An Experimental Study On The Comparison Of The Process Approach And The Product Approach In Primary School English Writing Instruction

The writing ability is one of the very important skills in learning English. In these years,with a large number of experiments and research in improving the teaching of English writing,the scholars and experts have suggested a series of effective writing pedagogies. Among them,the Product Approach and the Process Approach might be the two most controversial. TheProcess Approach mainly stresses the whole process of writing and the cooperation betweenwriters; while the Product Approach more focuses on the quality and structure of the finalcomposition, ignoring the reasoning process of the writers during the whole writing process.This thesis is an experimental study on the comparison of the Product Approach andthe Process Approach, based on both qualitative and quantitative analysis. The author selected80Grade6pupils in two natural classes from a primary school in Weifang as subjects, with40in the experimental class, and another40in the controlled class. The author has conductedthe teaching experiment for an academic term, aiming to answering the following questions:In comparison to the Product Approach, can the Process Approach better improve thestudents’ writing, listening and reading achievements? In comparison to the Product Approach,can the Process Approach better arouse the students’ writing motivation and interest? Thefindings of the experiment showed that in the pose-tests, the students in the experimental class,on average, scored much higher in the English test of writing, reading and listening, with thedifference being statistically significant. Moreover, the experimental class, on average, alsoscored higher in terms of English writing motivation and interest, with the mean score beingsignificantly different from the controlled class.