Romova, Zina and Andrew, Martin (2011) Teaching and assessing academic writing via the portfolio: benefits for learners of English as an additional language. Assessing Writing, 16 (2). pp. 111-122. ISSN 1075-2935

Abstract

Recent studies into the academic writing (AW) of students of English as an additional language (EAL) have focused increasingly on how learners “actually learn to write” in a second language and how teaching contributes to learning (Cumming & Riazi, 2000, p. 57). Such studies respond to Ferris and Hedgcock’s (2005) call for a framework which analyses “strategies and other cognitive operations involved in . . . drafting a coherent, meaningful, piece of connected discourse” (pp. 4–5). This article contributes to the formation of such a framework by investigating the benefits of teaching, learning and assessing EAL AW using multi-draft portfolios. We believe these benefits need no longer be ‘by-products’ of AW instruction (Katznelson, Perpignan, & Rubin, 2001) but, rather, pedagogic interventions. In this article we unfurl the strategies and cognitive operations demonstrated by learners of a course called ‘Academic Writing’ in EAL at a tertiary institution in New Zealand, and use our findings to add to the debate.

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