Process Approach to EFL Writing Teaching

朱禎

【Abstract】As one of the four basic language skills， writing plays a vital role in our English teaching and learning. Process Approach properly is an effective way of EFL writing teaching in class.This process can help to achieve better results in English teaching and how to develop students writing competence remain an arduous task for English teachers.

【Key words】Process Approach； EFL writing teaching

1. Introduction

In terms of writing approaches to the teaching of English writing， process approach has been generally accepted and applied by English teachers in their classroom teaching of English writing in contrast with the traditional product approach.

According to Graham Stanley， the process approach treats all writing as a creative act which requires time and positive feedback to be done well. In process writing， the teacher moves away from being someone who sets students a writing topic and receives the finished product for correction without any intervention in the writing process itself. （Sun and Feng 151）

2. Stages of Writing Process

The five-step process writing approach described by Donald Graves is presented here（Harmer， Practice 179）.

Step 1： Prewriting. The goal here is to generate ideas by listing， brainstorming， outlining， silent thinking， or power writing， etc..

Step 2： Drafting. Drafting is the writers first attempt to capture ideas on paper. Students write the first draft. Only those drafts that students feel are interesting or of value should be taken to the next step.

Step 3： Revising. This is the heart of the writing process. Here the students should look for flow and structure， reread paragraphs and move things around.

Step 4： Editing. This is the stage where grammar， spelling， and punctuation errors are corrected.

Step 5： Publishing and sharing. This is where students writing is shared with an audience. Writing becomes real and alive at this point.

3. Application of the Process Approach to EFL Writing

Writing Topic： Write a composition about an interesting experience while on holiday.

3.1 Prewriting

What students do before writing is just as important as what happens during the writing process. （Yin 110）This part should give students the opportunity to collect information before writing by using some prewriting strategies for generating ideas for writing such as discussion and brainstorming.

3.2 Drafting

Step1： Writing the draft. At this stage， the teacher should give the students a specific time period so that the students can gather their ideas， and then ask them to pick up a pen and write down the outline of the topic.

Step2： Getting responses. Getting responses to story drafts makes them become more alive and provides ideas for the revision stage. Responses can come from a teacher or classmates. However， students responding to each others drafts often creates a more powerful writing experience.

3.3 Revising

Once a student has taken a piece to the revision stage， the majority of time should be spent reading， rereading， moving things around， and getting feedback from others. This is where time is spent molding and shaping a piece of writing.

3.4 Editing

At the editing stage students fix grammar， spelling， and punctuation errors. A good writer must learn how to evaluate their own language， how to improve through checking their own text， looking for errors. Only in these ways students can become better writers.

3.5 Sharing

Students can exchange and read each others work and perhaps even write a response or reply. At last， the students can hand in their composition. The teacher is the final reader and will give some comments. Whats more， the student writers can more easily generate their ideas through cooperative learning such as discussion， which also help them develop the confidence and interest to do some writing. （Wang 86）

4. Conclusion

Writing is a complicated process， especially for EFL writing. Adopting the Process Approach properly is an effective way of EFL writing teaching in class. It can help students foster the interest of English study and arouse their study motivation. And it can also make the students get closer to perfection by producing， reflecting on， discussing and reworking successive drafts of a text. A teacher is supposed to be familiar with the teaching methods and strategies in order to make the process more efficient， and to devote most of his/her energy to teaching students how to learn， practicing them learning to write by writing instead of some rules or techniques for writing.

References：

[1]王薔.英語教師行動研究——從理論到實踐[M].北京：外語教學與研究出版社，2002.

[2]尹世寅.過程寫作在高中英語寫作教學中的應用[J].四川師范大學學報（社會科學版），2007，（6）：108-112.