Portfolio Assessment: Improvement of Japanese Language Learners’

Ability

Rani Arfianty, Adriana Hasibuan and Nandi S.

Program Study of Japanese Literature, Faculty of Social Sciences, Universitas Sumatera Utara

Keywords: Portfolio, Japanese language learning, improvement, learning process.

Abstract: This study focuses on how the progress and improvement of learning Japanese language among Japanese

language students through portfolio assessment techniques. All the works produced by the students,

activities in the learning process are monitored and commented on for improvement. Through the method of

classroom action research, also, qualitative and quantitative methods, this study aims to identify the process

of development and progress of learning the Japanese language on Japanese language students. The results

of this study indicate an increase in the ability of students in learning Japanese language with a decrease in

the number of mistakes they make from the first test to the second test. Then, it is also known that students

tend to have difficulty choosing the right words, choosing particles as well, the tendency to do language

transfer when forming a Japanese sentence. When not knowing a word meaning in Japanese, students tend

only to find matching words that are considered in accordance with Indonesian language and use them in

Japanese sentences. Nevertheless, the use of portfolios in Japanese language learning has helped students to

improve their Japanese language skills. The portfolio has helped students to know the points of their

weaknesses in Japanese language learning.

1 INTRODUCTION

This research is a continuation from a previous This

research is a continuation from a previous research

that was done before, which is about learning

Japanese conjunction among Indonesian students

(Arfianty: 2015), which mentions that the student is

tend to think the Japanese word is the same as the

conjunction in the Indonesian language because of

the similarity of meaning when the word is

translated into the mother tongue. While in the

research on the misuse and translation of Japanese

passive sentences, (Arfianty: 2017), it was found

that Indonesian students tend to think Japanese

passive sentences are the same as passive ‘-di’

prefixes in Indonesian. This indicates that errors in

the use of Japanese language occur because students

tend to translate Japanese words or phrases by

looking for a words that are considered appropriate

or similar in the Indonesian language but ignore the

appropriate rules of use. Here are examples of

Japanese language use errors taken from Arfianty

and Hasibuan (2017), sentence (1) and Arfianty

(2015), sentence (2):

(1). My diary was taken by a friend

Watashi -no nikki -o tomodachi- o

tomarasemasu. (?)

I-particle-diary-particles-friend-particles-tell me

to stay

(Arfianty&Hasibuan: 2017)

(2). After drinking a lot of Sake, head aches

Takusan osake –o nondekara, atama- ga

itaidesu. (?)

Many-Sake-particles-drink, head-particles-pain

(Arfianty: 2015)

Sample sentence (1) above shows sentence

translation in Japanese produced by student when

asked to translate passive sentence of Indonesian,

'my diary is taken by a friend' to Watashi no nikki o

tomodachi o tomarasemasu. The student's

translation sentence, in addition to failing to form a

passive Japanese sentence, there is also a mistake in

the selection of particles and conjugation of a

Japanese passive verb while the example of sentence

(2) shows an example of an erroneous use of a

conjunctive Japanese word done by a student when

asked to complete a sentence with a conjunction

1236

Arﬁanty, R., Hasibuan, A. and S., N.

Portfolio Assessment: Improvement of Japanese Language Learners’ Ability.

DOI: 10.5220/0010070812361241

In Proceedings of the International Conference of Science, Technology, Engineering, Environmental and Ramiﬁcation Researches (ICOSTEERR 2018) - Research in Industry 4.0, pages

1236-1241

ISBN: 978-989-758-449-7

‘tekara’ (after). The sentence that is used by students

‘atama ga itai’ (headaches) showing results as a

result of 'drinking a lot of Sake'. This sentence is

correct and commonly used in the Indonesian

language, but, it is not appropriate for proper use of

'~ tekara' rules.

Based on the findings of these studies, Japanese

language students are known to face many

difficulties in learning Japanese. Development of

appropriate Japanese language teaching techniques,

making innovative teaching materials to improve

teaching competence is necessary. Handling these

learning problems also requires special and optimal

attention to identify the types of difficulties,

monitoring the processes and learning outcomes of

students. Finally, the extent to which the competence

of Japanese language proficiency of the student

develops and the extent to which the difficulties

facing the student can be handled will be known.

According to Sanjaya (2008), a teacher needs to

follow the development and ability of students in

mastering the competence of learning to methods

and teaching processes can be improved and

developed in a continuous manner. The development

and progress of students in the second language

learning requires evaluation as feedback in the

process of enhancing language teaching techniques.

One type of evaluation that monitors the continuous

development of student learning that can be done is

portfolio assessment. Through portfolio assessment,

it hopes that learning processes and learning

outcomes and student abilities can be observed in

full from time to time.

