Implementing ePortfolio Practice into English Speech Class

徐碧霙

Pi-Ying Hsu

Department of Applied Foreign Languages

Chaoyang University of Technology

Introduction

The use of electronic portfolios (ePortfolios) in higher education has begun to

receive increasing attention. Institutions such as the American Association of Colleges

and Universities have focused on ePortfolios in courses, programs, learning outcomes,

and student evaluation. The notable advantages of developing an ePotfolio include the

depth of students’ involvement in selection of contents (Wiedmer, 1998), and a great

amount of thinking that they apply to the contents (Holt, McAllister, & Ingram, 2001).

Additionally, researchers confirmed that the interconnectivity of artifacts across pages

in ePortfolio could promote a deeper understanding of the relationship between

standards and performance, enhancing a sense of professional efficacy (Holt, et al.,

2001; Pecheone, Pigg, Chung, & Souviney, 2005; Tucker, Stronge, & Gareis, 2003).

Electronic portfolios are applied in the educational settings for a variety of

purposes—for evaluation/assessment, for career development, and for demonstrating

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students’ learning experience and growth over time. Some emerging research suggests

that ePortfolios can help students learn how to develop their identities as budding

professionals (Alvarez & Moxley, 2004; Schatz & Simon, 1999; Schatz, 2004). In

addition, teachers confirmed that the use of ePortfolio could help them increase their

confidence in their professional practice and an overall improved sense of personal

empowerment (Wiedmer, 1998). Yet less emphasis has been put on the implication of

ePortfolio in oral training courses.

Teaching English Speech in a university of technology has always been a

challenge. As an instructor of English Speech course, I found that many students

tended more towards a static lecture style rather than toward dynamic and active

participation. In addition, providing feedback and evaluation for a large-size class is

quite effort and time intensive. Therefore, there is a need for change in evaluation to

enhance students’ learning attitude and involve students in evaluating themselves.

This paper seeks to share the experience of implementing ePortfolio into an

English Speech class.

Literature Review

ePortfolios are widely used in today’s educational institutions to foster learning

and teaching (McGrath, 2005). Skiba (2005) defines ePortfollios as “virtal identity

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collections (p. 246) and notes that through the collecting, reflection, and evaluating

one’s individual work, an identity emerges. According to Jafari (2004, p. 40),

ePortfolos act as “content-management system” that facilitates the process of

collecting, sharing, presenting, and reflecting learning results through a digital

medium. Yancey (2004) also indicated that an ePortfolio helps students “remediate”

themselves, allowing the them to use multimodal literacy to construct a relationship

between technology and identity. Students are able to develop into professionals “who

can make multiple connections and who create depth through multiplicity and

elaboration…who can work in visual and verbal and aural modalities…” (p. 751).

The use of ePortfolios in higher education has been helpful to career

development (Greenberg, 2004; Heath, 2002). Increasing research shows that the

application of ePortfolios is a successful way to enhance learning experiences

(Martin-Kniep, Cunningham, & Feige, 1998; Wolf & Dietz, 1998), and evaluate

student learning and curricular assessment (Ramey & Hay, 2003; Ring & Foti, 2003).

Specifically, ePortfolios are viewed as useful in promoting reflective practice among

pre-service teachers (Avraamidou & Zembal-Saul, 2003). The literature also indicates

that ePortfolios are valuable for developing teaching skills (Beck, Livne, & Bear,

2005; Hartmann, 2003; Klenowski, 2000). One of the participating teachers in

Wiedmer’s (1998) study commented on the role of ePortfolio as an integral and

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reflective method to enhance her professional growth:

Because of the ePortfolio, I reflect upon everything I do in the classroom. I

frequently go in and change, update and add better examples. It makes me a

better teacher. My mentor is now starting to collect items for an ePortfolio. I can

see through my mentoring logs how much we talk about new materials and

strategies and how these tie to standards and, of course, how students learn. It

adds to my professionalism as a teacher. (p. 588)

ePortfolios are regarded as complementary approaches for reviewing students’

language development and academic progress. As reported in Barootchi and

Keshavarz (2002), the ePortfolio assessment was received positively by the EFL

learners in this study and contributed to students’ achievement. It is concluded that

ePortfolio assessment is a promising teaching tool for teachers in EFL classes and can

provide the ongoing evaluation of students’ growth needed for career development.

In conclusion, an ePortfolio is considered as a reflection of an individual’s work,

efforts, and progress. It might be the best means to collect a sampling of the depth of

students’ learning outcomes and express students’ learning attitudes, experiences, and

accomplishments.

Chaoyang University of Technology created ePortfolio--an interactive

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environment where students' learning progress can be recorded electronically. The

goals for the introduction of ePortfolios and the implementation into the curriculum

are to support inquiry-based teaching and learning, aid critical study phases, and

enhance students’ employability (see Figure 1).

Figure 1. Chaoyang University of Technology LMS/My ePortfolio

Interface.

The purpose of this current study was to investigate whether ePortfoio practice

contributes to EFL college students’ feelings of responsibility for monitoring their

own learning progress in English Speech class.

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Method

Fifty-six junior English majors enrolled in an English Speech courses were

recruited to participate in this study. The participants’ ages ranged from 19 to 23 years

old. None of the participants had received intensive English presentation training

before this study. In addition, these participants reported no experience of using

ePortfolio in learning activities.

The study was conducted in an English Speech classes offered in a university at

the central Taiwan. English Speech was a 3-credit required course and it met during

the junior year twice a week for 18 weeks in the semester.

