Level Of Writing Anxiety Research Articles

A Thorough Investigation into Foreign Language Writing Anxiety in a Turkish EFL Context

This study sought to investigate foreign language (L2) writing anxiety of Turkish students learning English as a foreign language (EFL) by focusing on the L2 writing anxiety levels; the prevailing types, perceived causes and effects of L2 writing anxiety; and the strategies that students employed to alleviate L2 writing anxiety. The study adopted a convergent parallel mixed-methods design consisting of a quantitative survey and qualitative open-ended interviews with the students studying at English Language and Literature undergraduate program at a state university in Türkiye. A total of 138 students responded to the questionnaire and eight volunteers among them were interviewed face to face. The survey data were analysed through descriptive and inferential statistics while interview records were analysed through thematic analysis. The findings converged on the point that the students displayed high levels of L2 writing anxiety and that time constraints and assessment orientation were the prominent factors leading to anxiety. The students’ L2 writing anxiety varied significantly across perceived L2 proficiency levels, demonstrating higher-level anxiety for the students reporting themselves as less proficient L2 users. Based on the interview reports, the student-perceived causes and effects of writing anxiety as well as the factors and relieving strategies were identified. Finally, recommendations for more effective strategies for alleviating English language learners’ L2 writing anxiety were discussed.

“ I Get Blank When I Start Writing’’ Analysis of EFL Student’s Anxiety in Writing Descriptive Text

In various educational worlds, of course, we learn foreign languages, one of which is English. English is challenging and can cause anxiety, one of which is in writing. English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners often face many challenges when it comes to developing their writing skills. The recent research aims to discuss EFL students’ anxiety in writing descriptive text. This study used narrative inquiry. A narrative inquiry explore the experiences and feelings of an EFL students’ writing anxiety. The research participants are two students. These two students were taken from 1 Senior high school student and one was taken from Junior high school. Data collection uses semi-structured interview with 45 minutes. The interviews were held at a private Islamic boarding school in Probolinggo East Java. Data Analysis uses thematic Analysis. The results of this study reveal that students' writing anxiety level is still relatively high, therefore, teacher motivation and guidance to students must be increased so that students can deal with or evaluate writing anxiety experienced by students. Finally, in learning English as a second language (ESL), it is important for students to have adequate vocabulary knowledge so that they are not confused and anxious to write English texts.

Writing anxiety among international students in a Thai university

Literature on writing anxiety among undergraduate students in international universities situated in English as a foreign language context remains scarce. In this study, a survey questionnaire was distributed to know the writing anxiety level of students and anxiety level differences based on nationality and locality. A total of 138 students participated using convenience sampling. Afterward, five students, based on their writing anxiety level, were purposely chosen to attend two sorting activities of statements regarding the change in their writing anxiety. Then, individual semi-structured interviews were conducted to know the factors of writing anxiety change. Descriptive results from the survey have shown that students in an international university experienced high anxiety in specific situations in writing. Also, varying writing anxiety levels were found based on nationality and locality. Findings from the sorting activity indicated that some writing anxiety-provoking situations have changed over a 2-week time frame due to some factors. Some implications for teaching were recommended to reduce writing anxiety in the classroom.

Students’ Perceptions Toward Feedback from Their Teachers and Peers in Writing Activities by Considering Their Writing Anxiety

The objective of this study was to investigate the perceptions of students with varying levels of writing anxiety regarding the learning activities associated with using teacher feedback and peer feedback. The present study utilized a quantitative approach for data collection. The quantitative data were obtained through a survey administered to 46 students in the English Department of a state Islamic University. The quantitative data were subsequently analyzed using descriptive statistics, specifically percentages and frequency, and non-parametric analysis employing the Mann-Whitney test. The findings indicated no statistically significant difference in the perceptions of students who experienced writing anxiety and received instruction through either teacher or peer feedback. Essentially, students who demonstrate lower levels of writing anxiety display a cheerful disposition towards the incorporation of both teacher feedback and peer feedback. During the intervening period, discernible differences arose in the viewpoints of students demonstrating heightened writing anxiety levels who were provided with instructions through teacher feedback instead of peer feedback

