Chinese Vocational College English Teachers and Majors’ Perceptions of the Product Approach and Process Approach and Attitudes toward the Application of the Product Process Approach

Abstract

In this particular small-scale survey, questionnaires were sent to 50 students majoring in English and interviews with 4 teachers teaching English writing in vocational colleges were used to collect data. It is agreed that the traditional Product Approach to some extent was still useful due to learners’ insufficiency in English competency and the exam-oriented approach of the Chinese education system. However, the product-oriented pedagogy is argued to overlook learners’ creative thinking, problem-solving skills and the concept of the writing purpose and audience. Thus, the Process Approach is considered to be a much more sophisticated approach. Although the process writing has various advantages, it originated from L1 (English as a first language), which may not be wholly suitable to in an EFL (English as a foreign language) context. Hence, the adaptability and simplification of the original Process Approach are perceived to be significant. In addition, the main findings of the study indicated that both Chinese English teachers and majors held positive attitudes towards the Product Process Approach. They pointed out the synthesis might not only guarantee proper language input, but also enhance learners’ communication skills and strengthen their understanding of the multiple drafts, the writing purpose and the audience. It is suggested that the synthesis might be useful if the two approaches are properly balanced according to different students’ levels and various genres. The limitation of this study was the small sample that could not represent all the Chinese university teachers and students’ views. In addition, it needs long-term empirical studies to further examine the validity and reliability of the synthesis.