The potential impact of the application of electronic portfolio on Iranian EFL learners’ writing performance seeking their gender role

Abstract

Electronic portfolios are one of the potentially influential e-learning developments that could successfully find its way into language learning classes all around the world, although in Iranian EFL context students are not entirely familiar with them yet. The primary objective of this paper was to answer questions regarding the effect of e-portfolio on the students’ writing proficiency. Also, the potential effect of gender on their use of electronic portfolio was investigated as well. 157 male and female Iranian English-major students were involved in the study during one academic semester. The data obtained from a quasi-experimental design, comparing electronic portfolio assessment and conventional method of teaching writing, was quantitatively analyzed. The findings revealed that the application of e-portfolio has a significant effect on students’ writing proficiency. However, gender had no impact on their use of e-portfolio.