I think it is not a question of which of the two I prefer, I guess it is a matter of which I and the students feel more comfortable with. And I feel more comfortable with the product-oriented approach..after all, it is the way I was taught at school too! I teach ESO students and I feel they still need a model to follow unless their English is really good and with those models, they feel more confident...This doesn't mean I never use the process-oriented approach..my idea of learning is that the more they produce, the better, and this applies for any of the skills..so if they want to be creative, let them be creative! Of course, only the really good ones will skip the models and use their own models.
As for discussion topic number 2, teaching children is not the same as helping young students before an exam. When students prepare for exams, accuracy, maturity, fluency and good grammar are very important because all of those characteristics will be graded.