The Impact of the Application of a Process Writing Component on the Students' Writing Output in English as a Foreign Language

Various theories concerning the teaching of writing in both an L1 and an L2 have been burgeoning since 1945, given the importance of mastering the ability to write legibly, fluently and coherently for the students' academic success. The aim of this paper is to delve into young learners' performance influenced by the applicability of the "process writing" approach in learning English as a foreign language and at the same time to trace any gender differences. More specifically, a study was conducted at the sixth grade of two Greek state primary schools. The findings presented in this paper are part of a greater study which involved two experimental (44 students) and two control (46 students) groups. The two experimental groups of the study attended seven specially designed writing lessons, whereas the control group members followed the materials of the coursebook. Both groups were given similar written assignments in order to receive comparable results. Entry and exit writing tests were administered to the participants of the study in order to explore their performance in the beginning and the end of the research and trace any differences due to the intervention, regarding both group and gender. The analysis of the group and gender parameters shows that there is change of performance between the two groups and genders.