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PROCESS-BASED ACADEMIC ESSAY WRITING INSTRUCTION
IN AN EFL CONTEXT
Handoyo Puji Widodo
Politeknik Negeri Jember
Abstract: Although a process-based approach to writing instruction is not a new concept, its merits in the teaching of EFL are unequivocal. It has been apparent that many EFL teachers, particularly in Indonesia, are still practicing product-oriented teaching of writing in which emphasis is given to grammatical and lexical accuracy in students compositions (i.e., essays). For this reason, this article argues that EFL teachers need to consider implementing process-based academic writing instruction, particularly, at the college level. Within the process-based framework, writing is viewed as process which involves pre-writing, drafting, responding, revising, edit- ing, and post-writing through which students recursively and reflectively reel.
Keywords : Process-based approach, writing process, academic writing, EFL
Writing is not only a tool forcommunica- tion, but also it serves as a means of learn- ing, thinking, and organizing knowledge or ideas. In other words, writing is a complex activity involving some stages of composi- tion task completion (Chen, 2002; Wats- kins, 2004). Undoubtedly, this skill particu- larly in an EFL context (i.e., Indonesia) has been considered one of the most difficult skills for learners to master. The difficulty is due not only to the need to generate and organize ideas using the appropriate choices of vocabulary, sentence, and paragraph or- ganization but also to turn such ideas into a readable text along with a particular rhetoric pattern (Richards & Renandya, 2002). Mo- reover, Indonesian learners often encounter difficulties in transferring ideas from their native language--Indonesian into the target language--English. This case calls for tea-
chers greater attention to help the learners to be successful in a writing skill. Therefore, teaching writing should be viewed in both cognitive and humanistic perspectives, as Foong (1999) points out. In the cognitive perspective, writing is thought of as a process of forming concepts and forging the new structure of ideas on the basis of certain purpose, audience, and lan- guage use (Kirszner & Mandell, 2000). In this sense, writing is considered as the pro- cess of writing, involving such activities as pre-writing, drafting, revising, and editing in which the activities are reflective and re- cursive. In the humanistic view, writing is seen as an expressive mode through which student writers use writing as a means of exploring and discovering meaning by themselves and develop their own voices. In this regard, the students are encouraged to
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generate their own ideas by writing freely so that they can express their ideas without interruption in which a teacher acts as a fa- cilitator whose task is to promote a suppor- tive learning atmosphere, which provides students opportunities to write about their own ideas and discover their voices rather than acts as a judge whose task is to identify students' errors. In this regard, EFL teachers should not consider writing as a product in which they greatly emphasize grammatical and lexical accuracy in students composi- tions, but they are required to allow students to focus on their ideas and then encourage the students to work on that accuracy in the revision stage. On the basis of the two perspectives a- bove, in this paper, a process-based app- roach to teaching academic essay writing is highlighted particularly at a college level in an EFL context--Indonesia. Within the pro- cess-based framework, teachers focus not merely on finished writing products (e.g., essays), but also on writing processes that encourage student s active class participa- tion during the entire writing process so that teacher-student and student-student interac- tions optimally occur in the classroom.
PROCESS-BASED WRITING IN-
STRUCTION
Since the early 1970's, writing instruc- tion has made a steady turn from emphasiz- ing the finished product to the writing process. Although process-based writing has long been implemented in English lan- guage composition and ESL courses, in re- cent years, it has been adopted in foreign language classes (Deng, 2005). Unfortu- nately, many teachers in an EFL context still view writing as exercises in perfecting grammar and vocabulary (Muncie, 2002). In other words, teachers deemphasize how students complete certain writing tasks in writing processes such as pre-writing, draft- ing, revising, and editing.
