THE EFFECTS OF PORTFOLIOS ON DEVELOPING WRITING SKILLS OF ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT HANOI LAW UNIVERSITY

Abstract

The primary focus of this study was to examine the effects of portfolios on enhancing writing skills of English major students at Hanoi Law University. To achieve the aim, 50 second-year students participating in the study were randomly divided into experimental and control groups. The experimental group was taught English writing skills using portfolios while traditional teaching method was applied to the control group. A pre- test and a post-test were administered to both groups to measure the differences in students’ writing performances. The results revealed that portfolios had positive impacts on students’ writing skills.  The data gained from the questionnaires administered to the students in the experimental group to identify their perceptions of portfolios on their writing abilities showed that the majority of them considered portfolios to be effective. Based on the main findings, a number of recommendations relating to applying writing portfolios were made to improve the English teaching and learning process.