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Exploring writing approaches in Chinese EFL class.

Article Excerpt
Abstract

This article discusses the strength and weakness of three most significant methodologies of teaching writing based on the writing needs of a group of Chinese university students. It is concluded that different approaches to writing are complementary rather than incompatible, that a combination of different approaches with regards to students' specific writing needs and their developmental levels may be proper in China's EFL context.

Introduction

Three most significant methodologies of teaching writing are summarized, and their strength and weakness discussed in this article. The discussion is based on the writing needs of a specific group of Chinese university students, through which different approaches to writing are shown to be complementary rather than incompatible in China's specific context. Evidence of students' writing needs comes from a small survey among a group of Chinese university students.

Three Methodologies of Teaching Writing

Raimes (1991) summarizes 4 approaches to second language writing instruction with different focuses on form, writer, content and reader. The 'focus on content' approach, with its obvious application in ESL context to attach English writing course to a content course, seems not a significant one in the Chinese EFL (English as a Foreign Language)context. So the following discussion only includes three approaches, which are correspondingly named as product approach, process approach and genre approach.

Product Approach The product approach to writing is in line with the audio-lingual ideology with a structural linguistic view that language is a system of structurally related elements for the encoding of meaning, and a behaviorist view that language learning is 'basically a process of mechanical habit formation' (Richards and Rodgers, 2001, p57). So input that provides important source for imitation becomes the major driving force of language learning. Consequently, the product approach sees writing as being primarily about linguistic knowledge, stressing the appropriate use of vocabulary, syntax and cohesive devises. Most of the time writing tasks encourage learners to imitate, copy and transform models provided by teachers or textbooks. Accordingly, the final product which reflects the writer's language knowledge is highly valued. In this perspective the teacher plays a primary role as an examiner (Zamel, 1987).

Process Approach The process approach comes as a reaction against the product approach and is based on the recognition of the writing process as cyclical, recursive or even disorderly rather than simple and linear. The focus shifts from the text to the writer. It lays particular stress on a cycle of writing activities which move learners from the generation of ideas and the collection of data through to the 'publication' of a finished text (Tribble, 1996, p37). Consequently, the teacher's role as model provider and examiner also shifts to that of a facilitator who helps in a typical...

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