Process Approach To Efl Writing Teaching In Senior High Schools

As one of the four important skills of language learning (listening, speaking, reading and writing), writing plays a vital role in communication, which is being paid more and more attention to. Writing can help students master language effectively and reflect students'integrated language level.Writing is a complex mental work. In recent years, more and more teachers have realized the important role of writing in English language teaching. The trend seems to have been reinforced by the new writing objectives in the newly promulgated Senior High School English Curriculum Criterions and new marking criteria of National Matriculation English Test (NMET.) Yet, despite the numerous efforts made by teachers and students, English writing is still the most challenging and demanding course for most students. One major factor accounting for this fact is that our teaching practice still falls back on the traditional Product Approach. Such practice seems to have ignored cognitive factors of the writing process. The writing process is recursive and non-linear. While writing, students exhibit a variety of behaviors such as pre-writing, drafting, responding, revising and editing.The major concern of the present thesis is to explore and apply the Process Approach to teaching writing that may be suitable for Chinese high school students and to verify its effectiveness and feasibility. The study attempts to answer the following research questions:Compared with the traditional Product Approach, what are the advantages of the Process Approach? Is it suitable for senior high school English class in China? In order to answer these questions, it's necessary to do severe researches on the basis of practice.This paper systematically probes into the formation of the Process Approach and its essence, main features and the basic operational model as well. Based on the survey and the application, this paper proves the practical value of the Process Approach.First, the thesis discusses the current situation of English writing and points out the necessity of reforming the traditional writing teaching model and the feasibility of the Process Writing Method in theory. Second, the thesis gives a definition of the Process Approach, explores its formation, essence and main features. Third, the thesis focuses on the application on improving senior high school students'English writing by means of the Process Approach .According to the result of the application, we conclude that the students were favorable to the new method and consequently felt more confident in their own writing ability and in their use of English.Finally, the writer suggests the Process Approach should be used flexibly to create a new model for writing teaching in senior high school English language teaching in China.