A Case Study Of The Process-product Approach To The Teaching Of English Writing In Senior High School

Writing competence is an important indicator of language learners’ comprehensive ability to use language.The new curriculum standards(2017)requires higher English writing ability than before.Yet the reality is that many students’ English writing competences are not satisfying.Writing is still their weakness.Therefore,how to effectively improve senior high school students’ English writing competence is of vital significance.Product approach and process approach are two most commonly used teaching methods in second language writing teaching.The pros and cons of the two approaches have been fully verified.The former concentrates on the form of writing while the latter attaches importance to the content of writing.Therefore,some scholars put forward the idea of combining the two approaches to teaching English writing.However,the feasibility and effectiveness of the combination need exploring and probing.A case study is designed to answer three research questions:(1)Can the process-product approach improve senior high school students’ English writing fluency?(2)Can the process-product approach improve senior high school students’ English writing accuracy?(3)Can the process-product approach improve senior high school students’ English writing complexity?Through purposeful sampling,the author selected 6 senior one students as subjects.The research instruments include tests,interviews and writing portfolios.In the research,the process-product approach to teaching English writing is employed twice a week,lasting for ten weeks to explore whether this approach can promote senior high school students’ English writing competence.The results show that under the guidance of the process-product approach,the six senior high students’ measures of fluency,namely,words/T-units,words/clauses and words/error-free T-units are improved significantly,which indicates that the process-product approach is conductive to the improvement of students’ English writing fluency;meanwhile,students’ measures of complexity,clauses/T-units anddependent clauses/clauses also reveal significant improvement.This suggests that students writing complexity has been promoted.In terms of the accuracy measures,error-free T-units/T-units and errors/T-units show no obvious improvement,implying that the process-product approach does not show obvious advantages in improving students’ writing accuracy.This may be related to the improvement of complexity,because complexity and accuracy compete for limited attention at the same time.The different distribution of students’ attention affects the improvement of accuracy.The implications of the research for English writing teaching are as follows:firstly,it is necessary to create a relaxed and pleasant environment and atmosphere in writing teaching;secondly,a large number of language input should be provided for students in writing teaching;thirdly,cooperative learning and peer editing should be encouraged and promoted;lastly,the teachers should change their roles and become a guide,a facilitator and a supporter.