Background and Purpose
In any context, it is a time-consuming learning process when it comes to learning a second/foreign language as it requires both the teacher and students to work comprehensively. Most people put emphasis on speaking and listening skills when they learn a second language. Developing composition skills in a second language is the least priority among all the skills because not only it is hard for the learners, but also it creates exhaustion. Bridwell-Bowles (1991) posited that the process writing approach has been introduced to develop composition skills in ESL/EFL writing pedagogy since the 1970s. But in Bangladesh, it is still mostly product-based, following the traditional approach where the topics are provided by the teachers in the classroom and the students are required to write without any prewriting discussion. The students do not even get into reading and incorporating research while they try to produce their compositions. Later, the teachers assess the essays and put numerical scores with some comments for improvements, but these essays are never rechecked and reevaluated to find if any improvement did take place. When Bangladeshi students reach the more advanced stages of their education (i.e., tertiary level), particularly in private universities, they face different challenges in their writing skills, so the universities require them to do few composition courses to improve their writing skills to better equip them with their desired courses and degrees (Hasan & Akhand, 2011; Hasan, 2011). Though these institutions have a variety of approaches to teaching, they mostly follow product-oriented approach while teaching composition courses (Hasan & Akhand, 2011; Hasan, 2011; Munira, 2017). Alam (2011) argues that since English Language Teaching specialists have not written anything themselves, they are intellectually and morally dubious to teach composition. A successful composition features not only good grammar but also the rhetoric, organization, and accurate development, which are not often cared for. This is similar to the ‘product-based approach’ as suggested by Badger and White (2000) that grammar knowledge is the only concern in composition writing. However, the purpose of writing should aim “to explain and clarify ideas and concepts to a specific audience who expects a writer to conform to some established conventions of styles, structures, and strategies” rather than creating a linguistic or theoretical swamp in the audiences’ mind (Shamsuzzaman, 2019). In addition, it is difficult to assume what happens when someone writes and produces something (Draper, 1969) as process writing involves an interaction between reflective and projective construction when the writers move back and forth to rhythmically point their thoughts (Perl, 1980).
As experienced teachers of writing (10 years of teaching EAP courses), we usually try to follow the principles of the process approach. In our writing classes, we discuss the structure of the essay, talk about thesis statements and topic sentences, focus on the overall organization of ideas with unity and coherence, give a lot of examples, analyze the model compositions, and finally make the students write papers/compositions. However, it seems that students, even in universities, either try to imitate the essays they learned in their schools and high schools/colleges, or they try to use the writing experience they have had in their early education life. Even if they try hard at their best, they perform poorly in their writing courses when they are at universities because imitation and memorization do not help the writing process. In their schools and colleges, they neither learn the essay structure adequately, e.g. thesis statement, nor get continuous support at the different steps in their process of composition writing; rather they are encouraged to write long essays without requiring their thoughts on writing and without focusing much on lucidity. However, the process approach requires the students to support at various stages of their academics (Reichelt, 2005). In addition to that, the process approach necessitates ‘a cycle of revision’ which enables students to edit and revise their work after getting thorough feedback from the teachers, and in this way, the writing gradually develops (Pattey-Chavez, Matsumura, & Valdes, 2004). Moreover, the feedback from peers might not be perceived as effective as it appears to the students; therefore, it may be avoided in the process writing approach (Saeli, 2019). Muncie (2003) stated that process writing is not a way to practice grammar; instead, it involves how to generate ideas, organize structure, draft, and revise. Therefore, the process approach doesn’t line with the single draft process, rather if the approach involves multi-drafting assignments, it might address a range of discourses, which would eventually help learners to develop academic writing skills. This can be aligned with what Hamp-Lyons and Condon (2000) posited that a multi-drafting process writing approach allows learners to give multiple opportunities to practice many types of compositions; therefore, teachers’ input, while they provide formative feedback to their students, work effectively. Hence, this paper provides a brief description of the process approach to writing by introducing multi-drafting assignments and the various stages that may enhance students´ writing skills.