The Comparison Between The Product Approach And The Process Approach In Senior High School English Writing Teaching

In second language teaching and learning, writing is concerned as the most difficult of the four basic linguistic skills—listening, speaking, reading and writing. In the past decades, some Western linguists and teaching researchers have made a great effort to do a lot of research and practice on how to teach English writing effectively, among which the process approach and the product approach are mostly disputed.The research compares the product approach with the process approach, using descriptive and quantitative data. The purpose of the research is to solve the following issues:1) Is the product approach still useful to senior English writing? If so, does it contribute to the same result to improving writing abilities of the students with high marks and low marks?2) Is the process approach completely fit for Chinese senior English writing teaching which treats English as foreign language? Does it contribute to the same result to improving writing abilities of the students with high marks and low marks?3) What differences do the two approaches have in improving the students' language information and abilities and cultivating their interest and attitude?The dissertation consists of five chapters. Chapter One is an introduction, analyzing the background and significance, the main issues, methods and the frame of the paper and defining some relative terms. Chapter Two briefly summarizes the theories of teaching English writing and the basic demands of senior English writing and relative research. Chapter Three deals with the detailed comparison between the product approach and the process approach from their theoretical basis, process and models etc. Chapter Four carries on the experimental analysis. The product approach is carried out in compared class and the process approach is carried out in experimental class. After that their results are compared and analyzed in detail. Two questionnaires are designed and distributed to the two groups of subjects before and after the experiment and the results and reasons are discussed. Chapter Five draws a conclusion, reflects the problems existing in the study process and put forward some suggestions in the future English writing teaching.The study result shows 1) the product approach achieved more significant growth in language information, while the process approach in writing abilities. 2)The product approach is more effective to the students with low marks, while the process approach is more fit for the students with high marks. 3)The process approach achieves more significant growth in interest in English writing and changing their attitude. Frankly, there exist some problems to be solved in the process of the experiment, such as the problem of experiment time, the samples, the variable psychological factors of subjects and the subjectivity of evaluating compositions. The author will be concerned about the problems in the successive research.