“Writing”
is the process of using symbols (letters of the alphabets, spaces and
punctuations) to communicate thoughts and ideas in a readable form. Writing is
not just about conveying the contents that a learner wants to write, but also
about the representation of one self. Also, written academic articles have made
a great impact in many fields such as philosophy, psychology, science,
communication and many more. (Ken hyland, 2000,p:2)
According to Meriwether (1997), “writing is a process which involves
several identifiable steps” but Zamel emphasizes in his statement (1987)
“writing is a complex cognitive behaviour and a non linear process of
discovery”.
According to Vafeidou, writing “we produce a sequence of sentences arranged in a particular order and linked together in certain way, forming texts.(and) writing has a meaning for us and an encoded message for the reader” (as cited as Byrne:1988:1)
Writing
is all about the skills in expressing and bringing those ideas into the format
of writing. Ghufron (2016) proves the above-mentioned statement, as “writing
requires the students to perform their skill in expressing and arranging their
ideas into a written text which should be understandable for any readers”.
Product approach:
There
are several approaches in teaching writing, product approach is one of it. It
is a traditional approach. This approach focuses only on the final product of
the students. The main concern is on the end product. It focuses on
readability, it also concerns with the text, the content structure, grammar,
vocabulary and many more.
According to this approach the final piece of writing should be handled with
great care, because this approach believes that the ending of the product gives
a great meaning to it.
This product approach asks the students to imitate a model text (the
model text is usually based on the textbooks or any other authentic genre) before
starting to write the article and Ghufron (2016) emphasizes as “the traditional
approach encourages the students to mimic a model text which is usually
presented and analysed at an early stage(as cited as Gabrielators cited in
Hasan and Akhand,2010:78). The model text is used for imitation, exploration
and analysis”
According to Ghufron (2016), the product approach can be classified into
four steps, such as: familiarization (this is where the teacher makes the
students aware of certain features in a particular text). The second stage is
where the teacher controls the students’ learning activity by giving exercises
on grammatical features and related vocabulary. The third stage is “guided
writing” (where the students will write a text which is similar to the model
text given to them) and the final stage is where the students freely write
another similar text by themselves (as cited as Badger and White:2000:153 -154). Vafeidou (2011) also emphasizes that this particular approach has four
stages and it is almost similar to the stages mentioned above by Ghufron.
Vafeidou (2011) states the stages as:
- Model texts are given and read the features of the genre are highlighted.
- Students do controlled practice of the highlighted features.
- Students organize their ideas
Finally,
they produce the final product most individually by choosing from a choice of
comparable tasks.
Accordingly, this approach came into existence in the mid-1960s, and it
is expected to develop the academic writing.
This approach seems to be very easy to use in large classrooms but there
are some issues related to it, Vafeidou (2011) argues that this approach won’t
make the learners’ innovative, they are not taught how to write independently
or at least how to think “they do not use language and the only use of language
is the manipulation of fixed patterns,…these patterns are learnt by imitation (as
cited as Pincas 1962:186).
It
is also a very useful method when teaching the beginners Vafeidou (2011), considers
that this particular approach “seems to help only very young learners who know
neither many grammatical structures nor much vocabulary so as to individually produce
a good piece of writing”
Years later, there was a progress of product approach to another sort of
approach, according to Vafeidou (2011) “In the mid1980’s-there was a progress from
product approach to process approach which plays a prominent place on the ideas
and idea development and includes prewriting, writing and rewriting.
Process approach:
Process approach is another technique to teach
writing for the students who will be guided by the teacher along the process to
produce a text. The main focus will be on the process of writing.
According to Bayat and Nihat (2014), the approach focuses on the student
in writing and the teacher acts only as a guide. Though the product approach
focuses on the final product it does not have many stages throughout the
process, but Bayat and Nihat argues that process approach involves many
activities takes place until the written text turns into a fine piece of
writing.
Vafeidou (2011), argues that the process
approach gives the learners’ the freedom to write what they want. He further
states that it “develops the thinking ability and expands their creativity in
eight stages: Generating ideas by brainstorming.
- Extending the ideas.
- Organizing the ideas into a mind map or spidergram.
- Writing the first draft.
- Exchanging drafts in pairs or groups.
- Returning and improving drafts on peer feedback.
- Writing a final draft. (and once again)
- Exchanging and reading each other’s work.
Hence to conclude, both the approaches
give us a crystal clear view that they are appropriate techniques to apply in a
teaching writing classroom, the teacher should know which approach is the best
to apply in his or her classroom depending on the problems and characteristics,
the students’ writing needs also should be considered as well.
Reference
- Vafeidou, A., (2011). A comparison of the product and process approach to teaching writing and how best to combine the two at different levels. Retrieved from http://www.academia.edu
- Ghufron, M.,(2016). Process-genre approach, product approach, and students’ self-esteem in teaching writing. Indonesian EFL journal: journal of ELT, linguistics and literature, 2 (1), 37-54. http://ejournal.kopertais4.or.id/index.php/efi
- Samsudin, Z.,(2015). Comparing the process approach with the product approach in teaching academic writing to first-year. http://www.researchgate.net
- Caudery,T., (1995). What the “process approach means to practising teaching of second language writing skills (1),4
- Bayat, Nihat (2014). The effect of the process approach on writing success and anxiety. Educational sciences (14),1133-1141
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