A Comparative Analysis of Product vs Process Approach to Written Components of Anadolu University School of Foreign Languages Curriculum

Sevgi ŞAHİN, Anadolu University School of Foreign Languages, Eskisehir, Turkey, ID LLCE2017-156;    Abstract: Writing occupies a noticeable place in language teaching process and has been a major topic of interest for researchers over the past few decades.  Any language curriculum must think about establishing a proficient writing instruction so as to prepare students for ever-growing global challenges that are wished to pursue. Inseparability of language and writing led our institution towards an avocation of supporting curriculum with some compulsory writing tasks which would effectively foster students’ writing skills.  The students are required to submit a certain number of writing tasks within the syllabus. However, when it comes to the approach to completion of those tasks, we adopt different policies depending on the topic or content so as to expose students to a variety of techniques. While some tasks are expected to be performed within the scope of Product Approach, others are performed by Process Approach. Such a diversity gave me the greatest opportunity to conduct an analysis on pros and cons of both approaches in some very meaningful areas of interest. With an attempt to identify the effectiveness of both approaches, a group of 20 EFL learners aged between 19 and 25 were observed and interviewed during the academic year. Based on the results, this presentation reveals a comparative analysis of both methods and their effectiveness in terms of feedback, learner autonomy, teacher roles and learners’ success. The procedures, details and possible suggestions on the issue will be provided later.

Key words: product writing, process writing

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*Instructor of English, sevgi_sahin@anadolu.edu.tr