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Research On Application Of Process-genre Approach To Teaching College English Writing

Posted on:2010-02-02Degree:MasterType:Thesis
Country:ChinaCandidate:Q T MengFull Text:PDF
GTID:2155360275462726Subject:Foreign Linguistics and Applied Linguistics
Abstract/Summary:PDF Full Text Request
EFL writing ability is one important skill in foreign language learning and teaching, so it has been widely considered in second language acquisition. As a complex productive and communicative skill, English writing is probably the most difficult of all the macro-skills—listening, speaking, reading, writing and translating, and that many native speakers can hardly master it. For foreign language learners, the challenges are enormous. Therefore, the necessity of improving college students'English writing proficiency and finding an effective teaching approach has been realized gradually. Teachers and researcher have been doing various experiments on how to improve the students'writing ability.Then, the author reviewed the related researches on teaching writing in detail. In the field of writing instruction, there are three popular approaches: the product approach, the process approach, the genre approach. The product approach argues that successful writing is based on one's linguistic knowledge, therefore emphasizes correct usage, correct grammar, and correct spelling, but it ignores the development of students'writing at textual level. The process approach sees writing process as a communicative activity rather than the writer's personal activity, nevertheless, it neglects the variation in discourse types and in students level. The genre approach takes the purpose of writing into consideration and gives special attention to the rhetorical organization of the texts. However, it has its own weaknesses as well.Based on the questionnaire, the author examines college non-English majors'writing problems and the underlying causes. After analyzing the benefits and disadvantages of the above three approaches, the author introduces the necessity and feasibility of combining them and adopts the process-genre approach, which was put forward by Badger and White (2000). The principles of the approach are: writing takes place in a social context, and is a reflection of a particular purpose; through the analysis of model text and discussion with peer learners and teachers, learners can get sufficient input from text, teachers and peer learners; in the process of writing, learners can acquire linguistic knowledge and strategy training. Process-genre approach has been drawing researchers'attention in the field of teaching writing since it was proposed in 2000. The author presents a five-step procedure: analysis of model text; imitation; independent writing; revising and getting feedback; final drafting. Upon the introduction of the five-step process, the writer applies these steps to certain genre discourse writing teaching. In addition, this thesis also provides a demonstration of the approach in order to make readers know about the approach more clearly. In the end, this thesis discusses the pedagogical implications of the approach from different angles.
Keywords/Search Tags:EFL Writing, Product Approach, Process Approach, Genre Approach, Process-genre Approach
PDF Full Text Request
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