The Contribution of Writing Portfolios in Developing EFL Students' Writing Accuracy and Fluency: An Exploratory Study

Authors

  • Arif Ahmed Mohammed Hassan Al-Ahdal

    Department of English Language and Literature, College of Languages and Humanities, Qassim University, Buraydah 51452, Saudi Arabia
  • Paiker Fatima Mazhar Hameed

    Department of English Language and Literature, College of Languages and Humanities, Qassim University, Buraydah 51452, Saudi Arabia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.30564/fls.v7i10.10942
Received: 8 July 2025 | Revised: 17 July 2025 | Accepted: 25 July 2025 | Published Online: 28 September 2025

Abstract

This research explores the impact of writing portfolios on the fluency and accuracy of writing among novice English as a Foreign Language (EFL) writers at the intermediate level. Writing portfolios, as a process-oriented assessment mode, offer space for reflection, revision, and incremental building—attributes absent in most traditional assessment models. A mixed-methods approach was utilized with sixty male students from a public Saudi university divided into two groups, of which the experimental group used writing portfolios and the control group used discrete writing tasks without the benefit of revision. The intervention spanned ten weeks, and data were collected at three points in time—pre-test, mid-test, and post-test—and analyzed using a specially developed rubric that quantified fluency and accuracy. The primary instruments are students' writing samples and reflections from the portfolios. The data were processed using SPSS. Results indicate that the portfolio group showed significant improvements in both fluency and accuracy due to repeated revision and self-assessment exercises based on both writing output and reflections. Furthermore, the study highlights the role of cognitive awareness in the writing process, focusing on how reflective practices enhance students' understanding of their writing strategies. The study offers rich information on writing instruction through portfolios and demonstrates its worth in the development of self-directed, proficient EFL writers. The findings underscore the importance of process-oriented assessment in language teaching and call for the integration of writing portfolios into EFL programs to improve students' writing skills and cognitive awareness.

Keywords:

Writing Portfolios; EFL Learners; Fluency; Accuracy; Metacognitive Awareness

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How to Cite

Hassan Al-Ahdal, A. A. M., & Hameed, P. F. M. (2025). The Contribution of Writing Portfolios in Developing EFL Students’ Writing Accuracy and Fluency: An Exploratory Study. Forum for Linguistic Studies, 7(10), 708–724. https://doi.org/10.30564/fls.v7i10.10942

Issue

Vol. 7 , Iss. 10 (October 2025): In progress

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Article

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Copyright © 2025 Arif Ahmed Mohammed Hassan Al-Ahdal, Paiker Fatima Mazhar Hameed

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This is an open access article under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) License.