The Implementation of English Portfolio Assessment at the First Grade of SMP Negeri I Malang in the Academic Year 2006/2007

Assessment is one of the major components in teaching and learning process. As a measurement of students’ performance, an assessment method must examine students’ collective abilities. In the last few years, the method of assessment in the world-wide has changed from traditional to alternative assessment. Traditional assessment is considered not to be able to offer much wash-back and authenticity. It tends to show only one-shot performances that are timed. In other words, traditional assessment cannot authentically measure students’ real ability and performance (Brown, 2004). Portfolio as one of the authentic assessments is based on a systematic assessment procedure. It provides accurate information about students’ capability in many domains of learning. Moreover, it also provides teachers with wealth of information upon which to base instructional decisions and from which to evaluate students’ progress (Gomez, Gru, Block, in Suparto, 1994). However, it is not easy to find a model of a good portfolio that can really measure students’ progress. This study attempts to describe the implementation of portfolio assessment which has been implemented at SMP Negeri I Malang. Furthermore, it also attempts to reveal the students’ and teacher’s opinions about the implementation of portfolio assessment in the school. The sources of the data of this study are a teacher and students in the VII A class of SMP Negeri I Malang. Since this study is intended to describe the real condition of the implementation of portfolio assessment at SMP Negeri I Malang, the research design employed is a qualitative research. The instruments applied in this research are questionnaires, field-notes, and interviews. The data obtained from the instruments were then analyzed descriptively. The findings show that portfolio assessment implemented at SMP Negeri I Malang is a good model of portfolio assessment. From the process during the implementation of portfolio assessment, the students’ progresses were well monitored, both by the teacher and by the students. The results of the questionnaires show that the teacher and the students had positive opinions toward the implementation of portfolio assessment. It could really assist the teacher in monitoring students’ progress. 88.6% of the students answered that the implementation of portfolio assessment made them motivated in learning English and be more creative. In addition, 90 % of the students answered that with the implementation of portfolio assessment, they became more attentive in doing their assignments. iii Therefore, it is suggested that teacher should give more focus in the reflection as the students’ self-assessment to make the portfolio assessment more meaningful