2005 年 10 月
第 28 卷　第 5 期
中国英语教学
（双月刊）
CELEA Journal（Bim onthly）
Oct．2005
Vol．
28 No．
5
THE PROCESS－ORIENTED APPROACH TO ESL ／EFL
WRITING INSTRUCTION AND RESEARCH
Zeng Deqi
Southeast Missouri State University
Abstract
The process m ove ment is originally a reform effort in im proving teaching co m position to native English
speaking students．It advocates an approach to co m position teaching that e m phasizes students writing process
rather than the product．Assu ming that the ESL／EFL writing process is similar to that of the first language ，
early ESL process enthusiasts borro wed methods and techniques fro m the English co m position class to be used
in an ESL writing class that allo w students am ple time and freedo m to write in the real sense．The process－
oriented approach has also initiated a research effort in investigating the nature of ESL writing．Though still
re maining the mainstream approach to ESL writing ，
the process approach does not provide solutions to all the
issuesin developing students writing co m petence． Ho wever a syste matic study of the process approach can
thro w light on our understanding of writing and help us seek a better and m ore balanced approach to teaching
writing．
Key w ords
ESL writing ；process approach ；ESL writing research
Introduction
One of the significant develop m ents in the field of teaching English as a second／
foreign language
over the past few decades is the increasing attention given to the develop m ent of students writing
co m petence and the e m ergence of ESL ／EFL writing research as a field of serious inquiry．
Although writing is one of the“four skills”，co m m only accepted goals of language teaching ，
it has
long been the m ost neglected skill． Writing has been considered either not im portant enough ，co m pared
with speaking ，
to deserve any special treatm ent or sim ply too difficult a skill to teach．In the late 1970s
and early 1980s ，w hen an increasing nu m ber of non－
native English speaking students began to appear in
institutions of higher education in North Am erica and other English speaking countries ，
the need to equip
these students with solid writing skills in order for the m to succeed in their education beca m e apparent．
As a result ，
a new writing pedagogy that e m phasizes teaching ESL writing beyond language skills began to
develop ，and writing courses that teach writing as writing were introduced in university intensive English
progra ms that provide language training to non－
native English speaking students．This new m ove m ent has
generated considerable enthusiasm and research efforts on the part of practitioners and researchers
investigating the nature of ESL ／EFL writing ，and led to the develop m ent of theory－
based and research－
supported approaches to second language writing instruction．
One approach that has had a m ajor im pact on second language writing research and instruction is the
process approach ，w hich has beco m e a household na m e for language teachers today．As is evidentin ESL
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CELEA Journal 63
co m position textbooks ，curriculu m and instructional practice ，teaching writing as a process is now a
co m m only accepted practice in ESL writing ，
though professionals in the field have reached the point of
m aturity that recognizes no single approach as adequate in helping students develop writing co m petence．
This essay traces the origin of the process approach and exa mines its im pact on second language writing
research and classroo m practice over the past tw o decades and its current develop m ent ，with the belief
that a better understanding of this approach can further advance ESL writing．
The Process Move ment in Teaching Co m position to Native English Speakers
The process approach originated fro m the process m ovement in teaching co m position to native
English speakers ，w hich began in the early years of the twentieth century and“reached its zenith in the
1960s and 1970s”in North Am erica （Johns 1990 ：
25 ）
．It developed largely out of the dissatisfaction on
the part of the writing teachers with the traditional approach to teaching co m position that had its prim ary
e m phasis on the “product”，the co m pleted students written texts． The early reform ers criticized the
product approach saying that its prim ary goal was teaching literature rather than writing．They pointed
out that teachers designed and assigned writing topics and evaluated students w ork without giving any
thought to w hat happened in their course of writing ，nor did they assist students in their writing action．
They claim ed that the e m phasis on the correct usage of gra m m ar and style in traditional writing class did