This study discusses the progress and

improvement of the Japanese language learning

process and outcomes among Japanese language

learners by using portfolio assessment. According to

Yusuf (2015), portfolio assessment is much more

complex than other conventional learning evaluation

tests. The portfolio assessment collects the students'

work and samples at a certain time-limit in the

course of the learning material activity. Student

works can be a picture of student academic progress,

skills and attitudes of students. Portfolio assessment

is a written report describing the process and

learning outcomes of the learner. Portfolio

assessment does not merely carry out an evaluation

test to determine the success of student learning as

defined in the curriculum.

Basically, portfolio assessment requires time and

attention of the teachers to the development of

students more. The portfolio requires extra work

from the teacher to keep up with the changes and

progress of each student's learning progress. This is

due to the portfolio assessment focusing on the

progress and efforts of the students in the mastery of

learning, as well as an assessment of the intellectual

attitudes and skills of learners. Therefore, portfolio

assessment is deemed necessary to monitor and

define the development and mastery of students on

continuous and intact Japanese language learning.

Research using the portfolio assessment of the

progress and development of Japanese language

learning among Japanese language learners needs to

be done. Therefore, the problems for this research is

as follows:

1. What is the competence of Japanese language

learners before using the Portfolio?

2. How to improve the competence of Japanese

language learners through portfolio

assessment?

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

Research on the evaluation of learning that examines

the study of learning evaluation theory has been

conducted by Nuriyah (2014). The results of this

study mentioned that as teachers, teachers should be

a good evaluator. It aims to determine whether the

formulated objectives have been achieved or not.

Also, through the assessment of a teacher, they can

know the mastery of students to the lessons, as well

as the accuracy of the effectiveness of teaching

methods.

Portfolio assessment is the learning process

carried out by students from beginning to the end,

from stage to the level of learning. Students learn to

assess themselves and set their main achievement

targets. Sanjaya (2008) mentions portfolio

assessment is to monitor the development and ability

of students through a collection of student work

systematically arranged as evidence of student

learning outcomes. Based on the collection of

student works this learning process and student

progress can be judged both in terms of knowledge,

attitude and skills.

Research on the use of portfolios in English

writing works among Iranian students is done by

Ghoorchaei, Tavakoli & Ansari (2010). The

researcher states that the purpose of this

investigation is to find out the impact of the use of

portfolio assessment on student papers. The results

show that the use of portfolio assessment has

improved the students' writing ability significantly.

Also, the portfolio has increased the learning activity

of learners within the group.

Portfolio Assessment: Improvement of Japanese Language Learners’ Ability

1237

The other research related to this portfolio

assessment is also done by Rukmini & Saputri

(2017) to above high school students in Indonesia to

measure the students' level of English proficiency.

The results showed that teachers in the secondary

school had difficulty implementing the original

portfolio assessment and in scoring. This is due to

the difficulty of ensuring students to complete their

portfolios. However, even though the teachers have

made some improvisations to overcome the

problems that arise.

3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This research used classroom action as stated by

Muslich (2010) with describing what is the issues of

the research as the first step, identified the problems,

then explained what goals are expected. Mixed

method that is quantitative and qualitative are also

used as the results of this research. The results of

data collection which are students’ essays writing

with predetermined themes from the test provided

were analyzed using quantitative methods adapted

by Brown, J. D and Rodgers, T.S (2002). This

quantitative method is important for analyzing

quantitative errors and providing descriptive

statistics for later analysis with qualitative research

methods after interview session has done (Brown, J.

D and Rodgers, T.S, 2002). Tracy (2012) suggests

that qualitative methods are a research method that

aims to test and make small note cues to determine

acceptable attitudes and contexts and foster greater

knowledge of the culture.

Faculty of Cultural Sciences University Sumatra

Utara, Medan was chosen as a research location

which is where researchers teach Japanese language.

Japanese Literary Study Program students who was

in semester 4 was chosen as the subject of this

research.

Subject for this research are students from

students of Japanese Literature Study Program, FIB,

USU who are sitting in semester 4. This is done

because the students have been studying Japanese

for 3 semesters and are expected to have made a

simple essay in Japanese.

Research instruments are used is students writing

essays with predetermined themes and interview will

be done after assessing the essays. Respondents

were asked to write essays in Japanese with

predetermined themes. Then, the interviews of

respondents were conducted to find out the

difficulties and increase the learning achievement of

Japanese language learners through portfolio

assessment.

Writing essays made by the respondents are used for

the achievement of the purpose of this study which

is focused on students of Japanese Literature Prodi,

FIB, USU semester 4

. Collection of students’

essays will be done as pre-test and post-test with a

predetermined schedule and interviews done

afterwards.

