Writing anxiety and self-regulation strategies among medical English students

Abstract

Writing is often regarded as the most challenging skill. Writing anxiety often hinders the improvement of learners’ writing quality and achievement. Many studies have focused on writing anxiety related to learning a foreign language. However, limited research has been done on the use of self-regulation strategies to overcome anxiety. As an essential emotional factor, anxiety is of great significance in language learning. Hence, this study aims to investigate the extent of writing anxiety and the use of self-regulation strategies to understand college students’ writing anxiety and self-regulation strategies to reduce writing anxiety and improve writing performance. A quantitative method was employed to investigate medical English students’ writing anxiety and self-regulation strategies in China. A total of 156 students from a medical university in Ningxia, China, was randomly selected to participate in the survey. The research findings revealed that medical English students’ writing anxiety is widespread, and the majority of students experience high writing anxiety, while the use of self-regulation strategies is at an average level. It was found that students’ use of self-regulation strategies generally decreased with increasing anxiety levels. This study sheds light on writing anxiety among medical English university students, raises awareness among instructors, and improves learners’ writing ability.