awej 5 no.4 full issue 2014

AWEJ Volume.5 Number.3, 2014The Effects of Writing Intervention ProgramSamaranayake & GabaynoPeer-editing:Peer-editing means that students read each other‟s work, and then offer feedback oncontent, structure and grammar. Peer-editing is also a form of input, as discussion on contentwith other students might lead to the addition of ideas.Teacher feedback:The teacher should edit and evaluate the students‟ first draft once it is written, self-edited,peer-edited and revised, possibly re-written.Arguments against the Process genre approachIt seems difficult to find concrete criticism against the use of the process genre approach in theliterature about writing. This may be due to the fact that the process genre approach is arelatively new approach in teaching writing in ELT (Badger & White, 2000). Moreover, it hasnot been determined yet, whether the process genre approach helps students to write betterand/or faster in examination settings. The assumption underlying the process genre approach isthat if students are instructed based on genres and have had the opportunity to analyze andmanipulate model examples, then they should be able to compose more effectively in anexamination setting. However, it was not possible for the researchers to find any empiricalstudies that could corroborate the assumption that helps students to write better and faster inexamination settings. A few studies summarized below give information on the effect of theprocess genre approach on students‟ writing skills.Empirical evidence on Process genre approach in applicationThe studies reported below are similar to the current pilot study in some features such as researchdesign and research questions. Chelli and Hassina (2012) investigated the effectiveness of theProcess genre approach on EFL written productions of the first year students at BiskraUniversity, Algeria. This research was conducted in order to confirm or reject the hypothesis thatthe implementation of the process genre approach would bring positive results in the students‟EFL written productions. The experimental group which consisted of 40 students was taughtusing the PGA while the control group which consisted of a similar number that of theexperimental group was instructed through the Product approach. At the end of the study,writings were evaluated in terms of fluency, accuracy and complexity using T-Unit as a measureof analysis. The findings related to fluency revealed that the control group recorded a slightincrease in the means score from pretest to posttest (12.56 to 13.17) with a difference of 0.61while the experimental group increased significantly from pretest to posttest (12.17 to 17.81)with a difference of 5.64. All in all, given the findings of this study, researchers state that theProcess genre approach can help EFL students develop their writing competence better than theProduct approach.Nordin, Halib, and Ghazali (2010) conducted a study at the University TeknologiPetronas,Malaysia to investigate the effect of the process genre approach on the writing skills ofengineering students. The experimental group received writing instruction based on the Processgenre approach while the control group was taught through the Genre approach. The findings ofthe study indicated that the writing ability of students in the experimental group was significantlybetter than those in the control group. A school-based study conducted in Indonesia by Nihayah(2009) reported that after the implementation of the Process genre approach, her students‟writing ability had improved. The researcher provides statistical evidence in her study to supportArab World English JournalISSN: 2229-9327www.awej.org136