Effective approaches in teaching Second language Essay

Effective approaches in teaching Second language - Essay Example For this reason, exploring ways on how writing teachers can further improve the writing skills of L2 students is very important. Methods to measure the effectiveness in teaching are often subjected to endless criticism. Back in early 1990s, the assessment of effective teaching was more focused on the students’ learning, highly dependent on the students’ knowledge on the subject, the ability of the teachers to manage the students and think thoroughly on how they can further improve their teaching practice (Clark, 1993, p. 2). Today, the term ‘effectiveness’ is defined based on the â€Å"students’ achievement† (Stronge, 2007, p. x). The process of correcting the L2 students’ mistakes in writing does not guarantee that there will be improvements in their writing skills (Schwieter, 2010, p. 34). Therefore, effective teaching should be monitored based on the revision instruction and feedback each of the L2 students will receive from their wr iting teachers (Ferris, 2007, p. 167; Schwieter, 2010, p. 34). As a general rule, teachers are directly accountable for the learning of the L2 students (Dunne and Wragg, 2005, p. 1). Therefore, it is part of the teachers’ duty and responsibility to continuously improve their professional knowledge and skills particularly when it comes to teaching the L2 students the effective way of writing in English. (Because your essay topic /essay question told me to focus on discussing the best teaching approach when teaching the L2 students how to write.) This essay aims at exploring the different approaches used in teaching L2 students within a writing class. In addition to examining the similarities and differences between the genre approach, process approach, and product approach, the advantages and limitations of each type of teaching approach and how L2 teachers can avoid the limitations or challenges associated with each type will be addressed. 2. Teaching Approaches There are s everal of innovative teaching approaches which can be applied in the teaching of writing. Based on the history of L2 writing studies, Alhosani (2008, p. 48) explained that there was a shift â€Å"in writing instruction from product to process†. Since studying the writing process can be very complicated, a lot of writing teachers have argued that the use of the process approach in writing is better in terms of improving the L2 students’ knowledge and attitude towards writing (Alhosani, 2008, p. 40). Therefore, between the late 1960s and early 1970s, second language teachers started to use the process approach in teaching writing to L2 students [Corbett, 2003, p. 87; Matsuda, 2003, cited in Alhosani, 2008, p. 40]. Today, a lot of second language teachers have managed to shift their focus to the use of the genre approach in teaching (Alhosani, 2008, p. 44). There are cases where teachers who are teaching L2 students how to write are using â€Å"out-dated teacher-centred method† (Babalola, 2012) or are totally unprepared in teaching the L2 students the proper way of writing (Lee, 2011). By examining the similarities and differences between the genre approach, process approach, and product approach, writing teachers who teach TESOL students could be guided by the most effective use of these approaches. 2.1 Product Approach Considered as a traditional method in teaching a second language, the product approach is generally more focused on the students’