Chilean Pre-Service Teachers’ Perceptions Towards Benefits and Challenges of EFL Writing Portfolios

Although keeping writing portfolios has proved to be a successful strategy in developing writing skills in English as a foreign language, few studies have focused on pre-service teachers at the pre-intermediate level. This study aims to describe pre-service teachers’ perceptions towards portfolio keeping. The sample consisted of 51 first-year students from an initial English language teacher education programme at a university in Southern Chile. A writing portfolio-based class was implemented over a seventeen-week period. Data were collected through an adapted questionnaire and a focus group conducted at the end of term. Results show that pre-service teachers value the strategy; they perceive they have improved their writing and reflection skills. They also draw attention to some challenges to be considered in the planning and implementation phases of the strategy.

Cultivation of Critical Thinking Abilities in English Writing Teaching

Critical thinking is one of the key skills for English majors, while the “critical thinking deficiency” is a commonplace among English majors in our country. The reasons for the “Critical Thinking Deficiency” of English major students lie in the ambiguous learning objects, the misleading guidance of teaching methods and the narrow knowledge, etc. It is effective to combine the development of critical thinking in the English writing process to improve the “critical thinking deficiency” among English major students. The paper aims to explore the development of the critical thinking ability in the English writing course by setting the real writing task, adopting the multi-draft writing, and establishing the students’ writing portfolio, and in these ways the analyzing abilities, critical thinking abilities and the abilities to solve problems can be fostered , thus the students’ writing abilities can be improved.

Combining the strategies of using focused written corrective feedback: a study with upper-elementary Chilean EFL learners

This report describes a mixed study comparing the writing performance of 60 EFL students in three intact groups, during their first semester of an English undergraduate Program at a university in the South of Chile. Three types of focused, Indirect Written Corrective Feedback (henceforth WCF) were used: group 1, coding (n=23); group 2, brief grammatical explanation (n=22); and group 3, underlining (n=15). Feedback was given on five targeted linguistic categories. A pretest was applied before the 16-week treatment took place, as well as a posttest. Students received explicit grammar training and knowledge of genres; multiple-drafting was used in a writing portfolio based class that allowed them to see their progress over time. Frequency and standard deviation of errors were calculated for the pre and posttest. Qualitative data was collected from group semi-structured interviews and were analyzed using content analysis. Results show that 3 out of the 5 linguistic categories have a significant improvement in terms of accuracy, and there are differences among types of feedback. Interviews indicate that students are satisfied with the writing portfolio system because it allows them to keep track on their progress; they value the systematic feedback and have a positive attitude towards multiple drafting and the writing process approach.

Review of e-portfolio requirements and methodology

Background: Portfolios are used in medical practice as a means of instilling “reflective learning” in doctors and accumulating evidence of the doctor’s competence. It is a mandatory requirement by the General Medical Council (GMC), as a form of public accountability, for licensed clinicians to maintain an e-portfolio of daily clinical practice, which is subjected to annual appraisals and ultimately influences their ability to renew their license to practise in the UK. This article reviews the reflective learning process for which the e-portfolio is intended to instil in doctors and the level of evidence required to demonstrate competency and continuing professional development.Methods: A literature review was conducted on Medline and Google Scholar for any available guidance on writing e-portfolio entries and guidelines from the GMC, Royal Colleges and various training boards were reviewed to determine the type of evidence required to be demonstrated.Results: Fifteen articles had met the inclusion criteria on guiding e-portfolio writing. Guidelines reviewed constantly echoed the theme of “reflecting doctors” and “linking evidence to curriculum outcomes”. This article has also proposed a “Do, Reflect, Plan, Act” framework in writing portfolio entries.Conclusions: Creating and maintaining an e-portfolio throughout a lifelong career is no mean feat. We have reviewed the key components that clinicians ought to demonstrate in their e-portfolios, and introduced the “Do, Reflect, Plan, Act” framework, to enhance understanding of the e-portfolio as a learning tool to improve medical practice.