A Research On The Application Of Process Approach To English Writing Teaching In Senior High Schools

Writing is of great importance in English teaching in senior high schools. As a direction ofoutput, writing is not only a means of using the language but also a refection of a learner’s levelof language learning. Thus, teaching English writing has become an important responsibility ofschool teachers. This thesis is committed to showing how the process approach is carried out insenior high school, discovering its advantages and disadvantages, and tries to find out theconnection between writing evaluation and the success of the process approach application so asto improve students’ writing.Influenced by a number of learning theories and teaching instructions, the process approacharises. The theory of constructivism suggests that students’ learning is an active, social processwhere learners learn to discover principles, concepts and facts themselves instead of beingshaped passively by outside forces. Therefore, people begin to abandon the traditional productapproach which is based on “stimulus-reaction” behaviorism and gradually adopt the processapproach which focuses on the writer and writing itself. The process approach advocates that oneshould learn to write through writing. A series of methods that compose the writing processshould be taught in writing classes. The core of the process writing model is to see writing as aprocess rather than a product. The process approach accords with students’ complex cognitivediscipline and language acquisition, with the ultimate aim of intercommunication. This modelstresses the importance of correction and feedback, emphasizes group work and theintercommunication between teachers and students. It is propitious to develop students’awareness of cooperation, arouses their interest and nurtures their writing habits.The thesis attempts to study how to apply the process approach to English writing teaching insenior high schools. Based on the reading of related books and materials, as well as theunderstanding of the process approach, including its concept, characteristics, writing stages andcurrent trend of research, the empirical research is carried out. During the research process, aquestionnaire is conducted before the experiment to learn more about students’ writing status;then three-month teaching experiment is carried out; after the experiment, several students areinterviewed about their attitudes and changes towards writing. As the traditional productapproach is still popular among high school teachers at present, this research aims to find out whether the process approach is more favorable to develop students’ writing abilities, the authorhas carried out a three-month teaching experiment. The subjects involved in the study arestudents from Senior High School Attached to Shandong Normal University. Class two wherethe process approach is adopted and class five where the product approach is adopted are chosenfor the experiment. The author has given pre-test and post-tests to students, keeping accuraterecord of the data and analyzed them carefully.By the empirical experiment and through analysis and discussion, the conclusions are drawnas follows:1.The process approach is more favorable for students to learn about their writingprocess and form good writing habits.2.Correction and appropriate evaluation plays animportant part in the application of the process approach. The findings of the research aresignificant to English writing teaching in senior high schools. The author holds that teachersought to give guidance and demonstration during the writing stages, and reduce students’anxieties, encouraging students to be actively involved in writing class. Positive evaluation fromteachers and appropriate feedbacks from peers are important to arouse students’ interest andbuild up their confidence.Based on writing teaching theories at home and abroad and the research conducted, the presentresearch has explored how to effectively apply the process approach model to English writingteaching in senior high schools, which enriches the research of the process approachdomestically, affirms the positive effect of correction and assessment in successfullyimplementing the process approach, and proves the possibility and effectiveness of applying theprocess approach to writing teaching in senior high schools for later researchers.