The Impact of Project-Based Learning through Portfolio Assessment on EFL Learners’ Reading Comprehension Ability and their Attitude towards Reading

The present study attempted to investigate the impact of Project-Based Learning (PBL) throughportfolio assessment on EFL learners’ reading comprehension and their attitude towards reading.First, based on a Preliminary English Test (PET), 60 intermediate learners out of 90 female EFLlearners, with the age range of 17 to 28 from Zabansara Institute in Tehran, were selected toparticipate in this study. Second, they were assigned to one control and one experimental group.The reading section of the PET was considered as their pretest. A reading attitude questionnairewas administered at the beginning of the instruction to the experimental group to assess theirreading attitude before being exposed to the treatment. The 10-session treatment was conductedusing project-based learning through portfolio assessment for the experimental group. However,the control group received only portfolio assessment. At the end of the instruction period, thereading section of a parallel form of PET was administered to both groups as the posttest. Theresults of the study through paired samples t-test indicated that both types of instructions wereeffective; however, the results of an independent samples t-test proved that the participants in theexperimental group significantly performed better than the participants in the control group interms of their reading comprehension ability. Regarding the learners’ attitude, the results throughpaired samples t-test indicated that the project-based learning through portfolio assessment had asignificant effect on EFL learners’ reading attitude in the experimental group. The findings ofthis study have implications for EFL students, teachers, and syllabus designers.

کلیدواژه ها:

project-based learning ، portfolio assessment ، reading comprehension