Abstract

DELMASTRO, Ana Lucía. THE USE OF PORTFOLIO IN FOREIGN LENGUAGE STUDIES: TEACHER'S PERSPECTIVE. Investigación y Postgrado [online]. 2005, vol.20, n.2, pp.187-211. ISSN 1316-0087.

This study is part of a wider project about the use of portfolio in foreign language teaching. The objectives of the research were: (1) to describe how the work/evaluation strategy is perceived by the teacher involved in the process; and (2) to guide the use and application of the portfolio in foreign language courses. The portfolio is based on a constructivist perspective for teaching foreign language, and on modern approaches aimed to develop meaningful learning, metacognitive strategies and empowerment. The non common use of this strategy implies a need to promote it. This is an ethnographic and qualitative research, conducted through the application of the strategy in a real situation along with the participant observation method. The teacher's free format diary was used to register teacher's experiences with students during Intensive English classes in the minor on Modern Languages program at LUZ. Retrospective analysis, evaluation of the portfolio and reflection weighing was used to process the information. The results reflect that the main problem faced was the student's lack of knowledge about the activity and a tendency to not assuming responsibility of their own learning process (a passive-receptive attitude). This implies that participants and teachers should become more familiar with the portfolio as a working strategy and as a mean to provide higher empowerment to the students.

Keywords : constructivism; self-evaluation; foreign language teaching.