The Effect of Indonesian EFL Senior High School Students’ Anxiety on Their Writing Achievement in Explanation Text

Abstract. Writing is considered to be one of the most challenging skills to learn. Accordingly, some issues appeared and may be faced by the students while writing. One of the writing issues that can be a serious problem is writing anxiety. Hence, in this study, the researcher tried to find out the eleven graders students' writing anxiety levels and investigate the significant difference of writing anxiety on students' writing achievement in an explanation text writing. This study used quantitative approach with ex-post facto research design. The researcher conducted this study at one of the public senior high schools in Gresik. There were 30 eleven graders taken as subjects from one class. Then, to gather the data, two instruments were used. First were the Second Language Writing Anxiety Inventory (SLWAI) close-ended questionnaires. Second was students' writing scores in an explanation text writing. To analyze the data, the researcher used both descriptive statistics and inferential statistics (ANOVA). The results found that the eleven grades’ students had a moderate level of writing anxiety. And the somatic anxiety was dominant had by them. Another result revealed that there is no significant difference in each type of writing anxiety on the students' writing achievement in explanation text. And only cognitive anxiety had a moderate size effect on the student's scores. So, based on this study, the writing anxiety did not influence whether the students succeed in their explanation text writing. Keywords: Writing Anxiety, Writing Achievement, Explanation Text

Understanding the interplay between text quality, writing self-efficacy and writing anxiety in learners with and without migration background.

Writing presents considerable challenges to students' motivation. Yet there is a dearth of studies assessing the role of affect and motivation in writing performance for students with migration backgrounds (MB), who often underachieve in writing. Our study addressed this research gap by investigating the interplay between writing self-efficacy, writing anxiety, and text quality in 208 secondary students with and without MB using Response Surface Analyses. The data showed comparable levels of self-efficacy and, notably, lower writing anxiety levels among students with MB despite lower writing achievements. In the full sample, we observed positive correlations between self-efficacy and text quality and negative correlations between writing anxiety and text quality. When modeling efficacy and anxiety measures and their interplay to predict text quality, self-efficacy measures continued to account for statistically detectable unique variance in text quality, whereas writing anxiety did not. However, students with MB demonstrated differing interplay patterns, with less efficacious students with MB showing positive relations between writing anxiety and text quality.

An Investigation into Preparatory Class EFL Students’ L2 Writing Anxiety

The current paper aims to investigate foreign language (L2) writing anxiety levels of Turkish EFL students with regard to their foreign
 language writing performance, gender, age and language level. The participants were 120 preparatory class students from A1, A2, and
 B1 levels at a state university in Turkey. The data were collected through an inventory, namely The Second Language Writing Anxiety
 Inventory by Cheng (2004a), and midterm and final exam scores. According to the results of statistical procedures, it was found that
 43.3% of the participants had high levels of foreign language writing anxiety while 34.2% of them had moderate and 22.5% of them had
 low anxiety levels. Additionally, the participants from A1 level had the highest level of writing anxiety (M=68.5). Furthermore, it was
 revealed that females had higher anxiety levels than males. The results from multiple regression analysis indicated that all variables together
 accounted for 23.3% of variance. Writing anxiety was significantly predicted by gender (β = -.33, p

Students’ essay writing anxiety: A narrative study of Indonesian tertiary EFL learners

Recent years, numerous studies across the world have examined EFL learners’ writing anxiety through their writing test. Yet, there is limited study on investigating learners’ anxiety in essay writing, particularly contextualized in Indonesia. Viewed from the lens of narrative study, this article explores the lived-experience of the university students’ essay writing anxiety situated in a private university in the eastern Java, Indonesia. Two students enrolled in “Critical Essay Writing” Course (KBI112) volunteered to be involved in the study. Grounded in the thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006) as an analytic lens, findings indicate that the major factors significantly contribute to learners’ essay writing anxiety include: low level writing skill and confidence; learners’ self-efficacy; self-esteem; lack of grammatical knowledge; gender; instructor’s negative feedback; and writing motivation level. Empirical data also reveals that the students with higher writing anxiety level tend to produce low quality writing products and vice versa. This empirical evidence suggests that both teachers and students are highly required to intensify their efforts to create positive learning environment that can make the students to manage their feelings so that they can produce the better quality of essay writing products. This article also discusses pedagogical implications for classrooms and further research, limitations and recommendations.

