Theoretical Development of Writing Skills in ELT
2.9 Product, Process and Genre Approach
Nunan (1989) thinks that product-oriented approach is more favourable for classroom activities, and he suggests that writing class should be devoted in the first instance to sentence formation and grammar exercises. At the same time, he identifies the positive aspects of process writing. However, Nunan also mentions that process approach confines children largely to narrative forms and it limits their ability to master text types, such as reports, expositions and arguments which are essential for academic success at school and beyond. He
finally suggests integration of both process and product approaches in the writing classroom.
Nunan argues that learners get few opportunities to write. Teachers tend to view the resulting texts as final products to evaluate, which convey to students the message that the function of writing is to produce texts for teachers to evaluate, not to communicate meaningfully with another person. Writing skill can develop rapidly when students’
concerns and interests are acknowledged, when they are given numerous opportunities to write, and when they are encouraged to become participants in a community of writers.
Teachers should investigate their own practices to bridge the gap between theory and practice (Nunan, 1989, p. 36).
The students are language learners rather than writers and that is why it would not be helpful for them to spend their time writing alone. Students should be allowed space and time to operate their own preferred individual strategies; the classroom can be instructed in such a way as to provide positive intervention and support in the development of writing skills. The classroom can provide an environment for writing at each of the three main stages: gathering ideas; pre-writing and planning, working on drafts, preparing the final version. However, the necessity of final product cannot be denied. Sometimes teachers may arrange ‘peer-correction’ and advise the students to make a personal checklist to evaluate themselves (McDonough and Shaw, 1993, p. 69).
Harmer (2001) upholds the view that in product approach the interest is in the aim of a task and in the end product. On the other hand, in the process approach, the attention is paid to the various stages that any piece of writing goes through. A process approach aims to get to the heart of the various skills that should be employed when writing carries on. Harmer also lists the activities of process writing in the following way: Checking language use, checking punctuation, checking spelling, checking writing for unnecessary repetition of words and/or information, deciding on the information for each paragraph, and the order paragraphs should go in, noting down various ideas, selecting the best ideas for inclusion, writing a clean copy of the corrected version, and writing out a rough version (Harmer, 2001, pp. 257-258).
In reality, the writing process is more complex and the various stages of drafting, reviewing, redrafting, and writing, etc. are done in a recursive way. Harmer (2001) identifies the recursive stages that include:
Drafting,
Structuring (Ordering information, experimenting with arrangements, etc.)
Reviewing (checking contexts, connections, assessing impact, editing)
Focusing (making sure that you are getting the message across you want to get across)
Generating ideas and evaluation (assessing the draft)
One of the disadvantages of getting students to concentrate on the process of writing is that it takes time: time to brainstorm ideas or collect them in some other way; time to draft a piece of writing and then, with the teacher's help perhaps, review it and edit it in various ways before changing the focus, generating more ideas, redrafting, re-editing and so on (Harmer, 2001, pp. 257-258). This cannot be done in fifteen minutes. The various stages of process writing involve discussion, research, language study, and a considerable amount of interaction between teacher and students and between the students themselves so that when process writing is handled appropriately, it stretches across the whole curriculum.
However, there are times when process writing is simply not appropriate, either because classroom time is limited, or because the students are expected to write quickly as part of a communication game, or when working alone, we want them to compose a letter or brief story on the spot (Harmer, 2001, p.258).
Ur (1991) provides some implications for teaching the writing process: instead of recommending any ‘right’ system of writing, the teacher should suggest and make available various possible strategies encouraging individual students to experiment and search for the system that is personally effective. The teacher may advise students not to worry too much about spelling and grammar in the beginning. One of the main tasks of the teacher is to get the students write a lot.
In a genre approach to writing students study texts in the genre they are going to be writing before they embark on their own writing. Thus, if we want them to write business letters of various kinds we let them look at typical model of such letters before starting to compose their own. If we want them to write newspaper articles we have them study real examples to discover facts about construction and specific language use which is common in that genre (Harmer, 2001, pp. 258-259).
Harmer (2001) suggests a 'data collection' procedure as a prelude to the writing of letters to newspapers. Students are asked to spend some time every day, for a week,
looking at letters to the newspaper. They are asked to make notes of particular vocabulary and grammar constructions in the letters; for example to find any language which expresses approval or disapproval, or to note down sentences if they come across. They can use dictionary or any other resources they need to check understanding. At the end of a week they bring the results of their research to the class and make a list of commonly occurring lexis or grammar patterns. The teacher now gets the students to read controversial articles in the day's paper and plan letters (using language they have come across in the data collection phase) in response to those articles. Where possible they should actually send their letters in the hope that they will be published.
A genre approach is especially appropriate for students of English for specific purposes. Students who are writing within a certain genre need to have knowledge of the topic, the conventions and the style of genre as well as the context in which their writing will be read, and by whom, considering writing not as imitation but as reproduction. Many of our students writing tasks do not have an audience other than the teacher, of course, but that does not stop them and us working as if they did.