point out that using portfolios in teaching writing can help build up

26. 17
students’ autonomy, reflection, learning motivation, collaboration, personal and
comprehensive relationshiop between the teacher and the students. Besides, in the research
“Portfolio as a Tool to Improve Writing Skills among First Semester EFL Learners at a
Public University in Colombia”, the author Yessica Elena Sierra concluded that portfolios
can help students produce more complex and complete writing products.
Portfolios have been found avantageous to students’ learning writing by many
researchers. However, writing portfolio when being used in different teaching contexts and
when having different purposes may lead to very different results in student’s writing
performance. Therefore, an investigation into the application of portfolios in writing
classes is never a redundant thing.
2.2.5 Summary
In summary, in this chapter, necessary and core issues and aspects related to the
topic of the thesis such as approaches in teaching writing, portfolios in writing have been
reviewed. In the following chapter, the context of the study, the methodology, data
collection procedures and data analysis will be proposed.

27. 18
CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
In this chapter, the author mentions the methodology applied to conduct the research.
It consits of two main parts: 1. The information about the context of the study : General
information about the college, the teachers and students, the writing course; 2. The
methodology: participants, data collection instruments, data collection procedure
3. 1 Context of the study
3.1.1 The college
The study was conducted at Hanoi College of Commerce and Tourism, a longtime
established school founded in 1965, which was firstly called Trung Cap Thuong Nghiep
School. It officially became a college in 2008 and it has seven primary departments: Basic
sciences, English, Finance and Accounting, Food Processing, Hotel and Tourism,
Information Technology, Commercial Trade.
As for English department, English classes all have projectors. Especially, there are two
rooms which are equipped with 60 computers and two smart boards. However, most of the
teachers do not use them alot because the computers are not in good condition.
3.1.2 Teachers and students
English teachers aged from 25 to 54 and most of them graduated from Hanoi University
of Languages and International studies, VNU and the rest was from Hanoi University.
They are all very enthusiastic and some very experienced.
All English major students are those who failed in the University Entrance examinations
and they chose the college as their second choice. Therefore, their language proficiency
level is rather low. Besides, these students come from different regions: cities,
provinces,moutainous areas which may partly contribute to the difference between
students.

28. 19
3.1.3 The Writing Course
English major students at Hanoi College of Commerce and Tourism need to study
writing in three semesters so that they can graduate from the college. They start learning
this subject from the second semester of the first year to the second semester of the second
year.
The author’s action research occurred in the first semester of students’ second year at
the college. It means that these students had chance to learn and practice writing for one
semester. They learn sixty periods of writing per semester, 30 of which is for theory, 28 for
practice and 2 for tests. Specifically, they learn four periods of writing per week.
The course book is “Effective Academic Writing 2” series by Alice Savage & Patricia
Mayer, Oxford University Press-a notable publisher. The book provides systematic writing
process necessary for successful academic writing: Stimulating ideas-> Brainstorming and
outlining-> Developing ideas-> Editing Writing-> Putting it All Together. The book
consists of six units:
Unit 1: Paragraph to Short Essay
Unit 2: Descriptive Essays
Unit 3: Narrative Essays
Unit 4: Opinion Essays
Unit 5: Comparison and Contrast Essays
Unit 6: Cause and Effect Essays
The Course Objectives: as stated in the English Department’s syllabus, after this
writing course, students will be able to write short essays (three paragraphs), understand
what essay is, and know the basic structure for each type of essay and know how to write
it: Descriptive, Nasrrative, Opinion, Comparison & Contrast, Cause and Effect.
In short, the objectives set for the course are quite ambitious because students need to
learn to write up to five different types of essay, which are quite difficult for them.
Meanwhile, their writing skill is rather low because their College English entrance mark is
not high. Consequently, both teachers and students have to work very hard to catch up with
the course requirements.

