The Impact of Process-Product Approach on EFL Students’ Critical Thinking in Academic Report Writing

Critical thinking is a fundamental skill in academic writing, yet EFL instruction often focuses more on the final product than the cognitive process. This quasi-experimental study examined the effectiveness of the process-product approach in fostering critical thinking in academic report writing among EFL students. One hundred eleven sixth-semester English Education students at Saifuddin Zuhri State Islamic University were involved. Using cluster random sampling, two intact classes were selected: Class C (n = 40) as the experimental group and Class A (n = 40) as the control group. The experimental group received writing instruction based on the process-product approach, while the control group received conventional instruction. Critical thinking and report writing skills were assessed through pre- and post-tests, and the data were analyzed using paired-samples and independent-samples t-tests. The experimental group showed a significant improvement in critical thinking scores (pre-test M = 69.4, SD = 4.6; post-test M = 83.2, SD = 3.8), compared to the control group (pre-test M = 68.9, SD = 4.3; post-test M = 74.5, SD = 4.1), t(78) = 8.21, p < .001. Report writing scores also improved significantly in the experimental group (M = 85.0, SD = 3.7) versus the control group (M = 76.2, SD = 4.0), t(78) = 10.27, p < .001. The most notable gains were inference, evaluation, organization, and argument clarity. These findings support using the process-product approach to enhance critical thinking and writing skills in EFL academic contexts.