ANXIETY AS IT PERTAINS TO EFL WRITING ABILITY AND PERFORMANCE

Abstract

This paper reports the results of a study conducted to find (a) the impact of anxiety on EFL learners' writing performance, and (b) the relationship between anxiety and foreign language writing ability. 137 (N = 137) EFL learners took the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS), the Oxford Placement Test (OPT), and a writing task on a sensitive political topic. Results of the FLCAS were used to assess the participants' degrees of trait, state, and situational anxiety, and OPT scores indicated their proficiency levels. The writing task scores were used as a measure for the participants' writing task performance. Regression and partial correlation analyses were conducted. The findings of the study showed that state anxiety is debilitative whereas situational anxiety and trait anxiety are facilitative. It was concluded that mitigation strategies, discursive textual techniques, and the use of passive voice are in fact triggered by state anxiety rather than by writers' face-saving intentions or their inclination to show politeness.