4 FINDINGS

Table 1: Result numbers of Pre-Test and Post-Test

Japanese Language Learners' Facing Problem

Wor

Chos

Parti

cle

Chos

Mixe

Code

Wor

Writ

Patte

Lang

uage

Tran

sfer

2 7

4 8 3 6 2 7 4

0 6

4 8 6 2 5 3 5 3 8 6

4 8

6 8 5 9 4

0 6

1 8

7 3 5 2 2 0 1 0 0 0 5 3

8 4

0 4 4 2 5 2 2 1 7 4

8 5 8 5 5 2 4 1 3 1 7 5

1 7 7 4 6 2 6 2 5 2

1 7

0 5 8 5

1 7

3 9

0 5

3 7 9 4 6 2 7 3

0 5

2 7 9 5 7 3 8 3 9 5

0 6

6 4 7 4 3 0 0 0 1 0 5 2

7 4 8 4 1 0 1 0 2 1 5 3

9 4

0 4 4 1 0 0 4 2 9 5

2 7 9 5 9 6

1 8

6 4 5 3 0 0 0 0 1 1 4 2

8 5 5 3 2 0 1 0 2 1 7 4

1 7 6 4 5 3 9 5

3 9

0 6 8 3

0 6

4 9

5 9

0 6 8 3 9 4

0 4

4 9

7 4 8 3 6 2 2 0 3 1 7 4

8 5

0 6 3 1 1 1 4 1 9 5

9 5 1 4 3 0 2 0 4 0 8 4

ICOSTEERR 2018 - International Conference of Science, Technology, Engineering, Environmental and Ramiﬁcation Researches

1238

2 D

2 8 8 4 8 3

0 6

0 6 8 3 8 3 9 4 7 4 8 6

0 5 8 4 6 2 8 3 9 5

0 6

8 5

0 5 5 2 4 1 5 2 7 4

1 6 8 4

0 4 7 3 9 4

0 4

0 7 5 9 6 6 5 9 6

Total

To achieve the objectives of the study, data

retrieval research was conducted 2 times. The first

test, that is pre-test done as an initial benchmark of

how the level of student ability. Next, students were

given Japanese language grammar materials,

afterwards, discussion group were formed and

interviews to find out more difficulties faced by

students in learning Japanese language. Finally, the

second test, that is post test was conducted as an

attempt to see whether there is progress and

improvement of students' ability in learning

Japanese language after the debriefing of Japanese

learning materials and interviews on the students.

Table 1 below shows the number of student error

numbers in word selection, particle selection, word

change, letter / word writing, sentence pattern and

language transfer when asked to create one essay

with a predefined theme. T1 denotes the number of

Japanese language use errors in the first Test. While

T2 shows the number of mistakes in Japanese used

in the second test.

Based on the results of the first test (T1) and the

second test (T2), it can be known the level of ability

and mastery of Japanese language and difficulties

faced by students, such as the following table:

Based on the observations and data analysis in

Table 1 above, it can be seen that there are

differences in the number of numbers in each test

result from each student on the first test (T1) and the

second test (T2). When looking at the total number

of all numbers on T1 and T2, there is a decrease in

the number of Japanese language use errors made by

students. The number of error numbers in the

selection of words on T1 is 299 and has decreased at

T2 to 182. The decrease in the number of error

numbers in language transfer is also almost equal to

the number of error numbers in word selection, is

272 on T1 and 173 on T2. While the number of error

numbers in the selection of particles that had

amounted to 296 in T1, changed to 170 on T2. Next,

the number of numbers on T1 in the code mixed

section, where the number of numbers originally 164

has decreased the number of sufficiently large

numbers to 71 in T2. Likewise, in the letter / word

writing section, the number of numbers decreases to

half, as 138 on T1 turns to 60 on T2. This also

occurs in the part of the sentence pattern where the

decrease in the number of mistakes is almost 50%,

that is, from the number of 169 in T1 to 89 on T2.

Here are some examples of incorrect sentences

produced by students when asked to complete essays

in Japanese with predefined themes.

1. Sentences with mistakes in choosing words,

particles and language transfer.

(1). Watashi wa kazoku ni gaikoku e

sanposhitai.

I – particle – family – particle – go aboard –

particle – want to take a walk

Sentence (1) above is a sentence made by the

student, describing the subject intending to take his

or her family a walking tour abroad. However, when

viewed grammatically, sentences made by this

student there are some errors, namely mistakes in the

selection of particles 'ni' and mistakes in the choice

of the word 'sanposhitai' (want to take a walk). To

produce a grammatically correct sentence in

Japanese, the 'ni' particles should be replaced 'o'

which indicates the object. Next, the word

'sanposhitai' is replaced with the phrase 'ryokou ni

tsurete ikitai' (want to invite for touring).

