Portfolios across the EFL Curriculum: Methodological Perspectives of their use in university settings

This article emerges from the experience that two EFL university professors have accumulated for several years working with portfolios intertiary education. Starting from the theoretical principles they have undertaken to guide their practices when using portfolios, they share theirmethodological procedures for ESP (English for Specific Purposes), academic literacy and teaching practicum courses. The authors describein detail how portfolios are structured in each setting, enhancing autonomous and collaborative learning as well as the reflective teachingof the foreign language. In addition, the manuscript discusses the benefits students perceive portfolios bring since they can approach theirliteracy development as a process, be more creative as learners and prospective teachers, find meaningful contexts to learn and increase theirmetacognitive skills, among others. The pedagogical implications involve suggestions in regards to how role dynamics and power relationsbuilt around these artifacts, the need for suitable peer monitoring structures and for the creation of solid pedagogical frameworks to encourageautonomy.