Therefore, many educators advocate a process-based approach to teaching writing because it is concerned with the various sta- ges from pre-writing, drafting, responding, revising, editing, to evaluating that allow students to go through such stages so as to complete particular writing tasks (i.e., Ferris & Hedgcock, 2005; Harmer, 2007). Further, some authors (e.g., Dirby, Kirby, & Liner, 2004; Seow, 2002; Terrible, 1996) suggest that process-oriented writing when imple- mented in the classroom incorporate anoth- er stage externally imposed on students by a teacher. Such a stage includes post-wri- ting (e.g., reading aloud, displaying, or publishing) in which teacher and peer re- views are also included because both have central roles in the successful implementa- tion of process-based writing instruction. More crucially, in such activities, students have opportunities to improve their compo- sitions, may be motivated to write better, and are trained to think critically. In the process-based writing instruc- tion, a teacher and students play pivotal roles. For a teacher, she or he serves as re- source, facilitator, motivator, and feedback provider and evaluator. First, as a resource, the teacher provides some input that is lear- nable or comprehensible for the students by selecting useful tasks or activities for the students. In addition, she or he should pro- vide advice to the students in a constructive and tactful way (Harmer, 2007). As a moni- tor, the teacher is required to monitor stu- dents activities because there are varied activities that are to be done by the students. As a motivator, inasmuch as the students go through intense activities, the teacher needs to motivate the students to complete writing tasks assigned. As feedback provider and evaluator, before the teacher evaluates the students performance as a whole, he or she provides feedback on the students work or responds positively and encouragingly to the content of it, as Harmer (2007) empha- sizes. Then, the teacher can assess the stu-
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develop their ideas into completed essays easily and precisely (Widodo, 2006a).
Drafting
Once students have written down suffi- cient ideas at the pre-writing stage, they proceed to a drafting phase. In this case, student writers need to focus on the fluency of writing, not on the grammatical accuracy. In this phase, the students are encouraged to develop their ideas into rough drafts without considering the grammatical accuracy first. As previously described, in the process- based writing, the grammatical accuracy will be emphasized during the revising sta- ge. In other words, rough drafts are not sup- posed to be perfect pertaining to grammati- cal accuracy in that this process-based writ- ing class is a continuous process of discov- ery, and promotes the fluency of ideas so that a certain writing task can smoothly be completed.
Responding
Responding to students essays by both the teacher and students themselves plays indispensable roles in the successful imple- mentation of the process-based writing (Fer- ris, 2003). Responding or giving feedback is primarily intended to see students first or second drafts. It is suggested that in this feedback session a teacher use the transpa- rency projector, text viewers, or LCD pro- jectors connected with the computer so that the students can view each others drafts (Widodo, 2006b). Shortly, a responding ac- tivity is geared to encourage students to par- ticipate actively in the class, get involved in an authentic communicative context, and develop critical reading skills. To facilitate the peer review, the review guideline should be provided (See Appendix A for a Sample Guideline for a Peer Essay Review). To sum up, involving students in pro- viding feedback means empowering the students in thinking critically and participat-
ing actively in the class in which the goal is to encourage the students to write better.
Revising and Editing When revising the drafts, the students review their work on the basis of the feed- back given in the responding stage. They re- examine what has been written to view how effectively they have communicated their meanings to readers. It is important to note that revising does not simply involve look- ing at language errors but also addresses the global content and organization of ideas so that the writer s intent is made clearer to the reader. In editing, students get involved in fine- tuning their own drafts as they prepare the final drafts for a product assessment by the teacher. In this regard, the students are re- quired to check minor mistakes related to grammar (i.e., tenses or subject-verb agree- ments ), spellings, punctuations, dictions, and contractions. Thus, the goal of this ac- tivity is to produce well-written essays be- fore the students submit the work to the teacher.
Assessing In this phase, the teacher assesses the students essays in which the goal is to see how well each student or each group has completed the work. In doing so, the teacher has two options for scoring or grading sys- tems--either analytical on the basis of the specific aspects of writing ability or holistic based upon the global interpretation of the effectiveness of the compositions (Ferris & Hedgcock, 2005). In this process-based academic essay writing instruction, the ana- lytic scoring system may be more rewarding for students to allow them to look at what aspects they lack in detail. For this reason, a teacher needs to design a marking scheme for students essay assessment (See Appen- dix B for the Marking Scheme of Writing Assessment).
Widodo, Process-Based Academic Essay Writing Instruction 105
Post-Writing Post-writing is any classroom activity that the teacher and students can do with the completed essays. This may encompass publishing online or displaying the finished essays on notice boards, sharing with one another, or reading aloud. The post-writing stage is a medium of appreciating students work. In other words, this is a reward for the work done well and can encourage stu- dents to endeavor to write better (Widodo, 2006b).
