27 2
Balancing process and product Writing is a composing process. It requires multiple drafts before an effective
product is created. The teachers should make sure that students are carefully led through appropriate stages in the process of composing.
3 Accounting for literary background
Teachers should help students to understand that there are differences between students
‟ native language and the target language. 4
Connecting reading and writing Students learn to write by carefully observing what is already written. By
reading a variety of relevant types of text, students can gain important insights about how they should write and about the subject matter that may
become the topic of their writing. Brown 2001 also suggests that reading should be taught before writing.
For that reason, reading and writing skills are put together as one package known as the written cycle. Such notion is applied in the Genre-Based Approach that puts
reading as a way to grasp the knowledge of the field to later be manifested in writing products.
3. Genre-Based Approach
The term approach according to Edward Anthony 1963 in Brown 2001 is “a set of assumptions dealing with the nature of language, teaching and
learning.” Meanwhile, ɒrown himself defined approach as “assumptions, beliefs and the
ories about the nature of language and language learning”. ɑs for the
28 Genre-Based Approach, it is based on three assumptions on language learning
Feez and Joyce, 1998. The first assumption underlying the Genre-Based Approach is that
language learning is a social activity. It means that language learning is the result of collaboration between the teachers and the students, and between the students
and other students. Consequently, interaction is the key point in learning language, both between the teacher and the students, and among the students.
The second assumption is that learning occurs more effectively if teachers are explicit about what is expected from the students. Under this assumption, there
should be explicit identification of what is to be learned and what is to be assessed. In achieving the expected outcome, the role of the teacher is to use
effective methods in the teaching and learning process. In addition, during the learning process teachers can assist and support students as they are building
knowledge and skills. The third assumption is that the process of learning language is a series of
scaffolding developmental steps which address different aspects of language. This assumption is based on Vygostky‟s theory of learning Feez Joyce, 1998.
According to Vygostky, in the process of learning each learner undergoes two levels of development, i.e. “a a level of independent performance, and b a „level
of potential performance‟ which is made possible through social interaction and joint cons
truction with „more capable others‟ Feez and Joyce, 1998.”
