The use of portfolios to assess student’s learning in EFL classrooms of the city of Loja

Abstract

This present research called “The use of portfolio to assess students learning in EFL classrooms of the city of Loja” has the purpose to identify whether or not use the portfolio strategy to assess their students in classrooms. The methods used in this study were the quantitative and the qualitative methods. The questionnaires were administered to a sample of 67 students and 20 teachers in 5 educational institutions and 2 English institutes of the city of Loja. Some of the data was gathered from portfolios developed by the students. The questions of the surveys were open-ended and close-up questions which helped us to develop our research. As a general conclusion, it is evident that most of the teachers do not use the portfolio in English classes to assess students learning although they are aware what a portfolio is, they do not use it due to different factors, such as: lack of time and amount of portfolios. Consequently, a portfolio as an assessment tool is not widely used in the city of Loja because teachers and students still use the traditional system of evaluation.