Reflection
Once they have gone through the process-based academic essay writing stag- es, the students are required to reflect on what they have learned during the entire writing process. This encourages the stu- dents to self-evaluate their strengths and weaknesses of their writing abilities and to think of how they will make further im- provements for their writing skills. To assist the students in carrying out reflection, the teacher should provide students reflection sheets so that the intended goals of reflec- tion can be accomplished (See Appendix C for a Student Reflection Sheet). This reflec- tion record can help the teacher look at what the students have accomplished and what they need to improve so that she or he can help the students make further improve- ments for their future work assigned.
CONCLUSION
Because the process-based academic es- say writing instruction involves the various stages that are time-consuming, a teacher is required to pay great attention to focused writing activity, good classroom manage- ment, and student s equal involvement. It is also important to ensure that classroom learning and writing experience help stu- dents become confident and independent student writers. More crucially, the teacher
should build the solid community of writing practice in the classroom. In short, within the process-based framework, the teacher focuses not merely on finished essays, but also on writing processes that maximize student class participation in which the teacher should consistently carry out the overall writing activities (See Appendix D for the Process-Based Writing Cycle).
REFERENCES
Anderson, N. 2003. Reading. In D. Nunan, Practical English language teaching (pp. 67-86). New York: The McGraw-Hill Companies. Brown, H.D. 2007. Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to language pe- dagogy (3rd ed.). New York: Pearson education. Chen, Y. 2002. The problems of university EFL writing in Taiwan. The Korea TE- SOL Journal , 5 (1), 59-9. Deng, X. 2005. Portofolio, student reflec- tions, the teaching of ESL/EFL writing. In G. Poedjosoedarmo (ed.), Innovative approaches to reading and writing in- struction : Anthology series 46 (pp. 111- 126). Singapore: SEAMEO Regional Language Centre. Ferris, D.R. 2003. Response to student writ- ing: Implications for second language students. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Ferris, D.R., & Hedgcock, J.S. 2005. Teach- ing ESL composition: Purpose, process, and practice. New Jersey: Lawrence Erl- baum Associates. Foong, K.P. 1999. Teaching writing: A look at purposes, writing tasks, and implica- tions. The English Teacher , 28. Retrieved July 31, 2006, from http://www.melta.org.my/ ET/1999/main3.html(Foong) Harmer, J. 2007. The practice of English language teaching (4th ed.). Essex: Pear- son education.
Widodo, Process-Based Academic Essay Writing Instruction 107
APPENDIX A A Sample Guideline for Peer Essay Review
A Guideline for Peer Essay Review
Writers : ________________________ Reviewers : _____________________________ Topic : ________________________ Type of Essay : _____________________________
Form Does the essay consist of? Points Yes No
- General Information
- Thesis
- Body
- Concluding Paragraph
Content
- Is general information interesting and readable? 2. Is the thesis clear? Comments: _____________________________ Comments:____________________________ _____________________________ ____________________________
- Does the body develop the thesis? 4. Does the concluding paragraph summarize the Comments: ____________________________ body? ____________________________ Comments:____________________________ ____________________________ ____________________________
Coherence & Cohesion
- Do all of the supporting sentences develop main ideas in each paragraph?
- Are there transitional signals (phrases or sentences) connecting sentences or paragraphs?
- Are the ideas arranged in logical order?
Grammar
- Are there any mistakes in tenses? 2. Are there any mistakes in modals?
- Are there any mistakes in agreement? 4. Are there any other grammatical mistakes? _____________________________ Please specify.
Vocabulary
- Is word choice appropriate? 2. Is word choice reader friendly?
Mechanics
- Is there any mistake in spelling 2. Is there any mistake in punctuation?
