Process-oriented Approach To The Classroom Teaching Of English Writing

English writing ability is very important among the five abilities of English learners. In NMET, the proportion of writing is significant, making up 1/5. So, much attention should be paid to the teaching of English writing.English writing is the most challenging course for most students. One major factor accounting for this fact is that our practice still falls back on the traditional product-oriented approach. The product-oriented method of teaching writing pays great attention to the accuracy of the final product but ignores the process, which the students go through to reach the final goal. This kind of practice is fruitless. Process-oriented writing is learner-centered. It requires the students to play an active role in the whole process. The teacher does not take complete control but gives appropriate supervision. Instead of simply assigning a topic and then grading the final products, the teacher divides writing into several stages and organizes activities to get students fully involved.The purpose in this study is to prove that the process-oriented approach is suitable for ESL writing instruction in Chinese high schools. This study aims to answer the following research questions: (1)Is the process-oriented approach helpful in changing the students' attitudes towardswriting? (2)Is it effective in improving the students' writing competence?The experiment lasts four months. The subjects are 82 students in Senior Grade Two from Guantao No.1 Middle School in Hebei Province. Three instruments are used in this study: two questionnaires before and after the experiment to find students' attitudes, briefs and interest in writing;five compositions to assess their writing performance, and the final exam to use as a global measure of the students' performance. During the four months' instructional intervention, the teacher carries out the process-oriented approach to teaching writing in the experimental class. The author programs in the process-oriented approach in her English classroom suchstages: prewriting, drafting, peer reviewing, revising, teacher commenting and publishing.The results of the research show: (DThe students are feeling more confident about writing than before. The students have not only changed their attitudes to English writing, but also gained greater confidence and improved their interest in it. ?The new approach is helpful to the students in improving their writing ability.The study demonstrates that the process-oriented approach is an effective means to improve English writing teaching and students' writing ability. It's a valuable tool for helping students to see writing as a process which goes through stages of significant growth and change. It not only enables the students to grasp the basic writing skills, but also develops the students' competence of thought, interaction and cooperation. So, the process-oriented approach to English writing teaching is a good approach that all second language teachers should attempt to try.