29. 20
3.2 Participants
A total of forty two participants from the teacher’s writing class, participated in this
study. Out of forty two, there were three boys and thirty nine girls. Their age range was 19-
21. Their English scores at National University Entrance exams were from 2-4. They all
had studied English in secondary or high school as a compulsory subject but their English
classes mainly focused on grammar and only little writing which stopped at sentence
level. They have just started learning how to write paragraphs in second semester of their
first year.
3.3 Data collection instruments
Basing on the purpose of the study which is to explore the problems occurring in the
application process of writing portfolio technique and how much this technique improves
students’ writing skill, two main instruments for collecting the relevant data were
manipulated : Survey questionnaires and the students’ submitted portfolios. Along with
these two major instruments, interviews undertaken in the form of informal talks between
teacher and students at break time were also used so that the researcher can get a mix of
qualitative and quantitative data, which was expected to increase the accuracy of data
interpretation and to increase the levels of achievement and success of the study.
3.3.1 Survey questionnaires
3.3.1.1 Pre-portfolio questionaire
The first research tool for data collection is a pre-portfolio questionaire which is
divided into two parts: Participants’ background and writing skill and portfolio. This
questionaire, which consists of 10 questions, was designed to get general information about
the participants. The first 3 questions in part I aim at getting such data as gender, purposes
of studying a specific skill, and students’ past English level. The next 7 questions in part II
were designed to find out students’ opinions on writing skill, their writing habit, their most
concerning difficulties in terms of this skill.

30. 21
To sum up, the pre-portfolio questionnaire provides fundamental knowledge about the
participants which then helps teacher be able to design a suitable writing portfolio for
English major learners.
3.3.1.2 post-portfolio questionnaire and interviews
After students had submitted the portfolio, learners were asked to complete another
questionnaire to find out what students gain from the writing portfolio and how they feel
about it so that the teacher will be able to give suitable suggestions to make portfolios more
beneficial, suitable for students.
Also, teacher kept a journal about her informal conversation with students (which
happened during break time) to obtain more accurate information from students about the
problems they encountered.
Nevertheless, data resulted from these two quetionaires and interviews are quite
subjective. Therefore, portfolio itself had to be used to get more reliable and valid data.
3.3.2 Submitted Portfolios
3.3.2.1 The type of submitted portfolios
Students’ portfolios play a very important role in helping researcher determine how
much her students’ writing was improved through the application of writing portfolio
technique. All collected writing portfolios were analysed and graded by the teacher to
reveal students’improvements in writing. The researcher adopted showcase portfolio type
which is suggested by William P. Banks and adapted it because she found it simple, easy to
understand and to apply in practice. The submitted portfolios consist of these following
sections: table of contents, three outstanding final drafts out of five writing assignments
(student’s choice), first drafts of written products and revised versions
Students were told to keep all their writings in a folder and submitted to the teacher so
that she could grade the written products.

31. 22
The portfolio can be illustrated as follow:
1. Table of contents
2. Three final drafts out of five writing assignments
3. Descriptive Essay archive (first draft, second draft, third draft with peer’s
comments)
4. Narrative Essay archive (first draft, second draft, third draft with peer’s comments)
5. Opinion Essay archive (first draft, second draft, third draft with peer’s comments)
6. Comparision and Contrast Essay archive (first draft, second draft, third draft with
peer’s comments)
7. Cause and Effect Essay archive (first draft, second draft, third draft with peer’s
comments)
All these above instruments: survey questionnaires, interviews and portfolios are
strongly hoped to obtain detailed, reliable and valid data for analysis.
3.3.2.2 Portfolio evaluation
As stated in website grammar.about.com, there was a popular method, T-unit analysis,
used successfully by Larsen-Freeman & Strom (1997) as a way to measure the quality of
ESL student writing. As mentioned in the website, Gaies (1980) stated that this method
was developed by Hunt (1964) to measure the overall syntactic complexity , including
fluency, accuracy and grammatical complexity of both speech and writing samples.
Therefore, the reseacher decided to use this method in analyzing students’portfolio in
terms of fluency, accuracy, and grammatical complexity. According to Hunt (1965) T-units
are the “shortest possible grammatically allowable sentences”. The term “unit” was coined
to avoid the problem of confusing the word “sentence” with other meanings and use of
word. Fluency is defined by the number of words or production units (e.g sentences,
phrases) (Wolfe-Quintero et al, 1998) that a writer can produce. However, in this study,
the most applicable fluency measure was words per T-unit method (total number of words

