Approaches to Teaching ESL

writing

The Product Approach

The entire activity of writing was seen as 'an exercise in habit formation
-Silva 1990
The use of language is the manipulation of fixed patterns, these patterns are learned by
imitation
-Pincas 1962
Writing instruction took the form of sentence drills, fill-ins, substitutions, transformations,
and completions (Raimes, 1991, p. 408). This procedure later developed into sentence
combining techniques (OHare, 1973) and manipulation of linguistic forms in controlled
composition tasks (Kunz, 1972; Paulston & Dykstra, 1973).
According to Raimes (1983),This approach stresses three features: grammar, syntax, and
mechanics. (p. 76) .

Arguments against using the

Product Approach
Unrealistic? (students are obviously not writing for a purpose, but writing to
practice a grammar point)
Ivani (2004, p. 227) says, that students will believe that writing is a unitary,
context-free activity, in which the same patterns and rules apply to all writing,
independent of text type.

The approach merely resulted in 'mindless copies of a particular organizational

plan or style
-Eschholz 1980

The Process Approach

[Writing] is messy, recursive, convoluted, and
uneven. Writers write, plan, revise, anticipate,
and review throughout the writing process,
moving back and forth among the different
operations involved in writing without any
apparent plan. (Hairston 1982, p. 85)

Arguments against the Process

Approach

The process approach proved fairly hard to implement in

the L2 writing classrooms due to its unrealistic demands
(Raimes, p.410).
The blur methodology of process writing approaches
which encourage student writers free choice of topics to
write on was seen inconsistent with the requirements of
academic context, where students are expected to
respond to specific prompts (Horowitz, 1986a,b; Johns,
1986).
Perhaps most confounding to ESL teachers is lack of clear
assessment criteria to evaluate writing.

The Genre Approach

writing is a socially situated, communicative
act.
Particular genres are used to fulfill particular
social functions in particular contexts.

Arguments against the Genre

Approach
The genre approach had been criticized for its
prescriptive nature. Students learn genre specific
conventions in order to reproduce similar products,
rather than learn to express their own voice in the
context of writing (e.g. Freedman, 1994b; Kay &DudleyEvans, 1998).
According to Tribble (1996), the genre approach seems
to share many similarities with product writing as it also
emphasizes linguistic features and models that seem to
guide the writers. However, one main thing that
differentiates the product approach from the genre
approach is that latter is produced according to the
social context (Badger & White, 2000).

A Facebook-Assisted Writing
Approach?

The Facebook environment offers a promising solution to the

shortcomings of traditional writing instruction approaches. The
use of Facebook encourages the process writing approach.
With the use of Facebook, students are able to go recursively
through planning, drafting, revising, editing and publishing as
they can access the Internet multiple times. The product
approach can also be implemented since the teacher can
provide model essays, guidance and extra materials in the
online writing environment. The social nature of Facebook
lends itself to the possibility of being used as a virtual learning
community. Its communicative and interactive fonctionalities
are felt to mirror much of what we know to be good models of
learning, in that they are collaborative and encourage active
participatory role for users (Maloney, 2007, p. 26).