Atiyeh Fateri - MA student of English Language Teaching, Department of Applied lingustics, Payame Noor University of Qom, Iran

With the advent of technology in educational context, the utilization of e-portfolios has become more common in the last decades. Many researchers investigated the role of e-portfolio as an alternative method in assessment area on different skills and levels. This study was designed to examine the effect of e-portfolio assessment on the improvement of writing ability of Iranian EFL beginners. This quantitative research was carried out in an Iranian context with 54 female EFL beginners. Before the treatment, the participants were asked to sit for a placement test to ensure their proficiency level. The participants of our control and experimental groups were chosen according to a questionnaire by purposeful non- random sampling method. A pre-test ensured the lack of intended grammatical knowledge in our participants. After the treatment, the participants were asked to sit for an immediate and a delayed post-test. Analyzing the scores of these three intervals revealed the significant effect of e-portfolio assessment on writing ability and its significant superiority over its counterpart traditional method of assessment. The results also showed that self-evaluation as the result of e-portfolio application leads to meaningful learning that had statistically significant effect on long-term retention of grammatical points and maintenance of learning.

alternative assessment, traditional assessment, self-evaluation, meaningful learning