An Action Research On Applying Process Approach To Teaching College English Writing

With the reform and new policy of College Entrance Examinations,foreign language education is no longer score-oriented,but has called for the practical ability in speaking and writing year by year.A firm foundation for writing is regarded as a crucial skill for Chinese EFL learners,especially under the current situation in China.Most Chinese students' performances were not satisfying in the writing part in CET-4,CET-6,IELTS and TOFEL.Process approach,which gained its reputation in the late twentieth century,is regarded as the most successful movement in the history of pedagogical reform in the teaching of writing.(Matsuda,2003)The impact of the process approach on ESL writing was significant.(Reid,1993)It was widely used in the previous studies to develop students' potential in the writing process.This study focuses on the cooperation among students and the teacher's in-time feedbacks and reflection.In this paper the author used process approach in an action research among sophomores to probe the ways of improving students' writing.By using the pre-test and questionnaires before the action research,the existing problems in students' writings were found.During the action process,the teaching plan was adjusted during different stages of the teaching process.Forty-one students in one class were involved in this five-month teaching action.The study intends to answer two research questions:(1)How can process approach be successfully applied to teaching English writing to university students?(2)What kinds of positive changes are brought to students' writing through this action research?To answer these two questions,student questionnaires,tests and interviews before and after the teaching action were carried out.In the pre-action stage,students' English level and existing problems in their writings were identified and analyzed through questionnaires,tests and interviews;proper topics were selected among ten units in the textbook New Standard College English.In the teaching action stage,activities before,during,and after writing were carefully designed and implemented.The teaching process includes two rounds of actions.The teaching plan and procedures were adjusted in the second round of the action to meet students' needs better.Findings of this study are as follows:(1)In applying process approach to teaching writing to university students,the following stages are followed: pre-writing,drafting,revising and editing.In the pre-writing stage,activities for students to generate their ideas are carried out.Pre-writing activities include brainstorming and listing which helped students easily discover and start a topic.After the heated discussion concerning the topic with peers,students were encouraged to give an outline and finish their own drafts.In the revising stage,the teacher gave in-time feedbacks for students to revise;thus,the final drafts were composed in the end.(2)Positive changes of this action research include four aspects.Linguistically,students commit less simple grammatical mistakes and became more prudent in word choice in writing.Technically,the process approach cultivates a good writing habit for students such as drafting and giving outline.In terms of the writing content,most students write more logically and they tend to express their unique views more frequently.Besides,Process approach greatly promotes the students' interest in English writing.It strengthens their writing abilities,broadens their mind in writing,fosters positive attitudes towards English writing and enables them to express themselves properly.There are some limitations in the present study that needs to be modified in the future in terms of the time span and the number of class.For further study,the time span for pedagogical action research can be extended to more than a year instead of nearly five months.Furthermore,a more thorough study for college writing course can be carried out in two classes at least instead of one class only.