A literature review on e-portfolios in teaching writing in English as a Foreign Language classes

Abstract

Electronic Portfolios have been widely used for monitoring the progress and achievements of EFL learners as they present a systematic collection of students’ tasks and performances. Particularly during and after the Covid-19 pandemic process, the majority of the educational institutions converted their foreign language teaching models and integrated digital platforms into their teaching programs. With the acceleration of the digitalisation process, e-portfolios have emerged as an alternative to traditional portfolios for monitoring and storing the students’ works. The current paper aims to review the literature on e-portfolios for writing skills in the EFL context. The present review focuses on the effects of e-portfolios on students’ motivation and success, technological requirements and challenges, limitations of e-portfolios, and perceptions of students and teachers/instructors. Depending on the studies reviewed, the paper concludes that e-portfolios affect students’ attitudes toward writing tasks; it increases their motivation and develops writing skills. On the other hand, e-portfolios have some limitations, and they might require certain technological competencies from the instructors’ perspective and call for training both for learners and instructors.