An Experiment On Integrated Approach To College English Writing Instruction

The present study aims to appraise the effectiveness of an Integrated Approach to college English writing instruction based on error analysis. Writing is one of the four basic skills in language learning. The teaching of writing is an indispensable component of language curriculum. During the past years, three approaches are very popular in China. One is the Product Approach whose focus is on the final product, hopefully, a coherent, error-free composition. This approach neglects the learner's cognitive processes in writing and overemphasizes grammatical and mechanical correctness. Another is the Process Approach whose focus is on the writing process. The disadvantages of the approach lie in that it cannot train the student's ability to write a composition within limited time, and that it does not consider the factors that many writers cannot control. The third is the Length Approach which is characterized in offering students more opportunities of free writing, which can reinforce language acquisition by means of producing comprehensible output for it helps facilitating students'thinking. It has the similar procedures as the Process Approach.In China, Process Approach and Length Approach are used for teaching English majors. For college non-majors, Product Approach is employed. In this experiment, the author attempted to adopt an Integrated Approach, that is to say, to add the procedures of the Process Approach into the Product Approach to teaching EFL writing. Emphasis is also put on time limitation in class, and the correctness of spelling, grammar, etc. In the experiment, three questions are addressed: 1) Is the Product Approach effective in college English wiring instruction? 2) Is the Integrated Approach effective in college English wiring instruction? 3) Is the Integrated Approach more effective than the Product Approach in college English wiring instruction?Subjects chosen for the study are from two classes majoring in Mobile Communication and Communication Engineering at Chengdu College of UESTC. They are freshmen in their second semester with one assigned as the experimental class which was under the instruction of the Integrated Approach and the other the...