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49To conclude we can cite Heaton who stipulates that designing a multiple-choice items test is not so fearful and hard as many teachers think [2, p.p. 34-58]. The only thing you need is practice accompanied by a bit of theory. He suggests for an inexperienced teacher to use not more than three options if the teacher encounters certain difficulties in supplying more examples for the distractors. The options should be grammatically correct and of equal length. Moreover, the context should be appropriate to illustrate an example and make the student guess right.
References
1. Weir C. Communicative Language Testing. Prentice Hall, 1990. P.p. 4-16.
2. Heaton J. Classroom Testing. Longman, 1990. P.p. 34-58.
PORTFOLIO AS AN ASSESSMENT TOOL FOR INDIVIDUALIZED
INSTRUCTION Yagyaeva E.B.
Yagyaeva Elvina Bakhtiyarovna - Teacher of English, MANAGEMENT IN PRODUCTION FACULTY, FERGANA POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE, FERGANA, REPUBLIC OF UZBEKISTAN
Abstract: the article under discussion describes portfolio as one of an assessment tool for individualized instruction which motivates learners to study a foreign language. The author of the article discusses types of portfolios and depicts the main advantages of keeping them. Keywords: portfolio, collection, activities, accomplishment, writing, capabilities, achievement, demonstrate, progressive.
A student portfolio is a systematic collection of student work and related material that depicts a student's activities, accomplishments, and achievements in one or more school subjects. The collection should include evidence of student reflection and self-evaluation, guidelines for selecting the portfolio contents, and criteria for judging the quality of the work. The goal is to help students assemble portfolios that illustrate their talents, represent their writing capabilities, and tell their stories of school achievement.
Two major types of portfolios are process and product portfolios. A process portfolio documents the stages of learning and provides a progressive record of students' growth. A product portfolio demonstrates mastery of a learning task or a set of learning objectives and contains only the best work. Teachers use process portfolios to help students identify learning goals, document progress over time, and demonstrate learning mastery. In general, teachers prefer to use process portfolios because they are ideal for documenting the stages that students go through as they learn and progress. The Portfolio can help develop more responsibility for your students' learning and become more autonomous as a learner [1, p.p. 60-63].
The Portfolio is an open-ended document which means that your students can revise what they have written regularly. Obviously, students will need more than one copy of the documents, for example, the study plan which they will fill in every week/fortnight/month/3 months. Therefore, students should make a copy of the documents and keep the original blank. If your students find it difficult to complete any of the entries in English you can allow them to use Uzbek or Russian.
The English Language Portfolio is your students' and they can decorate it or use different colours, symbols, pictures to express your creativity and individualism. Learners can also show Portfolio to their peers and the Counselor. The Portfolio will give an idea to the reader about the way they are learning, any made achievements, concerns and others.
Besides, learners can store samples of the work demonstrating their language learning skills in the Portfolio. They can be:
• examples of work (essays, projects, photographs, reports, letters, applications or curriculum vitae)
• progress record (tests, corrected work with final drafts, diary or learning log)
• record of how learners work on their learning skills (worksheets from the Guide)
• diplomas and certificates. Copies of diplomas and certificates that your students have received for language learning or that are important for the future, e.g. IELTS certificate, personal file (letters they have written and received, personal dictionary, materials to support them in learning) and others.
Steps in the Portfolio Assessment Process
First, the teacher and the student need to clearly identify the portfolio contents, which are samples of student work, reflections, teacher observations, and conference records. Second, the teacher should develop evaluation procedures for keeping track of the portfolio contents and for grading the portfolio. Third, the teacher needs a plan for holding portfolio conferences, which are formal and informal meetings in which students review their work and discuss their progress. Because they encourage reflective teaching and learning, these conference are an essential part of the portfolio assessment process.
Advantages of Portfolio Assessment
• Promoting student self-evaluation, reflection, and critical thinking.
• Measuring performance based on genuine samples of student work.
• Providing flexibility in measuring how students accomplish their learning goals.
• Enabling teachers and students to share the responsibility for setting learning goals and for evaluating progress toward meeting those goals.
• Giving students the opportunity to have extensive input into the learning process.
• Facilitating cooperative learning activities, including peer evaluation and tutoring, cooperative learning groups, and peer conferencing [2, p.p. 78-90].
In conclusion, the likely benefits include the opportunity for a lecturer/tutor to get a clear idea of individual contributions, an authentication of each student's experience, the reduction of plagiarism and increased student responsibility for their learning. However, assessing and grading portfolios can be very time-consuming for staff (or students where self- or peer-evaluation is used) and information from students is may be subjective and therefore compromise reliability.
References
1. Paulson F.L. Paulson P.R. and Meyer C.A. "What Makes a Portfolio a Portfolio?"
Educational Leadership, 1991. P.p. 60-63.
2. Gaudart H. Reaching Out to Learners: Creative Ideas for Teaching English. Shah Alam:
Fajar Bakti, 1997. P.p. 78-90.
