Differential Effects Of "Product Approach" And "Process Approach" On Chinese EFL Learners Of Different Writing Abilities

"Product approach" and "process approach" are two widely adopted approaches to writing instruction in China. Many researches have been done to decide which approach is more effective to improve EFL learners' writing abilities, but most of the discussions still remain on a theoretical level and little evidence is empirically supported. As a response to the current debate on the superiority of these two approaches in enhancing EFL learners' writing abilities, the present study investigated the effects of these two approaches on Chinese EFL learners with high and low writing abilities. It was hypothesized that 1) both "product approach" and "process approach" to writing instruction contribute to the gains of writing proficiency for Chinese EFL college English students; and 2) "product approach" to writing instruction is more effective to students with high writing ability while "process approach" to writing instruction is more effective to students with low writing ability. Adopting a 2 × 2 pretest - posttest factorial design, we examined the interaction between teaching method ("product approach" vs. "process approach") and writing ability (high vs. low).Two groups of second-year non-English-major college students from Fujian University of Technology (totaling 120, with 60 categorized as high writing ability and 60 as low writing ability) participated in thestudy. Both groups were required to take a pretest at the beginning of the experiment to decide on their different writing abilities, and a posttest were given at an interval of about 20 weeks to reveal the change as exactly as possible. Each group was further divided into two sub-groups. Each sub-group was then randomly assigned to one of the two teaching conditions. At the same time, two questionnaires were designed at the beginning and at the end of the study to investigate the subjects' responses to the two approaches and the changes in the subjects with regard to their attitude towards writing.The results showed that the subjects with high writing ability benefited more from the "process approach" than they did from the "product approach", while the situation was just the opposite for the subjects with low writing ability: they benefited more from the "product approach" than they did from the "process approach". The results were interpreted on the basis of the respective features of the two teaching approaches and of the respective individual characteristics of students with high and low writing abilities.