LANGUAGE PORTFOLIO FOR BUILDING LINGUISTIC COMPETENCE IN ESP SPEAKING IN STUDENTS’ INDEPENDENT WORK - study findings and recommendations

Oct 15, 2026

The study examines language portfolio as an effective tool in students’ independent work for building lexical and grammatical competences in ESP speaking. A mixed research design gathered students’ attitudes through a questionnaire and analyzed the results to identify the autonomy types supported by teacher guidance. Conducted at Ivan Franko National University of Lviv (December–February 2019–2020), the research involved 250 second-year economics students and five ESP teachers. Results show preference for relative and half-autonomy with firm teacher guidance, and most students report significant progress.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages5

Reading Time13 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Lexical and grammatical competences in ESP speaking

Independent language learning and autonomy

Organisation of independent work

Teacher guidance models

Learning autonomy in ESP

Methodology and survey design

Participants and setting

Questionnaire focus

Findings and implications

Students’ preferred autonomy with guidance

Reported progress and recommendations

LANGUAGE PORTFOLIO FOR BUILDING LINGUISTIC COMPETENCE IN ESP SPEAKING IN STUDENTS’ INDEPENDENT WORK Andriy Kotlovskiy, Natalia Mykytenko, Andriana Onufriv, Maryana Salamakha Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, Lviv, Ukraine [natusiamykyt@gmail.com](natusiamykyt@gmail.com) The study shows that language portfolio is an effective tool which is applied in students’ independent work. We aimed to survey students’ views on the usage of language portfolio; to define the types of students’ autonomy with teacher’s guidance that contribute to successful acquisition of lexical and grammatical competences within students’ independent work; to give recommendations to teachers about using language portfolio for building lexical and grammatical competences in ESP speaking. Thus, a mixed research design was employed. The qualitative research design relied on collecting data about students’ attitude to using language portfolio asa tool of building their lexical and grammatical competences in ESP speaking within their independent work. The quantitative research design was focused on interpreting the results and suggesting recommendations regarding students’ independent work in ESP learning. The research was held at Ivan Franko National University of Lviv during December-February of 2019-2020 academic year. The total number of full-time second-year students who took part voluntarily was 250. Also, five ESP teachers participated in the survey. Within the context of the study, the questionnaire was designed to identify students’ attitude towards learning aims, ways to achieve them, type of teacher’s guidance, practicability of keys, instructions, range of suitable techniques. The findings show that the students prefer relative autonomy and half-autonomy with a firm and relatively firm teacher’s guidance to follow while acquiring lexical and grammatical competences in ESP speaking. Most students admit that language portfolio is an effective tool which promotes significant progress in their lexical and grammatical competences in ESP speaking. Keywords: lexical and grammatical competence; speaking; independent work; autonomy; language portfolio. Introduction The expansion and intensification of international ties of Ukraine in the world intensifies the significance of mastering the English language by future specialists of Economics. The successful acquisition of English for specific purposes (ESP) is accompanied with the process of building lexical and grammatical competences in speaking. It is acknowledged that these competences furnish correct presentation of own utterances and understanding interlocutors’ speech. In view of the tendency towards the reduction of classroom ESP learning hours for the students majoring in Economics, independent work becomes crucially important, since it gives an opportunity to optimise the learning process by extending its time frames. Lexical and grammatical competences, as the components of linguistic one, belong to the main competences within а foreign language. While building lexical and grammatical competences in speaking of prospective economists it is essential to focus on lexical and grammatical knowledge, skills, awareness, and speech skills in speaking. Lexical knowledge encompasses knowledge of sound and graphical forms of a word, reading rules, semantics, ability to have synonyms, antonyms, stylistic and sociocultural colouring, types of vocabularies, similarities and differences in lexical systems of native and foreign languages. The knowledge of grammar is instrumental to build new words by morphological transformation of known words, to combine lexemes with the sentence, to use words following the content of the sentence. An ability to learn on one’s own is a basic human competence. It stands to reason that the constructivist philosophy in education was largely advocating a student-centred approach in teaching methodology (Von Glaserfeld, 1989) . Student-centred learning promotes

FAQs

What is the main purpose of using language portfolio in this study?

To evaluate language portfolio as a tool that supports students’ independent work in developing lexical and grammatical competences for ESP speaking.

How did the researchers structure the study design?

They used a mixed research design: qualitative data gathered students’ attitudes, and quantitative analysis interpreted results and formed recommendations.

What kind of teacher guidance do students prefer while developing lexical and grammatical competences?

Students prefer relative autonomy and half-autonomy together with firm or relatively firm teacher guidance.

Oct 15, 2026

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