Efficacy and Feasibility of Project-based Learning and Portfolios Assessment in ELT: A Study in the Indian Context

Abstract

One of the colonial inheritances in Indian education is the testing method. It aims at testing the memory capacity of learners instead of tracking the development of language for effective communicative ability, the capacity of knowledge construction, and critical thinking. English language testing is no exception to this colonial phenomenon since it continues to be largely content-based. Teaching and testing are the two sides of a sheet of paper and therefore inseparable. What is taught can only be tested. Though English language teaching in India has been emphasizing the need for the development of language skills and study skills for the last thirty years or so, not much could be achieved. The same humanist approach coupled with traditional memory testing continues to date though some claims are being made on skills-based teaching and alternative testing methods in some quarters. Either such claims of achievement are desultory or many serious empirical research studies on these healthy practices from the Indian classrooms have not been reported widely to get much-need international attention. With the increased use of ICT in ELT becoming a reality, English teachers can prepare themselves professionally to implement constructvist project-based learning and introduce portfolios as a viable alternative assessment mode. It becomes imperative because the importance of English language skills for communication is internationally acknowledged in the post-globalized world now much more poignantly than ever. The concept of communicative competence and modes of communication have been re- conceptualized. This paper makes an attempt to empirically study the attitude of the college English teachers toward the concept of project-based learning and portfolios as an alternative method of assessment.