Literature review

One of the important language skills in our life could be the writing skill, people can inform others, carry out transactions, persuade, infuriate, and express their feelings through writing. However, writing or learning to write in a second language is not just writing something down, it could be a hard task, and it is one of the four basic skills in learning a language. Writing is marked as one of the ways to give an idea or message which is formed in writing on a piece of paper or the other area. It is an act of making marks on certain surface. Specifically, writing is one kind of expression in language which is created by particular set of symbols, having conventional values for representing the wordings of particular language which is drawn up visually.

Prior to the advent of student-centered learning, heralded by the communicative approach, ELT was largely pre-occupied with the finished product in directing its learners towards pre-specified objectives. In the, aptly named, product approach a student’s attention focuses on adhering to and duplicating models and in particular on correct language. As Johnson (2003) maintains, in the product approach meaning and functions are not taken into account and writing is

decontextualized. In other words, typically, students in classes adopting the product approach, find themselves studying model texts and attempting various exercises aimed toward drawing their attention to relevant features of a text. These exercises would require students to check comprehension by completing sentences or adding logical connections, following which, in a final exercise students would produce parallel products based on their own information. Moreover, in this approach, the writing reinforces or tests the accurate application of grammatical rules; controlled composition tasks provide the text and ask the student to manipulate linguistic forms within the text. In other words, writing classes emphasize the correct grammar, using a range of vocabulary and sentence structures, meaningful punctuality, and accurate spelling.

According to Pincas (1982a, p. 185), “in this approach the learner is not allowed to create in the target language at all. The use of language is the manipulation of fixed patterns. These patterns are learned by imitation; and not until they have been learned can originally occur”. This comment implies that the approach seems willing to sacrifice learner’s motivation and instead emphasize the correctness. On the same front, Grabe & Kaplan (1996) criticized this approach and believed that the product approach underestimated many dynamic aspects in the process of writing. They propose that the product approach led students and teachers to believe that the planning stage began and ended in the initial period of composition.

Along the same lines, Johnson (2003) refers to grammatical focus of this approach and attributes the failure of most students to find a close relationship between grammatical form and function to their being taught grammatical features separate from the context. Therefore, their knowledge of grammar was carried over to their ability to write.

In recent years, there has been emphasis on the writing process. Many process writing textbooks have been published which focus on content through several drafts of a paper and leave scrutiny of form to the final draft. In this approach, students’ learning English composition as a second or foreign language, struggle with many structural issues including selecting proper words, using correct grammar, generating ideas, and developing ideas about specific topics.

In line with the above-mentioned perspective, Chastain (1988, p. 251) asserts that: “Recently, various writing specialists have proposed a distinction between the process of writing and the written product. Their contention is that if the teacher wants to improve the product, she must assist the students in the ways that will enable them to improve the process they go through to produce the product”. The process-oriented approach to teaching writing is an idea that began to flourish 30 years ago, as a result of executive research on first language writing and that the approach has long been used in English language composition and English as a second language courses, and in recent years it has been adopted in foreign language classes as well. Logically, this approach could have been developed as a reaction to the confines presented by the product approach. Consequently, students changing classes from product to process, from an approach devoted to correct form and accuracy would potentially find themselves liberated with an approach concerned with individual levels of fluency and expression.

In the reader/genre-oriented approach, the additional elements of audience and social context are included in the teaching of writing. According to this approach, writers who recognize the context and audience (the discourse community) for which and for whom the written product is generated are likely to appreciate the importance of rhetorical knowledge such as format, style and content in matching a text to a social purpose and shaping a successful text. This emphasis on the constraints of form and content is related to the notion of ‘genre’ (Bryant & Bradley, 1983). Communication scholars and second language acquisition researchers have attempted to give a new

theory that clears the ways for developing learner skills. It makes sense here to consider the most recent Hayes’ (1996) model and its latest modification (Hayes, 2000). The concept of this model describes writing in terms of two dimensions which are related to the task and individuals. The part related to the task comments about the different factors affect on individual and this factor also divided into two parts. First part related to social environments and second part is related to physical environments.

-enables the teacher to tailor the teaching to the needs of the group;

-facilitates the teaching and learning of individual children. Although guided-writing is a group activity focused on the needs of the group, the teacher is able to observe and respond to the needs of individuals within the group;

-provides the teacher with the opportunity to extend and challenge more-able groups of children; -encourages the children to be active participants in discussions about writing;

-builds confidence – the groups are all grappling with the same issues;

-allows the teacher to give immediate feedback on success and the opportunity to discuss further areas for improvement.