Effects of Process-Genre Approach on Writing Anxiety among English Academic Writing Learners in Pakistan

Abstract

Writing ability is a prerequisite to be successful in academic pursuits. Pakistani student writers experience a range of issues, including psychological, cognitive, social, and linguistic when they write. Writing instructors need to use appropriate teaching strategies and methodologies to tackle writing-related issues (Khan & Zaki, 2018). Most of the Pakistani ESL writing students are educated through the stereotypical teacher-centered Product Approach focuses on the memorization of ready-made answers. As a result, the learners face great challenges; ESL writing Anxiety is one of the major challenges (Gopang, Bughio, & Pathan, 2018). The aim of this quasi-experimental study based on predominantly the post-positivist and the marginally pragmatic philosophical framework is to explore the effects of the Process-Genre Approach (PGA) on writing anxiety among ESL intermediate/pre-university students in Pakistan. The research tools were included to collect data: Second Language Writing Anxiety Inventory (SLWAI), 22-item multidimensional questionnaire, and interviews to investigate the effects of the experiment on writing apprehensions. Data were collected before and after the designed academic writing module based on the Process-Genre approach and pair sample t-test was applied to yield statistically significant results showing that average writing anxiety score was reduced from 77.17 to 66.72 among control group and from 73.57 to 50.25 among the experimental group. Quantities data collected through interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis also supplement that the treatment was effective to reduce writing anxiety.