Enhancing EFL students’ writing skills through portfolio assessment: Evidence from a remote learning context

Abstract

Writing is one of the most complex language skills that EFL learners need to master because it requires the integration of linguistic knowledge, cognitive processes, and organizational abilities. In remote learning environments, monitoring students’ writing development and providing continuous feedback become increasingly challenging for teachers. Therefore, effective assessment strategies are needed to support students’ writing progress. This study aimed to investigate the effect of portfolio assessment on students’ writing skills in a remote learning context. The study employed a quantitative approach using a pre-experimental design with a one-group pretest-posttest design. The participants consisted of 32 seventh-grade students from a private junior high school in Singaraja, Bali. Data were collected through writing tests administered before and after the implementation of portfolio assessment. Students were required to write descriptive texts, which were evaluated using a holistic scoring rubric covering content, vocabulary, grammar, and mechanics. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The results showed that the mean score increased from 73.90 in the pretest to 76.75 in the posttest. Furthermore, the paired-samples t-test revealed a statistically significant difference between the two tests (p = .001 < .05), indicating that portfolio assessment had a significant positive effect on students’ writing skills. The effect size analysis yielded a moderate effect (d = 0.373), suggesting that portfolio assessment contributed meaningfully to students’ writing development, although other factors also influenced their achievement. The findings highlight the potential of portfolio assessment as an effective assessment strategy for supporting writing instruction and monitoring students’ learning progress in remote learning environments.