TESOL's Process Versus Product Debate.

The controversy over two approaches to writing instruction in English as a Second Language (ESL), product and process orientations, is reviewed based on articles appearing in the Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages' quarterly professional journal from 1982-1991. In the process-oriented approach, instructional practices emphasize the strategies that Lead the writer to the processes underlying composing and discovery of meaning; product orientation focuses on the end result of the composing process. Special attention is given to 1986 criticism of the process approach by Daniel Horowitz. It is concluded that at present the status of the debate is characterized by compromise and an integrated theory of writing that includes both process and product. (MSE) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ****************************************4******************************