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Abstract：English writing is gaining high attention and emphasis in our college syllabus. It is a complicated process of written communication. In the process， the four basic skills—speaking， reading， listening and writing are organically integrated together. This paper is about the process-based approach in English writing class and its aim to emphasize the importance of process-based approach to writing. There are four parts in this paper. I start with a brief introduction to the importance of writing. Next， I will introduce my practice in English writing class. Then I will comment on the process approach and then make a little revision.

Key words： Writing Process-based approach Communicative language teaching

1. Introduction on the importance of writing

Of the four basic language skills—listening， speaking， reading and writing， writing occupies an important and indispensable position and it is also considered as the most difficult and the most challenging. For Chinese students it is not easy to write explicitly in Chinese， let alone in English. However English writing is gaining attention and emphasis in our college syllabus， indicating that it may play an important role in language learning and communication. Therefore a lot of scholars springs up like mushrooms to analyse how to improve our English writing. As a result， they think of success in writing as a long-term process with step-by-step progress. It demands learners to accumulate language materials day by day and bit by bit. On the other hand， in our English writing courses， students always complain about learning little. Many English teachers similarly complain their lack of knowledge about the method for teaching writing for students. So， in this paper， I will report on what I have done in my writing class before and after learning the theory of process-based approach to writing.

2. Practice in my English writing class

In my writing class before， I usually gave a topic or a selection of topics， a set of requirements， and a time limit. The students finished the task within the time limit and handed in the final product. The students' work was evaluated based on the accuracy of the final product. And then I would return their composition with my comments a week later. But very often， when given a topic， the students make up things to write about because their personal experiences cannot contribute to the given topic. Even though their experiences were rich enough， the students very often wrote from someone else's ideas. It is frequently seen that many students spend a lot of time trying to come up with a topic that they would like to write about or that they think is interesting to the other students or the teacher. And when they decide on a topic， they try to rack their brain to come up with ideas that they can put on the paper. We can say this kind of writing is pseudo writing and lacks authenticity. So， it does not motivate students and this process may take a long time and may not be so productive when working individually. Later， I recognize that the kind of method has been named as “product-based approach to writing”.

Now， I have learned the theory of the process-based approach to writing. I think it is an effective practice for non-native speakers. The following is my practice：

In my English classroom there are forty-eight students and I divide them into eight groups. Every time when I assign a writing task， students manifest extreme curiosity and each group work together to brainstorm topics and ideas. It will be more productive than before， because their thoughts can be inspired by each other's ideas. Of course， the group do not necessarily write about the same topic. Or they can write about the same topic， but from different points of view or focusing on different aspects. Here there is a concrete practice in my writing class. In our textbook， there is an article named “wild Jaguars in Arizona” (unit ten). Before learning this text， I assigned a writing task to them in class.

Step1. I ask the students what problems Jaguars are faced with. The students began to talk with each other for a while， and then I put on the blackboard the problems that the students mention.

Step 2. A brief discussion on what problems are more urgent than the others. Rank them according to degree of severity if time allows.

Step 3. Group discussion on possible solutions to the problems， especially the more urgent ones.

Step 4. Ask each group to send a representative to present their result and write down their ideas on the blackboard， drawing a diagram.

Step 5. Each student chooses one problem and writes a draft composition entitled something like “ my solutions to the problem of…….”They can use ideas which have been brought forward by the classmates or written down on the blackboard. But I tell them the composition should not just be a report of the discussion.

Step 6. My comment on student's writing

Responding to students' writing is both difficult and time-consuming task. General speaking， the English teacher will take at least 20-40 minutes to respond to an individual paper made comments on. But some of the students may take a glance at what the teacher has already corrected， while many others just have a look at how the teacher graded their work and then put the exercise books aside， and never look at it again and even never think about the mistakes they made and how to avoid repeating them. In order to avoid this phenomenon and make my comments more helpful for my students， I comment on their compositions as systematically as I can.

Step 7.Return the students' compositions and ask them to rewrite. In the second draft the students are required to pay attention to both ideas and language.

Step 8.In this stage， I comment on their compositions once again for the second draft. After the students finish their second drafts， they may still have some problems. Then I ask them to underline those parts with which they are not satisfied. They can write their comments in English or in Chinese. Then I add comments and make some corrections and then return their composition. The learner-centered method can motivate the students to comment on and evaluate their own writing. And also the students can compare their comments with mine. When adding comments， I frequently pay more attention to phraseology.

Step 9. After I have read the students' second drafts， I write comments on their papers. If necessary， I will have a face-to-face conference with the individual to discuss some problems in his or her composition. This practice is of much benefit to both the teacher and the students， because the one-to-one conversation makes it possible for the teacher and the student to share ideas and the student can defend his ideas by telling the teacher what he is trying to communicate. The teacher can discover the underlying meaning and logic problems which may appear in the incoherent context and then instruct the student how to revise.

