Teaching English writing in China has undergone a series of
reforms under the influence of L1 composition theories rooted in
North America. In the late 1980s, the process approach was formally
introduced to English teaching circles in China (Wang, 1986), and
then more Chinese scholars suggested rethinking English writing
instruction and calling for process approach (Yu & Zhang, 1996;
Li, 2000; Wu & Zhang, 2000). With the rapid development of EFL
writing research in China, college-level English writing has attracted
much attention in the field.
This study came from my inquiry to find out how EFL teachers
could teach English writing more effectively in Chinese teaching
context. As an English writing instructor in China, I have observed
that hundreds of Chinese students who have adequate English
reading competence and strong speaking and listening skills still
encountered a variety of difficulties in English writing. Gradually, I
became concerned about the problem and have always wanted to find
effective ways to help students overcome their writing difficulties, and
to provide scaffolding to help them achieve fluency in their English
writing.
This study outlines what happened in a semester’s academic
. writing workshop at a university in Beijing. The teacher-researcher
applied the principles of qualitative methods in a classroom
II The Principles and Applications of North American Process Writing Approach
setting: the teacher-researcher provided abundant instructions and
conducted a series of scaffolding activities to guide students through
their writing process in the academic writing workshop. At the end
of the semester, students reflected on their academic writing process
and what they learned from this process-oriented writing workshop.
The study aims to find out the answers to these key questions:
1. What would be the students’ attitudes toward this writing
workshop experience? Which activities would they favor, and
which would they find problematic?
2. What would be the Chinese EFL teachers’ perceptions toward
incorporating some aspects of North American process
writing approach in college-level English writing classes?
3. How could such an approach, if found to benefit students,
best be integrated into the Chinese educational context?
Through prolonged engagement in an academic writing
workshop, data was collected and triangulated to provide a better
understanding of students’ writing process for exploring their
own writing potential where the research focus was on students’
perceptions of their academic writing experience. The study
shows that students could develop academic genre awareness, and
become better writers in their academic disciplines through active
participation in scaffolding activities and through constant writing
practice. This study has certain significance in L2 writing pedagogy
and research. Moreover, I hope this study would be a helpful addition
to current L2 writing research in China, and provide an opportunity
for Chinese EFL writing teachers to rethink the nature of L2 writing
and gain insights from the application of North American process
pedagogy for future L2 writing research and practice.
When I am about to share this research with ESL/EFL teaching
community and academic audience in the field, I would like to
express my deep gratitude to Professors Jeannine M. Fontaine, Jean
Nienkamp and John A. Mueller at Indiana University of Pennsylvania
for their guidance, advice and continuous support during the course
of completing this research. I also want to thank all the student
participants, the four Chinese writing teachers and the American
writing instructor who actively took part in my research. Without
their participation and support, I would never accomplish the
current study. My sincere thanks also go to Ms. Liu Yan and her
colleagues at Tsinghua University Press, who have spent time and
effort polishing this book draft. Last but not least, I want to thank
School of International Studies, University of International Business
and Economics, my academic institution, for funding the publication
of this book.
He Jiajia
May 2016