not help students develop writing skills because writing was not a single act of recording thoughts in a
correct linguistic form ，as was traditionally believed ，but a very laborious process of discovering thoughts
that involves m any co m plicated co m petences and skills．
The interest in the writing process resulted in w hat Hairston called a“revolutionary paradig m shift”
in teaching writing in Am erican schools （ Reid 1993 ）
．Since writing is viewed as a highly individual
process of“self－
discovery”，a non－
threatening environ m ent is considered essential to this process ；and
since writing ，
as a co m plicated cognitive process ，
involves m ultiple stages ：
pre－
writing ，drafting ，
revising
and editing ，
it was believed that teaching writing involves guiding students through the process and help
students develop the“awareness”of their ow n writing process and effective strategies．
Consequently ，the process approach transform ed the Am erican college co m position class．Process
co m position teachers in the 1960s and 1970s provided students with a m ple tim e and freedo m to explore
topics of their personalinterest．The process－
oriented writing classled students through the four stages of
writing and provided the m with opportunities to practice effective strategies at each stage． At the pre－
writing stage ，for instance ，students practiced journal writing ，brainstorming ，quick writing ，using
techniques such as wh－
questions ，clustering ，etc．，to generate ideas and get started． Students were
allowed to write on the sa m e topic in m ultiple drafts． Teacher feedback and peer review focused on
m eaning ，not on gra m m ar and language ，and were used to help student writers to clarify ideas and
im prove writing．Corrections of surface errors were delayed until the editing stage．
The process m ove m ent also generated greatinterestin research．Using case study and think－
aloud ，
a
newly invented data collection m ethod ，
“in w hich writers spoke their thoughts as they co m posed or
planned their writing”（ Reid 1993 ：
8 ），writing teachers and researchers in the 1970s enthusiastically
atte m pted to discover the m ystery of writing． These studies yielded m any interesting results and lent
support to the process approach．
The Process Approach to ESL Writing
The Traditional Approaches to ESL Writing
While foreign language teaching is an old profession ，teaching ESL ／EFL writing has a relatively
short history．It was not until the late 1970s that serious attention began to be given to the teaching of
ESL writing． Nevertheless ，influenced by a behavioral theory of learning and a structural view of
language ，
teaching writing at that tim e was seen prim arily as a m atter of reinforcing “gra m m atical
structures ，
idio ms ，and vocabulary”
3），
and learning to write ，
like learning to speak ，
as a
（Raim es 1983 ：
process of habit form ation that was conditioned and reinforced by correct m odeling and repeated pattern
drills． The difficulties ESL ／EFL learners experienced in writing were viewed alm ost exclusively as
language proble ms that could be fixed by“practicing bits of language in sentence patterns ，striving for
gra m m atical perfection”
5）
if not entirely ，a language or
（Leki 1992 ：
．ESL writing class was essentially ，
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The Process－
oriented Approach to ESL ／EFL Writing Instruction and Research Zeng Deqi
sim ply a gra m m ar class．Textbooks for ESL writers provided carefully controlled writing activities that
focused on discrete gra m m atical ite ms rather than on tasks engaging learners in creating m eaning or
co m posing itself．
Even w hen the inadequacy of such an approach beca m e apparent —students with a good knowledge
of gra m m ar still produced w hat Leki called “peculiar ，non－
English－
sounding texts w hen asked to write
even so m ew hat m ore creatively”
5）— ESL writing instruction in the early 1980s was not yet
（Leki 1992 ：
ready to free itself fro m the strong behavioral and structural tradition．The proble m ESLstudent writers
experienced was attributed to a lack of understanding of the organizational patterns or structural
characteristics of the written discourses of English．It was therefore proposed that pattern drills at
discourse level should be added．ESLteachers then tried to determine“patterns typical of English”；and
writing class provided students with opportunities to practice how to“co m bine sentence patterns to form
paragraphs and paragraphs to form w hole essays”by following prescribed structures or m odels（ Leki
1992 ：
5）
based or pattern－
product — also referred to as current traditional
．In either the gra m m ar－
rhetoric approach ，