Based on the translation of the word 'sanposhitai'

literally into the Indonesian language is want to take

a walk, causing the students to use the word

'sanposhitai' as the expression of the tour of the

streets. While the word 'sanposhitai' in Japanese

shows the meaning of walking around a single

location just like the park. The similar meaning of

the word 'sanposhitai' which, when translated into

Indonesian becomes 'roads', makes students think

that 'sanposhitai' is the same as the word 'roads' in

general in the Indonesian language. This resulted in

the sentence produced by the student in sentence (1)

classified into sentences that are not in accordance

with the rules of using proper Japanese grammar.

Allegedly, students do the language transfer from

mother tongue to Japanese language until the error

occurs. Therefore, the sentence produced by the

student should be:

(1.a) Watashi wa kazoku o gaikoku e ryokou ni

tsurete ikitai desu.

I-partikel-family-partikel-go aboard-partikel-

wisata-partikel-mengajak

2. Sentences with mistakes in writing words/letters,

mix codes and errors in sentence patterns.

Portfolio Assessment: Improvement of Japanese Language Learners’ Ability

1239

(2). Watashi to kazoku ishouni nozomi ni

Mekkah o doujini ni ikimasu.

I-particle-family-?-wish-particle-?-particle-

in the same time-particle-go

When viewed from the rules of Japanese

grammar, the sentence produced by student (2)

above is not appropriate. There are several error

points in the sentence: error in word selection

(nozomi: wish; doujini: in the same time), particle

selection errors (to and ni), mistake of letter / word

(ishouni), mix code (Meccaa), and sentence pattern

errors. However, when looking at the meaning per

word of the sentence (2), it is known that the thing

the student wants to mention is 'I want to go to

mecca with my family'. Students tend to search for

matching words per word in the appropriate

Indonesian language and are considered appropriate

with the words available in Japanese. Sentence (2)

above should:

(2.a) Watashi wa kazoku to isshouni Mekkaa e ikitai

desu.

I-particle-family-particle-together-Mekka-

particle-want to go

An interview towards students has been done

after getting the data of the analysis. In this session it

is explained to each student about how their true

Japanese language mastery and ability. Each student

also has been explained about the forms of error in

their Japanese essays. Thus, students are expected to

be more careful and focus on the parts they still have

to learn better. Many students say they face

difficulties in applying Japanese language particles

correctly and making changes to verbs and

adjectives. Then, students tend to translate directly

from Indonesian into Indonesia, which in the end

causes the use of language errors.

5 CONCLUSION

Based on the findings of this study it can be seen

that there is a difference in the total number of the

total number of numbers from the first test result

(T1) and the second test (T2). The decrease in the

number of error numbers of T1 and T2 is seen in

word selection, particle selection, code mix, letter /

word writing, sentence pattern and language

transfer. However, the number of error numbers in

word selection, particle selection and language

transfers look higher than in word modification,

letter / word formation and sentence pattern. This

shows that students tend to have difficulty in

choosing the right words, choosing the right

particles in making one essay in Japanese. In

addition, the high number of mistaken numbers in

the language transfer also explains that students tend

to make direct translation by searching for matching

words that are deemed appropriate or similar to the

mother tongue (Indonesian) into Japanese.

Next, based on errors in the code mix, it is

known that students are also inclined to use English

or Indonesian directly in Japanese sentences when

they find it difficult to find the appropriate

equivalent words as mentioned in Japanese. This

shows the lack of students' knowledge of vocabulary

in Japanese causing code intermingling in Japanese

sentence writing.

Nevertheless, the overall results of research data

can be seen a decrease in the number of mistakes

made by each student in each category of errors in

writing sentences of Japanese. The application of a

portfolio assessment system in improving students'

ability to apply Japanese language shows good

results. This can be seen from the decrease in the

number of errors in using Japanese by students from

pre-test to post-test. Interviews and further

discussions carried out on each student also

produced a good response, where they became more

relaxed and convinced to apply the Japanese they

mastered. This also supports the statement from

Sanjaya (2008), which stated portfolio assessment as

one way for monitoring the development and ability

of students learning outcomes. It helps to find out of

students’ knowledge, attitude and skills in language

learning process. The portfolio has helped students

to identify details about their shortcomings and

weaknesses in Japanese language learning

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thanks to University Sumatera Utara’s Researh

Institutions which funded this research as stated in

contract TALENTA USU Research 2018

Nomor:41/UN5.2.3.1/PPM/RP.TALENTA

USU/2018

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