The Development of the Basic Approaches to Teaching Writing

Abstract

The variety of methodological approaches can contribute to developing the optimal model of teaching writing in higher linguistic universities since implementing only one approach in writing process is unfruitful. However, the priority of this or that approach does not suggest abandoning the other approaches to writing, but puts forward the demand for complementing one another rather than opposing. The content and functional analyses of the product-based, the process-based and the genre-based approaches can lead to paradigm shifts in foreign language teaching/learning methodology, emphasize the importance of the recursive procedure of writing, reveal the main characteristics of writing activities, determine the roles of teachers and students in the process of writing, and develop new strategies teaching writing. Thus a synthesis of the product, the process and the genre approaches to writing will be the best approach to meet the needs of our ESL students.