چكيده
The importance of portfolio assessment in assessing different language skills and elements has been underscored by different scholars in the field. In this line, the current study aimed at investigating the effect of portfolio assessment on Iranian elementary and intermediate EFL learners’ spelling. This study followed a quasi-experimental design. First, a total number of 180 female EFL learners who were learning English at a language institute in Urmia, Iran were selected as study sample. Nelson proficiency test was administered to group the participants into two proficiency levels: elementary and intermediate. Then the learners in each proficiency levels were divided into two groups: one experimental group (N=30) and one control group (N=30). Since the study concentrated on spelling ability, a piloted spelling pretest was administered to both groups in each proficiency level to make sure they were also homogeneous in terms of spelling ability before starting the treatment. The questions were different for each proficiency level. The experimental groups were exposed to portfolio assessment while the control groups received the traditional assessment. After 10 sessions of treatment in the form of portfolio assessment, a posttest similar to the pretest was administered. The mean scores were compared to investigate the possible differences between the two groups in terms of their spelling proficiency. The results indicated that while the two groups were homogeneous in terms of their spelling proficiency before the treatment, the experimental groups outperformed the control groups in the post-spelling test. Moreover, the results of the study showed that, portfolio assessment was more effective for the improvement of intermediate learners’ spelling ability in comparison with the elementary learners’ spelling ability.
