Comparing the Process Approach with the Product Approach in Teaching Academic Writing to First-year Undergraduates

Abstract

The objective of this study is to determine whether the process approach or the product/ traditional approach is better in teaching first-year undergraduates to write academic texts. Fifty-one students of the University of Selangor had participated in the study. They were divided into Group A and Group B. A pre-test was given prior to the treatment and a post-test after it. For seven weeks, the participants in Group A were taught to write academic texts using the product approach while those in Group B were taught to write academic texts using the process approach. The data collected from the tests was analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 19.0. The data from the post-test was also triangulated with the data from the participants’ composing behaviors and the data from the participants’ folders. The results indicate that both the groups A and B show improvements in content, organization, vocabulary, language use, mechanics and overall results. However, the participants of group B show better improvement than those of Group A in terms of content, organization, mechanics and overall results. This shows that the process approach had not only significantly increased students’ level of proficiency in writing in general but also improved their ability to write academic text because it closely resembles the natural writing process. In conclusion, these findings imply that teachers of academic writing need to address procedural know-how explicitly and disclose what goes on in the process of writing academic texts to learners to help them write well.