The Effects of Emotional Intelligence of the Foreign Students Learning Turkish Language on Speaking and Writing Anxiety

Emotional intelligence is expressed as a person's ability to differentiate between oneself and other's emotions, to perceive them, and to act accordingly. The emotions left in the background by the education world, which are based on cognitive skills, have started to take place in education from the perspective of emotional intelligence in recent years. This study aims is to determine the effect of emotional intelligence of foreign students learning Turkish language on speaking and writing anxiety. In this direction, within the framework of emotional intelligence, the effect of teaching Turkish as a foreign language on speaking and writing anxiety has been studied and various determinations have been made. This study is a quantitative study and the method of the research is descriptive field research. The study group consists of 173 volunteers who studied at Inonu University TOMER in the academic year of 2018-2019. It was determined that the emotional intelligence writing and speaking anxiety levels of the students were at an average level. It was determined that as the emotional intelligence levels increased, speaking and writing anxiety decreased in the result of the analysis. In addition, as the duration of the students' stay in Turkey increased, there was an increase in the speaking anxiety level, while no significant difference was shown in the writing anxiety level.

The Investigation of Gifted Students' Speaking and Writing Anxiety Level According to Some Variables

In this study, it is aimed to examine the speaking and writing anxiety levels of gifted students according to various variables. For this purpose, the study group consists of 50volunteer students who continue their education in a Science and Art Center (BİLSEM) in Turkey and come to the school on the days of the study. The study was designed in the survey model and carried out according to the quantitative research method. In the study, the "Speaking Anxiety Scale" developed by Gündüz and Demir (2020) for secondary school students was used to determine the speaking anxiety of gifted students, and the "Writing Anxiety Scale for Secondary School Students" developed by Karakuş Tayşi and Taşkın (2018) was used to determine their writing anxiety. The data were analyzed using the SPSS 26 package program. For analysis, t-Test and One Way Anova Test, which is one-way analysis of variance, were used from parametric tests. As a result of the study, it was determined that the writing and speaking anxiety levels of the gifted students were moderate, and the students do not differ according to their gender, grade level, school type and BİLSEM program they are studying. In the study, it is suggested that more studies should be done on the speaking and writing anxiety of gifted students.

Speaking and Writing Anxiety and Efficacy Beliefs of ESL Students in Spoken and Written Discourse

Students pay importance to their self-efficacy beliefs as an indicator of their language performance. Yet, if students experience trouble in learning and mastering the target language, anxiety is provoked. This study intends to prove and measure the relatedness of speaking and writing achievement to speaking and writing self-efficacy as well as speaking and writing anxiety among selected senior high students in ESL classrooms. It follows a survey-correlational design and adapts the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) and Second Language Writing Anxiety Test (SLWAT) as the data gathering tools. Results of descriptive statistics such as mean, standard deviation, and Factorial MANOVA show that considering the grades, low speaking anxiety is equivalent to low writing anxiety, and high speaking anxiety leads to no significant difference in the writing anxiety of the students. General findings indicate that the speaking and writing anxiety levels of the respondents affect their communicative performance. The study recommends to language teachers the need to re-visit the way they promote the use of the English language as confidence boosters and efficacy builders. This is to inspire students to be more communicatively competent and confident in their strategies to become better language learners.

RETRACTED: The Impact of WebQuest-Based Sheltered Instruction on Improving Academic Writing Skills, Soft Skills, and Minimizing Writing Anxiety

WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented learning tool in which the majority of the information learners interact with, comes from Internet resources, according to Bernie Dodge, who conceived and named the concept (Dodge, 1997). Students are given a job and instructed to do it using Web resources. The current study explores the impact of learning in a sheltered Internet environment, “WebQuest,” on improving the academic writing skills of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) non-native English speakers. It also investigates the impact of using sheltered online instruction on improving the soft skills of EAP language learners. In addition, the study assesses the impact of sheltered online instruction on reducing the writing anxiety levels of writers in the International English Language Testing System (IELTS; Writing Task 1 and 2). To reach such end, three groups of EAP learners were selected to participate in the study adopting three learning styles: sheltered online instruction (the experimental group, 15 ESP university students), unsheltered online instruction (free Google search) (the first control group, 19 students), and sheltered offline instruction (the second control group, 20 students). Instruments used included a sample of the IELTS writing test, Brookings Soft Skills Rating Card, and Second Language Writing Anxiety Inventory (SLWAI). Sequential exploratory mixed method was used as it consists of both quantitative and qualitative data analyses for the elaborate explanation of results. Successive rounds of data analyses showed the plentiful gains of the EAP students in their academic writing skills and the level of their soft skills. It is also revealed that EAP students are not as anxious and reluctant to write as before. In addition, the analysis of the students’ responses to the semi-structured interview revealed that learning in sheltered Internet environments represents an interesting as well as motivating learning experience. Therefore, it is necessary for WebQuest to be implemented as a sheltered online instruction strategy in language learning and to design sheltered Internet environments other than WebQuest to improve the quality of the teaching process.

Improving foreign language writing anxiety and writing performance through Facebook: Evidence from Ecuadorian undergraduate student

Foreign language anxiety refers to the negative feelings that students experience when dealing with a writing assignment. This study aims to find whether the social networking site Facebook can reduce foreign language writing anxiety, thus improving students' assignments quality. The present research uses a mixed methods design to triangulate the data gathered. The quantitative section of the study uses the Second Language Writing Anxiety Inventory to identify writing anxiety levels and the most common type of anxiety experienced by learners. The participants in this study were 29 undergraduate students of the last level of English at a polytechnic university in Guayaquil, Ecuador. The Second Language Writing Anxiety Inventory was administered at the beginning and the end of the intervention to measure the differences. Results suggest that students could lower their anxiety levels. The qualitative section of the investigation relies on a semi-structured interview to get students' opinions on Facebook. It serves to support the results from the quantitative stage of the inquiry. This study is relevant as it shows current data reported from Latin America, which is very scarce. Thus, it bridges a gap in the literature. The study identifies several implications in the administrative area as well as in the practical domain.

A Strategy Based on Scaffolding to Develop EFL Essay Writing and Reduce Writing Anxiety Level among Secondary Stage Students

The current study aimed at investigating the effect of using scaffolding in teaching on developing EFL essay writing and reducing writing anxiety level among secondary stage students. The participants were first year secondary stage students. They were randomly assigned to forty students for the experimental group, and forty-two students for the control group. Three main instruments were used for data collection: writing sub-skills checklist, essay writing test and writing anxiety scale. The experimental group were taught using the proposed strategy based on scaffolding for twelve weeks. Data collected through the pre and post administration of the instruments was subjected to t-test. The results revealed through the post-administration of the essay writing test and the writing anxiety scale showed that the post-performance of the experimental group significantly exceeded its own pre-performance and exceeded the post-performance of the control group. Thus, the results reflected support for the research hypotheses. They proved the positive effect of the strategy on developing EFL essay writing, and reducing writing anxiety among first year secondary stage students.

Investigation of the Writing Anxiety of Syrian Refugees Learning Turkish as a Foreign Language in Turkey

The aim of this study was to determine and investigate the writing anxiety of Syrian refugees learning Turkish as a foreign language in Turkey according to different variables. The study group of the research, in which survey model was used, consisted of 214 Syrian refugees chosen via purposive sampling method and who learn Turkish as a foreign language in Turkey. “Writing Anxiety Scale for Learners of Turkish as a Foreign Language” was used as data gathering tool in the research. In the analysis process, firstly normality test was conducted and it was determined that it indicated normal distribution. Accordingly, t-test was used in pair independent samples, and one-way ANOVA test was used in multi-group comparisons. As a result of the research, it was determined that writing anxiety level of the Syrian refugees learning Turkish as a foreign language (L2) in Turkey, was at medium level and also their writing anxiety was caused by environmental/social factors rather than internal/mental factors. In addition, when the situation was evaluated according to their language levels, it was determined that students at B2 level had the highest level of anxiety; and that using Turkish in social media reduces the action-oriented anxiety of the students. When the participants’ writing anxiety was investigated according to gender, age, and time spent in Turkey it was found that a significant difference was not indicated.