32. 23
divided by total number of T-units/ sentences). Besides, in terms of accuracy, there has
been a question of what kinds of errors were determined as errors. For example, in some
researches, errors in punctuation, lexicon, morphosyntax, and spelling were counted as
errors (eg. Lason-Freeman and Strom, 1977). Meanwhile, there are other studies
considering only morphosyntactic errors as errors. In this research, the researcher will
adapt the former; and the frequency of error-free T-unit ratio will be regarded as a measure
of accuracy (total number of error-free T-units divided by total number of T-units).
Finally, grammatical complexity, the varying structures in students’ written compositions,
will be measured relying on the total number of clauses which are divided by the total
number of T-units .
3.4 Procedures
The writing class lasted in fifteen weeks in the first term of the 2015-2016 academic
year but the study only took place during first eleven weeks because the rest of the term
was used for class revision, tests and end of term examination. On the first week of the
course, as the researcher went through the syllabus, she delivered questionnaires (see
appendix 1) for students which aimed to explore students’ previous experiences and their
knowledge on the use of portfolio. That is how the application process began. Next, the
teacher presented the objectives (acounting for 30 % of their total grade) and the
procedure of writing portfolio (Meanwhile the tests taken during the semester were the
obligatory conditions for them to continue the course). Also, students and teacher had a
short discussion and went to an agreement about how they would give comments for their
peers. She then proceeded usual classroom activities which had been planned for the whole
term.
Specifically, students were asked to write five different essays during the semester: (1)
descriptive essay (2) narrative essay (3) opinion essay (4) comparision and contrast essay
(5) cause and effect essay. For each essay, students wrote a first draft in class and they
would give and recieve peer feedbacks on the basis of provided writing checklist (which
was also introduced and instructed to students during first two weeks) . After necessary
revisions and corrections, students created their second drafts. They again gave and
recieved peer feedbacks. Then they wrote final draft and handed it to the teacher. Besides,
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33. 24
students were asked to note down on the top of their drafts about the number of words,
number of sentences they have written. Finally, the portfolios were completeted with table
of contents, entries, drafts. Students were told to keep all their writings in a folder, in
which three best writings are in the front and submitted to the teacher so that she could
grade their written products. When the teacher finished grading portfolios, she would give
them back to students as references for their end of term exam.
The portfolio applying procedure can be summarised as follow:
Finally, a post-portfolio questionnaire (see appendix 2) was handed to students to
find out how students feel about this technique and how helpful the portfolio technique to
students’writing skill.
In conclusion, this chapter has covered the issues related to the methodology of the
study.
1. Write first draft
2. Give and receive
peer’s comments
3. Write second draft
4. Give and receive
peer’s comments
5. Write final draft
6. Collect final drafts and
other rough drafts in
the portfolio
Repeat the same
pocedures for
different types of
essays
*Select best three final
drafts for summative
grading
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34. 25
CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
The data collected from the pre- and post-portfolio questionnaires, informal interviews
as well as the portfolios are analyzed in this chapter. The results will be divided into three
parts: one from pre-portfolio questionnaire, one from post-portfolio questionnaire and
interviews, and one from the portfolio.
4.1 Data analysis of the students' pre-portfolio questionnaire before the application
process
4.1.1 Students’ attitudes to the writing skill
Question 4: Order four language skills basing on their importance to you- from the most important (1) to the least
important (4)
......listening ......speaking ......reading .......writing
Question 5: What is your most favorite skill? Order from (1) most favorite to the least favorite (4)
.........listening ...............speaking ...........reading ......writing
Question 8: In your opinion, Which language skill is most difficult to you?
a. Speaking b. Reading c. Listening d.Writing
Chart 1: Students’ attitude to Writing
As can be clearly seen from the chart that the majority of students consider writing their
least favorite and least important subject. Only 7,14 % and 2,38% of students respectively
state that they are interested in writing skill and think that this subject is important to them.
Meanwhile, in terms of level of difficulty, writing, accounting for around 33%, ranked
second after listening which takes up more than 40%. This can be inferred that students are
lacking motivation for learning writing probably because of its difficulty, students’
disinterest and their beliefs about the significance of the subject.
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