California Foreign Language Project: Research and Publications

Less-Commonly Taught Languages
in Selected Elementary and Secondary Schools in California

Student Portfolios

Name: Yvonne

Level: 2

Date of Evaluation: July 1995

Comments:

Writing: Excellent writing all the time with very few mistakes. In order to see her progress in writing, the passages/ essays would have been a good tool. Unfortunately, no passages/essays in free writing were available in the portfolio.

Reading: Excellent. Many reading materials were in the test, such as translations from Japanese to English, reading Japanese questions, fill-in-the-blank questions etc.

Listen:Very good listening comprehension

Speaking: Obviously, she learned from mistakes. She made a mistake on denying a compliment in a test. But she used the correct form for this structure when it was called for in the COCI on 5/25. The audio tapes (1/10, 4,24) showed very clear and excellent pronunciation. Improvement in her speaking skill was amazing.

Culture: Throughout the year, she learned a lot of culture and culture related vocabulary. The test of culture included in the portfolio was very good.

COCI Rating: Created Low

FLOSEM Scores:

10/25/94	Total score 12	(C--2, F--2, V--2, P--4, G--2)
2/1/95	Total score = 12	(C--2, F--2, V--2, P--4, G--2)
7/15/95	Total score = 13	(C--2, F--2, V--2, P--4, G--3)

* I feel that her comprehension ability is higher than the 2 shown on the FLOSEM rating.

Name: Yvonne

Level: 3

Date of evaluation: July 19, 1996

(1) Types of Artifacts:

Table of contents, student's reflective notes, translation dialogue, verb quizzes, homework, self-introduction, grammar quiz, fall semester final quiz, 10 sentences, dialogue, vocabulary quiz, dialogue, test, dialogue, CWCA essay, spring semester final exam (90 %)

(2) Quality of Student's Work:

Very well done

(3) Organization of Portfolio:

She had many dialogue practices or translation activities and also verb tests. Artifacts were almost in chronological order with student's reflective notes.

(4) Student's Language Growth:

Writing: Her writing samples didn't have many mistakes. For self-introduction artifact, there were rough and final drafts, but her rough draft was very good with only a few teacher corrections. She seemed to be very skilled in writing even at the beginning of the year. Her CWCA essay was well done, so it was scored in the Created Low range.

Reading: Fluent. Clear pronunciation, though sometimes foreign accent was noticed slightly.

Speaking/listening: It seemed to be good. If the video or audio tape had provided impromptu talk with the teacher or a native speaker, it would have been helpful to see her speaking or listening skill more clearly.

Comparison with this year and last year's portfolios:

Last years' portfolio showed her excellent understanding in Japanese. This year, the portfolio also provided evidence of her good command of Japanese. Her improvement in the language seemed to be steady over the year. This impression is also supported by the teacher.