CRITICIZING SIERRAS (2010) CASE STUDY FOCUSED ON PORTFOLIO AS A

PEDAGOGICAL TOOL

Summary of Sierras (2010) Case Study

This is a critique of sierra's (2010) paper entitled Portfolio as a Tool to Improve Writing Skills
among First Semester EFL Learners at a Public University In Colombia a Case Study
",Published in Open Writing Doors Journal (OWDJ). The purpose of this study was to
understand the perceptions and analysis of four first semester students through the use of FL
portfolio as a way to improve their writing skills.
The paper was broken down into six sections: Introduction, Literature Review, Methodology,
Data analysis, Findings and Conclusions. The introduction explains what the study is about and
determines the criteria taken into account as proficiency level ranging from A1 to A2 level and
the completeness of the portfolio. The literature Review summarized three previous studies
related to portfolio.
A conceptualization of Portfolio: Barnard & Deyzel (2003) defined portfolio as a portable,
systematic, purposeful collection of work, selected to provide information about attitude, level of
development and growth during a given period of time. It is a powerful visual tool that provides
evidence of self-assessment, personal reflections, learning, growth and development and a
comprehensive and complex overview of skills.
EFL Writing Raimes, (1987) stated that writing in a foreign language can have some pedagogical
purposes such as reinforcement, training, imitation, communication, fluency, and learning.
The Portfolio' use as a tool to improve EFL writing skills. Craig (2003) conducted a multiple
case study with teachers from five schools in the United States. The author found that school
portfolio development proved to be a productive activity for the teachers. Even though this
research showed that portfolios are useful to teachers as well as students, there are some
dilemmas about the use of a portfolio such as the fact that there are limitations in enthusiasm and
creativity when working on their portfolio.
As for methodology: This 16 week research was conducted in a specific classroom setting in the
foreign languages program in a Colombian Public University. Participants were 4 beginner level
students three female and one male who were aged from 16 to 18. The selection of participants
was done through purposeful sampling; they were evaluated based on four aspects: Organization,
Content, and Quality of reflection and Self- assessment. Two semi-structured interviews were
carried out. One at the beginning of the study to understand students' basic knowledge about
portfolio. The second interview conducted at the end of the data collection process helped the

author to learn about participants' experiences when using portfolios. At the end of the study the
author conducted one participant classroom observation.
Concerning Data Analysis; the author transcribed data and carried out coding process in order to
identify all of the cases related to salient memos. To organize data the researcher used
MAXQDA. Finally the author wrote narratives about the findings during the coding and analysis
process. In the Findings two categories were drawn: Advantages as the organization of their
portfolios, vocabulary, and grammar used, in this case the use of portfolio improved participants'
vocabulary and helped students to improve their grammar knowledge and use fluent and correct
sentences in each task. Disadvantages as Students had difficulties when writing because the way
they used portfolios was a boring and tiring process since they had to write each text more than
twice. The insecurity they felt when writing students were not required to reflect on their own
progress or self-assessment.
With respect to Conclusions and Discussions two main results were drawn: Data demonstrated
that portfolios were beneficial to improve vocabulary, grammar, and writing in a FL and
participants became more organized when writing a text and Students perceived some problems
during the use of a portfolio.

Criticizing Sierras (2010) Case Study

This critique is based on presenting weaknesses, strengths, suggestions and conclusions.
The researcher took into account the suitable literature review to carry out her study because she
supported it in three general themes: Authors who provided a conceptualization of portfolio;
those who defined EFL writing process and Scholars who conducted previous studies about
portfolio as a pedagogical tool when learning EFL writing.
This was a flawless case study because the author limited time, space and participants she used
four first semester students during a study that lasted 16 weeks and used interviews and
observations in order to explain and understand how portfolio works when learning FL
writing.This well-conducted research facilitated to describe and understand teachers and
students' perspectives when using portfolio as a manner to improve FL learning writing.
However some flaws were identified as the unnecessary classroom observation because the
researcher studied written skills not speaking skills or behaviors and the duration of the study
was not enough because it was limited in a very short term to collect the necessary data when
describing and studyingFL learners writing using portfolio as a tool for improvement their
written skills.
The author failed to describe and respect participants' opinions about the use of portfolio as she
deduced that portfolio is not a boring and tedious process when students stated the contrary
assessing it as a tiring and boring process as they have to re-write each text twice or more.
This research would have been more significant if in the conclusion the author had suggested a
pedagogical strategy as a manner to make portfolio's process keeping pleasant and enjoyable
instead of suggesting reflection and self-assessment which can mislead the process as it is noncontrolled.
This paper presented different perceptions those stated by the students who assessed portfolio as
a useful and tiring tool and those interpreted by the researcher who rated it as a meaningful tool
that improves vocabulary and writing skills when learning EFL.
To sum up, to carry out this critique it was firstly necessary to read the entire paper in order to
get to know what it is about; secondly to summarize it and determine weaknesses and strengths
that allowed to provide suggestions and conclusions for improvements.Although the author
conducted the study in significant manner because it allowed to explain an experience when
using portfolio in an EFL writing classroom she failed to report participants opinions and use of
the required procedures as the unnecessary classroom observation because she was studying
written works and not behaviors.