A Study Of Process-Task Approach In College English Writing Teaching

English writing is playing an increasingly important role in college English teaching. Learning to write requires time and effort, which is especially true to Chinese students in a learning context where they have little opportunity to be exposed to authentic materials and to communicate with native speakers. Generally speaking, Chinese students' writing competence is relatively lower.This paper intends to explore the causes for the deficiency of writing competence by analyzing problems in students' writing. These problems are categorized into linguistic errors and non-linguistic failures. Based on the error analysis, the paper points out that many factors are attributable to the deficiency, such as students' false perceptions about English writing, lack of cross-cultural knowledge, and inefficiency of some teaching approaches.This paper has first introduced three teaching approaches, namely, the Product Approach, the Process Approach and the Task-based Approach. The evaluation of these approaches indicates that these teaching approaches have contributed much to the improvement of students' writing competence; but the teaching of English writing still calls for innovation and improvement. Based on the above research, the paper puts forward an integrated approach to the teaching of English writing: the Process-Task Approach.The Process-Task Approach is in essence an integration rather than a mechanic plus of different teaching approaches, which rests on communicative theory. But as a different teaching practice, it holds the opinion that writing process develops writing competence, while writing tasks can directly influence the process, even the product. An integration of writing task with writing process enables students to develop a thorough understanding of English writing. So the Process-Task Approach offsets the shortcomings of the Process Approach and complements deficiency of the Task-based Approach. The teaching and learning of writing will become less stressful and more effective.In teaching practice, the Process-Task Approach emphasizes the conception of being "learner-centered" in language teaching. Under teachers' instruction and guidance, students are expected to play a dominant role in the Process-Task Approach. They should contribute to the elicitation of the writing task and learn to cooperate with others in their writing process, which motivates them to take an active part in class, and arouses their interest in English writing. In the long run, it helps to build up students' confidence in writing, and develop competent writers.