(Widodo,2006)
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APPENDIX B The Marking Scheme of Writing Assessment
No. Criteria Marks
R a t i n g S c a l e s*
Excellent Good Fair Poor Very Poor
1. Content 40 32-40 24-31 16-23 8-15 0- 2. Organization of Ideas 30 28-30 21-27 14-20 7-13 0- 3. Language 20 18-20 14-17 9-13 4-8 0- 4. Style 10 10 7-9 5-7 2-4 0-
TOTAL 100
*** Rating Scales Ratings Descriptors**
Excellent
Content: Very clear and substantive understanding of the topic given in terms of the length/scope of the essay, well-developed, thoughtfully and thoroughly- supported, very reasonably and relevantly-presented, excellent awareness of audience and purpose Organization of Ideas: A very convincing and clear thesis statement, very coherent and well-organized in an introduction, development, and a conclusion with excellent use of cohesive devices (paragraphs at the essay level; sentences at the paragraph level), very appropriate and logical structure both within the essay as a whole and within the paragraph, excellent main ideas at the paragraph level, very well-informed Language: Excellent command of English, excellent control of language usage, very frequent use of excellent complex and compound sentences without any errors, impressive range of appropriate vocabulary and idiomatic language Style: Evident stylistic control and display of impressive creativity and flair as well as originality throughout the essay
Good
Content: Clear and substantial understanding of the topic given in terms of the length/scope of the essay, well-developed, thoughtfully and thoroughly- supported, reasonably and relevantly-presented, good awareness of audience and purpose Organization of Ideas: A convincing and clear thesis statement, coherent and well-organized in an introduction, development, and a conclusion with good use of cohesive devices (paragraphs at the essay level; sentences at the paragraph level), appropriate and logical structure both within the essay as a whole and within the paragraph, good main ideas at the paragraph level, well-informed Language: Good command of English, good control of language usage, frequent use of good complex and compound sentences with insignificant errors, good range of appropriate vocabulary and idiomatic language Style: Good stylistic control and display of creativity and flair as well as originality throughout the essay
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Ratings Descriptors
Fair
Content: Fairly clear and substantive understanding of the topic given in terms of the length/scope of the essay, sufficiently-developed, satisfactorily- supported and presented, satisfactory awareness of audience and purpose Organization of Ideas: A fairly convincing and clear thesis statement, coherent and satisfactorily-organized in an introduction, development, and a conclusion with satisfactory use of cohesive devices (paragraphs at the essay level; sentences at the paragraph level), fairly appropriate and logical structure both within the essay as a whole and within the paragraph, satisfactory main ideas at the paragraph level, fairly-informed Language: Satisfactory command of English, satisfactory control of language usage, fairly frequent use of satisfactory complex and compound sentences with a few errors, a satisfactory range of appropriate vocabulary and idiomatic language Style: Satisfactory stylistic control and display of creativity and flair as well as originality throughout the essay
Poor
Content: Poor understanding of the topic given in terms of the length/scope of the essay, occasionally irrelevant and poorly-developed as well as supported, dissatisfactory-presented, poor awareness of audience and purpose Organization of Ideas: A barely convincing and less clear thesis statement, less coherent and poorly-organized in an introduction, development, and a conclu- sion with poor use of cohesive devices (paragraphs at the essay level; sentences at the paragraph level), less appropriate and logical structure both within the essay as a whole and within the paragraph, poor main ideas at the paragraph level, poorly-informed Language: Poor command of English, poor control of language usage, frequent use of poor complex and compound sentences with many errors, poor range of appropriate vocabulary and idiomatic language Style: Poor stylistic control and display of creativity and flair as well as originality throughout the essay
Very Poor
Content: Barely clear understanding of the topic given in terms of the length/scope of the essay, irrelevant and lack of logic, little/no evidence of ability to generate ideas, little/no attempts to address appropriate audience and purpose Organization of Ideas: A unclear thesis statement, incoherent and pointless in an introduction, development, and a conclusion without use of cohesive devices (paragraphs at the essay level; sentences at the paragraph level), inappropriate and illogical structure both within the essay as a whole and within the paragraph, no main ideas at the paragraph level Language: Very poor command of English, very dissatisfactory control of language usage, very frequent use of very poor simple and compound sentences with numerous errors, a very considerable range of inappropriate vocabulary and idiomatic language Style: Hardly any stylistic control and display of creativity and flair as well as originality throughout the essay (Widodo, 2006a )
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APPENDIX C A Student Reflection Sheet
A Student Reflection Sheet Name : __________________________ ID : __________________________ Class : __________________________ Instructor : __________________________
- What have you learned during the entire essay writing process? **_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________**
- What have you learned during the peer conferences? _______________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________
- What did you achieve from the class? _______________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________
- What did you not achieve from the class? _______________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________
- What will you need to improve? _______________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________
- How will you make the improvements? _______________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________