Throughout the semester, students received instruction of delivering English

speech, and practiced four types of speech (informative, persuasive, entertainment,

and impromptu). These students were also trained in reflecting their own speech

performance based on the Toastmaster International English Speech contest

evaluation form (See Table 1). The criteria include speech development, effectiveness,

speech value, body languages, voice, manner, appropriateness, and correctness.

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Table 1

Evaluation criteria for English Speech

Graded Items Description

Introduction

-Begin with effective attention-getter

-Preview body of speech

Content

-Main points clear, use appropriate

organizational pattern

-Organization of facts, examples

-Suitability of purpose

-Cite sources

-Grammar

-Vocabulary

Voice Quality

-Volume

-Range of voice (intonation)

-Pitch

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-Rate

-Pronunciation/Enunciation

Body Language

-Gestures

-Posture

Eye Contact & Dealing with Visual

Aids

-Maintain eye contact with audience

-Use visual aids effectively

Conclusion

-Signal speech ending

-Summarize and reinforce thesis/main points

-Close with memorable statement

During the orientation session, the researcher explained her expectations and

criteria for being a successful speaker to students. The students realized that the

ePortfoio evaluation was integral part of the learning process in this class. In the fifth

week of the semester, for the first time, students were asked to deliver a 2-minute

short speech of introduction/welcome of a guest speaker (or a performer). Presenters

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should (a) introduce the situation to which they are presenting the speaker; (b)

explicitly mention the speaker by name as well as his/her title and brief background,

mentioning how pleased they are that (s)he is here; (c) review briefly what the

audience is expected to gain from the forthcoming presentation; and (d) then present

the speaker. With this assignment, gestures and controlled movement to, from and on

the podium platform enter as performance requirements.

Students and the instructor listened to the presentation and evaluated the

presenter’s performance using the English Speech evaluation form. Following the

presentation, oral feedback and comments were provided during the discussion

session. The evaluation focused on the introduction, content, language use, voice

quality, and suggestions on visual aids, gestures/postures, eye contact, facial

expressions. The main purpose of the training sessions was to familiarize the students

with the criteria and procedures of self-reflection. Each of the training sessions was

videotaped and students could review the video clips on line (See Figure 2).

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Figure 2. Students’ On-line Video Clips.

In addition to the first Welcome Speech as an orientation project, each participant

completed a group presentation, an informative speech, a persuasive speech, an

Entertainment speech, and an impromptu speech. Throughout the semester, the

instructor served as a guide/advisor, meeting with each individual student to discuss

the ePortfolio development progress.

At the end of the course, each student in English Speech completed the ePortfolio

of her or his work across the entire semester (See Figure 3). The following items were

included in the ePortfolio:

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• Student’s picture

• Personal Data Form

• Precourse Self-Evaluation Form

• Grade Record Form

• Consultation Record Form

• Group Presentation Outline

• Individual Speech (final outline/ self-evaluation form/peer evaluation

form/instructor evaluation form/reflection paper)

• Speech #1—Introductory/Welcome Speech (instructor evaluation form)

• Speech #2--Informative Speech (final outline/self-evaluation form/instructor

evaluation form/reflection paper)

• Speech #3—Impromptu Speech (self-evaluation form/instructor evaluation

form)

• Speech #4--Persuasive Speech (final outline/self-evaluation form/instructor

evaluation form/reflection paper)

• PPT files of English speeches

• Video Clips of English speeches in class

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Figure 3. ePortfolio Interface.

By the end of the semester, a learning questionnaire was applied to investigate

the students’ attitude towards their ePortfolio learning experiences in English Speech

class. The participants answered the question items based on which best described

their opinions related to learning in English Speech class.

Results

A t-test was conducted on the result of the questionnaire which was designed to

investigate the students’ attitude towards their learning process before and after the

ePortfolio practice in English Speech class. Table 1 showed that the mean for the

posttest (M=6.50, SD= 1.92) was significantly greater than the mean for the pretest

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(M=4.67, SD= 1.38), t(55)=2.83, p=.008. The results indicate that the ePortfolio

practice enhances students’ sense of responsibility for monitoring their own learning

progress in English Speech class and they were aware of their progress in English

presentation skills (See Figure 4).

Table 1

t-test results for the students’ attitude toward their learning progress in English

Speech class

Mean N SD t p

Pretest 4.67 56 1.38

2.83 .008

Posttest 6.50 56 1.92

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Figure 4. Self-reflection paper on ePortfolio.

Discussion

This study aimed to examine whether ePortfoio practice contributes to EFL

college students’ feelings of responsibility for monitoring their own learning progress

in English Speech class. This study provides preliminary evidence that the learning

assessment can be supplemented with ePortfolio practice in the classroom setting. It is

concluded that the ePortfoio practice, integrating into learning in class, offers the

students an opportunity to monitor the learning progress and reflect on their learning

experiences. Students have positive attitude towards their learning and great sense of

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responsibility of being an active learner.

The researcher finds the other interesting conclusion concerning the educational

implication. When students are invited to get involved in ePortfolio development

progress, they are aware that they are in charge of their own learning progress and

become active and self-regulated learners in the learning process. Additionally,

students feel successful and highly-motivated when they receive on-line feedback

from peers because it helps them monitor their improvement on tasks.

In view of the narrow range of the participants, the results of this current study

need to be generalized with caution. Further studies can be conducted recruiting a

wide range of participants in a variety of levels of English ability.

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