The application of e-portfolio in speaking assessment and its contributions to students' attitudes towards speaking

E-portfolio is used in foreign language teaching and assessment, especially inteaching and assessing writing. E-portfolio improves students writing skills byenabling them to self-assess their own products, to improve their products according to the teacher's feedback, to follow their own progress, and to organize their ownlearning. Speaking and writing are productive skills though they are different in nature. Speaking can be assessed and improved like writing. However, e-portfolio is more often used to assess writing, not speaking. As a result of this, the present study tries to answer the question of whether eportfolio can be used to assess speaking as it is used in writing assessment, whether the application of e-portfolio has an effect on the students attitudes towards speaking, and what kind of contributions e-portfolio can make to the students speaking performance if it has an effect on the students attitudes towards speaking. This study was carried out with 17 students studying in level D in the English Language Preparation Department of Zirve University. It lasted 8 weeks. To collect data, researcher's diary, interview 1, interview 2, self-assessment paper 1, self-assessment paper 2, and cover letters were used. The data was analyzed by using content analysis. The results of the study show that e-portfolio could be used in speaking assessment, it affected the students attitudes towards speaking positively, and it could improve their speaking skills. Also, the results of the study indicate that according to the students, they improved their speaking in terms of grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary, they felt more self-confident and less anxious while speaking, and they improved their technology skills, such as recording and arranging video.Keywords: Speaking Assessment, E-portfolio, E-portfolio Assessment