in w hich rhetoric is defined as“the m ethod of organizing syntactic units into larger
patterns”
13） — students were rarely engaged in free writing that involves creating
（cited in Silva 1993 ：
m eaning（Leki 1992 ：
5 ）because carefully controlled and guided activities were considered essential to
endorsing the form ation of a correct habit． The assu m ption underlying both approaches was that a
m astery of form alities w ould adequately build up ESLstudents writing co m petence．
The Early Process Move ment in ESL Writing
The validity of gra m m ar－
based and pattern－
product approaches to ESL writing was questioned in the
late 1970s and early 1980s by several ESL specialists such as Za m el（1976 ，1982 ，1987 ）and Raim es
（1983 ，1985）．Inspired by the process m ovement in teaching co m position to native speakers ，early ESL
process advocates questioned the very assu m ption underlying the existing approaches to ESL writing．
Za m el（1976 ），for instance ，in her frequently cited land m ark essay on the process approach to ESL
writing ，
“Teaching Co m position in the ESL Classroo m ：What We Can Learn fro m Research in the
Teaching of English ”（reprinted in Silva 2000 ），faulted the gra m m ar－
based and pattern－
product
approaches as“unfounded ，
though wellintended”
level
（p．28）．She argued that the e m phasis on surface－
correctness was“of little value”in helping students learn to write and the m astery of textual structures
had little to do with “the creative process of writing”（p．28 ）
． ESL learners ，at least those at the
advanced level ，
she claim ed ，should be taught writing in the sa m e way as their native English－
speaking
peers and“the prim ary e m phasis”of the ESL writing class“should be upon the expressive and creative
process of writing”
（p．34 ）．She then urged ESL writing teachers to abandon traditional approaches to
teaching writing and to look for new options fro m “well－
established”approaches used in the co m position
class to native English speakers．In her later essay （1982 ），she further advocated that the ESL writing
class should“recognize the im portance of generating ，form ulating ，and refining one s ideas”，
“revision
should beco m e the m ain co m ponents”，and “ writing teachers should intervene throughout the process ，
and that students should learn to view their writing as so m eone else s reading”
（p．195）．Za m el s call for
a change in ESL writing instruction was responded to enthusiastically by m any teachers．
The Process－
oriented Writing Instruction and Research
The introduction of the process approach exerted a m ajor im pact on ESL writing instruction ，
though
the change ca m e gradually（Reid 1993）
．ESLteachersin the early 1980s began to borrow techniques fro m
English co m position class．Textbooks based on the process approach began to appear that provided ESL
learners with real writing experience．For instance ，Exploring through Writing ：a Process Approach to
ESL Writing by Raim es（1989）was a popular textbook for ESLlearners for years．Process－
oriented ESL
teachers provided students with a m ple time and freedo m to write on topics of their ow n choice． ESL
learners were encouraged to use language to explore ，to voice ，and share their beliefs ，values ，and
experiences．Fluency was e m phasized over accuracy．Teacher－
conferencing and peer review were adopted
to provide ESLstudent writers with feedback for revision．Teaching effective strategies at each stage of
the writing process beca m e an im portant co m ponent of a writing class．As Reid（1993）observed ，
“since
the middle of the 1980s”，m any ESL writing teachers had discovered ，accepted ，and im ple m ented the
approaches and philosophy associated with process writing”
（p．32）．
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CELEA Journal 63
The process approach not only brought about a change to the ESL writing class but also initiated a
new field of inquiry．The advocacy for a process approach to ESL writing was based on the assu m ption
that the second language writing process was similar ，if not identical ，to that of the first language ，an
assu m ption yet to be investigated and proved．Za m el ，
in her l976 essay ，called for ESL professionals to
investigate the nature of ESL writing and to “discover w hat writing is ，w hat it involves and w hat
differentiatesthe good fro m the bad writer”（p．33 ）
．Since the 1980s ，there has been an increasing
interestin investigating ESL writing ，and a particular interest has been devoted to the second language
writing process． Using the m ethodology borrowed fro m English co m position research ，early writing
process researchers tried to“describe all aspects of L2 co m posing processes”and were enthusiastic about
