This paper investigates the applicability and accuracy of existing formulation methods in general purpose finite element programs to the finite strain deformation problems. The basic shortcomings in using such programs in these applications are then pointed out and the need for a different type of formulation is discussed. An arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) method is proposed and a concise survey of ALE formulation is given. A consistent and complete ALE formulation is derived from the virtual work equation transformed to arbitrary computational reference configurations. Differences between the proposed formulations and similar ones in the literature are discussed. The proposed formulation presents a general approach to ALE method. It includes load correction terms and is suitable for rate-dependent and rate-independent material constitutive law. The proposed formulation reduces to both updated Lagrangian and Eulerian formulations as special cases.