Step 10. Select one or two better organized and colorful compositions and let himself or herself read it aloud to the whole class. And then students are required to discuss how well it is. At last ten minutes of this class， I give feedback and summarize. The whole process of writing end.

3. Comment on the process-based approach

（1）Background of the process-based approach：

For many years， the teaching of writing， to great extent， has been the product approach—what the students produce. Product-based approach focuses on grammar and discourse levels， such as spelling error， rhetoric， sentence length or structure and writing quality， etc. The teachers with the belief of it believe that students can make progress only after they are helped to recognize their mistakes. But opposite to the teachers' good wish， the method they use always proves to be both time-consuming and ineffective. Obviously， this kind of approach ignores the process of writing， which the students go through to reach the final goal. By the end of the sixties， the west linguists bring forward the process-based approach to writing just versus the product-based approach. As a matter of fact ， the theory was initially invented by Wallace Douglas， a professor from Northwest University in USA. It is he who claims writing is a process.

（2）Process introduction on the process-based approach

The process-based approach is looked upon as one kind of extremely complicated mentality cognition process and language communication process. The process entails several stages. So， west linguists began to map out the concrete operation steps， but they haven't reached an agreement fully. Lannon in his book The Writing Process (1981) believes that the process of writing should include three stages—planning， drafting and revising. In China， Qi shouhua in his book Success in Advanced English Writing (2000) describes inventing， planning and drafting， revision， editing and proofreading may be contained in the process of writing.

But most of them think about that the writing process should include five stages—prewriting， drafting， responding， revising and rewriting. The first stage is prewriting. It is obvious enough to show it is important for us to study prewriting， which adding considerable success to the subsequent writing (Emig， 1971：20).Prewriting is the preparatory activity which can help students relax and establish their confidence. In this step， there are two basic strategies—brainstorming and branching. The purpose of doing so is to show logical relations between and among these ideas. Perhaps， you can write your topic in the middle of a piece of paper and draw a circle around it. And then think of related ideas and write them near the circle. Connect each idea to the circle with a line. The ideas are called the primary branches. In classroom， when English teacher assigns an entitled composition or raises a question， students at first should discuss in groups and set their goals which they want to achieve through their writing and decide how to organically organize their ideas and information.

（3）The relationship between the process-based approach to writing and the communicative language teaching approach

The communicative language teaching focus on communicative proficiency and make it the goal of language teaching. From the case above， it is no trouble finding that writing is a complicated process of written expression. It acts just as a communicative skill， which has been embodied vividly in my writing class such as conceiving of ideas， telling about the ideas and finally composing them. So， the process approach is contained in the communicative teaching approach.

4. Revision on the feedback of the process-based approach to writing

In truth， feedback is one aspect of the communicative language teaching approach and also is an absolutely necessary stage in the process of writing. However， a blemish in an otherwise perfect thing is that sometimes feedbacks from peers and teachers may hardly be operated just as step 9 in my writing class. The peer feedback refers to the practice of letting students review and correct the compositions for each other. Students are asked to discuss the weakness and strengths of the drafts and make recommendations. Through discussion， they can respond to their peer's drafts and this can facilitate their revision. But students varied a great deal in ability. Usually， the better students gave good feedback to the weaker students but got little feedback in return. Some of the better students complained that they can not learn something in this way. In that case， the peer feedback may become different from what we have expected and likely flow to form. On the other hand， feedback from teachers is also hardly to perform， because correcting written work is very time-consuming，particularly if we have large classes. A face-to-face talk with individual will spend much too time. Accordingly， the feedback from one-to-one conversation is barely viable.

5. Conclusion

In short， the process approach to writing has proved very successful in my writing class. My students' writing has improved a lot. In my opinion， I at first give the students an authentic information and then try my best to develop the four basic skills. The students can practice speaking， reading， listening and writing skills over and again. The process approach helps to establish a cooperative environment in which they can finish writing. The students can talk and discuss with each other during the whole writing process. The students are becoming more and more self-confident. They are not afraid to express themselves again and they are less isolated from each other. Hence， the process-based approach to writing is exactly effective.

References：

［1］Jack C. Richards and Theodore S. Rodgers 2000. Approaches and Methods in Language ［M］.Teaching Foreign Language， Teaching and Research Press and Cambridge University Press.

［2］John M. Lannon.The Writing Process： An Introduction 7th ed ［M］.2000 Longman Publishing Group.

［3］Wang shiha.Peer Review： A Way to Choose ［J］．CELEA Journal (Bimonthly)， 2005， (28)： 56-65.

［4］盧俊清．Responding to Student English Writing ［J］．SLT Journal， 2006，(2)：94-95．

［5］彭金定，陳曉湘．《大學(xué)英語教學(xué)與學(xué)習(xí)策略的科學(xué)研究》［M］．1998，氣象出版社．

［6］祁壽華．《高級英語學(xué)作指南》［M］．2000，上海外語教育出版社．

（作者系西北師大外語學(xué)院在職研究生，單位為甘肅交通職業(yè)技術(shù)學(xué)院）