finding“w hich behaviors see m to be successful or unsuccessful in producing effective L2 co m positions”
39 ）
（Krapels 1990 ：
． Za m el（1982 ），for instance ，in her case study of the writing processes of eight
university－
level“proficient”ESL writers ，
used“think－
aloud”and interviews afterwards as data collection
techniques and she was able to support her theoretical assu m ption —she found that the writing processes
of her ESLsubjects were very similar to the writing processes of native English speakers described in L1
studies．In her subsequent study of six advanced ESL students（1987），she further co m pared the writing
processes of“skilled”and“unskilled”ESL writers and also investigated how writing in a second language
influenced the co m posing process．She concluded that her subjects“did not view co m posing in a second
language in and of itself［as］ proble m atic”
（p．179 ），a finding that was quite contrary to the traditional
belief that writing proble ms ESLlearners have are solely language proble ms．Like Za m el s ，m any early
ESL writing process studies focused on discovering the similarities between L1 and L2 writing processes．
Their findings（for a detailed review of the early ESL writing process research ，see Krapels 1990）were
widely used to support the process－
oriented approach and develop a theory of second language writing．
Though these early process studies have been criticized for their“over－
and misinterpretation of evidence”
and“unjustified generalization fro m very sm all sa m ples to large subgroups or the entire population ”
50），
they have contributed to the develop m ent of ESL writing as a field of
（Silva ，cited in Krapel 1990 ：
inquiry．
Looking beyond the Process
The process m ove m ent over the past few decades has been considered “the m ost successful in the
history of pedagogical reform in the teaching of writing”
69）
it has
（ Mastsuda 2003 ：
．As discussed above ，
had a m ajor im pact on the develop m ent of second language writing theory ，research agenda ，and
instructional practice．It is largely because of the process approach that writing in its real sense ，
that is ，
writing as creation of m eaning and writing as co m m unication ，has gained its due statusin a second／
foreign
language class ；
it is due to the writing process research that we began to recognize the co m plex nature of
writing in another language ；and it is due to the efforts of ESL process writing researchers and teachers
that ESL writing has developed into a field of serious inquiry．Itis hard to find a second language writing
classtoday that does not include so m e co m ponents of process writing and few language teachers today
w ould believe that gra m m ar or organizational pattern drills are all a second／
foreign language student
needs to learn in writing． Popular m ethodology textbooks for second／
foreign language teachers now
introduce process writing as the m ainstrea m or orthodoxy approach to second language writing
instruction． For instance ，a recent publication on second／
foreign language teaching m ethodology by
Ca m bridge University Press ， Methodology in Language teaching ： An Anthology of Current Practice
includes tw o essays on teaching second language writing and one of the m is entitled“The Writing
（2002），
Process and Process Writing ”
．It is indeed difficult to conceptualize effective second language writing
without including so m e of the basic tenets of the process approach（Atkinson 2003）
．In a sense ，it is the
view of writing as the culmination of several steps in a co m plicated process and the belief that such steps
and their attendant strategies can be discussed and m odeled that m ake teaching writing a m ore
m anageable business．
However ，w hile the usefulness and power of process writing and its contribution to both research and
teaching practice have been widely accepted ，
like m any other instructional reforms ，
the process approach
does not provide solutions to all the issues involved in learning to write． Questions ，for instance ，have
been raised aboutits adequacy as a single approach in preparing students for such co m plex task as writing ，
w hich has been increasingly recognized as a socially and culturally situated activity ，not sim ply a cognitive
69
The Process－
oriented Approach to ESL ／EFL Writing Instruction and Research Zeng Deqi
process that is highly private or individualistic as described in the process approach．Viewing writing as a
social and cultural practice im plies that writing is not sim ply a m atter of m anipulating so m e activities of a
universal cognitive process ，
such as pre－
writing ，
drafting ，
revising ，
and editing but ，above all ，
“a m eans
