This action research first explores the problems faced by both teachers and students at School of Foreign Languages - Thai Nguyen University in doing their English Magazine Project, and then examines the effectiveness of the researcher’s intervention at her class which was using portfolios to (1) let students take input from their reading to improve their writing and (2) enhance team work skills by means of compulsory group-editing. A combination of qualitative data from class observation and interviews and quantitative ones from questionnaire and writing error calculation was employed among participants. Results revealed that lack of exposure to authentic reading sources and poor group work resulted in poor writings; in addition, portfolios brought in significant improvement in students’ articles and more effective team-work although teacher’s workload remained unchanged. In general, this study is useful in the context of project-based learning environment in Vietnam in general and in other similar contexts.