of connecting people with each other in ways that carry particular social m eanings”
27 ）
（ Hyland 2003 ：
．
As such ，
it is m ore than a set of cognitive activities and is a m uch m ore co m plicated process thatinvolves
knowing not only one s ow n writing process ，one s ow n experience ，but also the purpose and the context
of writing ，and the expectations and conventions of the written discourses of the target co m m unity．
Writing progra m that narrowly focuses on personal experience and the cognitive processes of writing can
hardly prepare students adequately for the types of writing tasks expected for the m in the real w orld．
Studies of acade mic writing in university settings in the 1980s（Horowitz 1986），
for instance ，
reveal that
students were seldo m allowed free choice of topics ，nor did personal narratives constitute any significant
portion of their writing tasks．Instead ，
students had to write according to the course require m ents set by
the instructors ，w hich often defined the content ，the aim ，the form ，and even the strategies of the
writing．They had to write to m eet the expectations of the academic co m m unity ，w here it was their
writing product ，not their writing process ，
that was evaluated．
The“social turn”observed in the current efforts of re－
conceptualizing writing and writing instruction
has given rise to a renewed interest in the study of genres ，defined as“abstract ，
socially recognized ways
of using language”
21）
（Hyland 2003 ：
．An explicit co m m and of genre knowledge is viewed as essential for
effective writing because writing as a purposeful social and cultural practice im plies that we do not just
write ，but write in different ways ，in different contexts ，for different purposes．If such knowledge of
genres is im portant for L1 learners ，
it is then crucial for L2 learners．In a sense ，
“learning the genres of
one s culture is both part of entering into it with understanding ，and part of developing the necessary
ability to change it”
30）
（Christie 1987 ：
．As discussed earlier ，viewing writing prim arily ，if not entirely ，
as an internal cognitive process led so m e early L2 writing process theorists to the claim of writing
co m petence as so m ething universal largely divorced fro m linguistic co m petence ，w hich was ，in return ，
taken to im ply that a L2 writing class should focus prim arily on writing（processes and strategies）instead
of language（gra m m ar and rhetoric）
．Therefore ，
“language and rhetorical organizations tend to be things
tacked on to the end of the process as ‘editing’，rather than the central resources for constructing
meanings［italicized by the author of this essay］”
19）
（Hyland 2003 ：
．The disregarding of the im portance
of written form in writing is another deficitthat has draw n m ajor criticism to the process approach．It ，
in
effect ，as so m e critics have pointed out ，
“takes power away fro m learners ，particularly those for
different language or cultural backgrounds”
321 ）
based approach has
（Reppen 2002 ：
．The current genre－
arisen largely as a response to the inadequacy of the process approach to second language writing．
The current trend to m ove beyond the process approach to enco m pass social and cultural
considerations in teaching writing ，however ，
should not been taken as a rejection or abandon m ent of the
process writing approach ，but rather as an effort on the part of the professionals to seek for a m ore
balanced approach to teaching writing．The genre－
based approach is not a replace m ent but an expansion
of the process approach． As a m atter of fact ，the process approach today is“no m ore than a writing
process approach to teaching writing．The idea behind it is not really to dissociate writing entirely fro m
the written product and to m erely lead students through the various stages of writing process but ‘to
construct process－
oriented writing instruction that will affect perform ance’”（ Seow 2002 ：316 ）
．
Increasing attention has been given to providing students with syste m atically planned learning experiences
aiming at developing their proble m －
solving skills that will enable the m to achieve specific goals at each
stage of the co m posing process and ，eventually ，produce a successful final product．
References
Atkinson ，D ．2003．L2 writing in the post－
process era ：
introduction．Journal of Second Language Writing 12 ：
3－
15．
Christine ，F．1987．Genres as choice．In I．Reid（Ed．
）． The Place of Genrein Learning ：Current Debates（pp．
22－
34）
．Deakin ：Deakin Unversity Press．
Horo witz ，D ． 1986． What professors actually require ：acade mic tasks for the ESL classroo m ． TESOL
Quarterly 20／
3：
445－
462．
（ Continued on p．77．．．）
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