An Analysis of Learners' Autonomous Writing Skills and Writing Anxiety through Qualitative and Quantitative Methods

Araştırmanın amacı; öğrencilerin yazma özerkliği becerileri ve yazma kaygılarını nitel ve nicel yöntemlerle incelemektir. Araştırma süreci iki aşamadan oluşmaktadır. Araştırmanın birinci aşaması nitel yöntemle, ikinci aşaması ise nicel yöntemle yürütülmüştür. Araştırmanın çalışma gruplarını, 2019-2020 eğitim-öğretim yılı güz yarıyılında bir ilin ortaokullarında görev yapan 26 Türkçe öğretmeni ve aynı ilin ortaokullarında öğrenim gören 280 sekizinci sınıf öğrencisi oluşturmaktadır. Araştırmanın verileri; yarı yapılandırılmış görüşme formu, Yazma Özerkliği Ölçeği ve Yazma Kaygısı Ölçeği ile toplanmıştır. Araştırmanın nitel verilerinin analizi, MAXQDA 20 nitel veri analizi programıyla yapılmış ve veriler, içerik analizi tekniği ile çözümlenmiştir. Araştırmanın nicel verilerinin analizi, SPSS 25.0 paket programıyla yapılmış ve veriler, çeşitli istatistik teknikleri kullanılarak çözümlenmiştir. Araştırma ile öğrencilerin yazma özerkliği durumlarının yeterli görülmediği, yazma çalışmalarında yazma kaygıları yaşadıkları, yazma özerkliği ile yazma kaygısı düzeyleri arasında negatif yönlü anlamlı bir ilişkinin olduğu ve yazma kaygısının yazma özerkliğinin anlamlı bir yordayıcısı olduğu sonuçlarına ulaşılmıştır.

Personal factors predicting EFL Learners’ writing anxiety

The present study investigated the relationship between writing anxiety with gender, writing self-efficacy and writing achievement, since this issue is quite common in foreign language classrooms and usually has a negative effect on students’ writing performance. The participants were 21 intermediate level students at a state university in Turkey. An independent samples t-test found no significant difference between the writing anxiety levels of males and females. A statistically significant negative correlation between writing anxiety and writing self-efficacy levels of the students was found in the correlation analysis. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) found a significant difference among three achievement groups regarding their writing anxiety levels. Lastly, the results of the two-way ANOVA indicated a main effect of writing anxiety on students’ actual written competence/skills but there was no main effect of gender. Moreover, the interactional effect of gender and writing anxiety was not statistically significant. These results indicate that although there is no relationship between students' gender and their writing anxiety level, students' writing achievement and writing self-efficacy have an effect on their writing anxiety level. This study also calls for more student-centred and process-oriented approaches in language classrooms.
 
 Keywords: Writing anxiety; gender; writing self-efficacy; writing achievement
 

Survey on EFL Students’ Writing Anxiety: Level, Types, and Causes

This study attempts to investigate the EFL learners’ writing anxiety. Being more specific, the researcher was interested to measure the EFL learners’ writing anxiety levels, to find out types of writing anxieties (i.e., Somatic Anxiety, Cognitive Anxiety, Avoidance Behavior), and elaborate the triggering factors of writing anxiety. The research subjects were 28students who registered for Essay Writing in English Study Program; Two different questionnaires were administered to gather the data; SLWAI questionnaire designed by Cheng (2004) and another questionnaire developed by Zhang (2011). To investigate the level of writing anxiety and its types, the data from the SLWAI questionnaire were analyzed and calculated to find the mean. Moreover, to find out the causes of writing anxiety, the data from the second questionnaire were ranked from 1-7 based on the most chosen items. The findings showed that students experience high level of anxiety (M=65.86, >65). Then the most common type of anxiety was Cognitive Anxiety, and the mean score is 23.9 in which it was the highest of all the types. Furthermore, linguistics difficulties (82%), lack of topical knowledge (68%), and insufficient writing technique (60%) were the dominant sources of students’ writing anxiety

The effect of online gamification on EFL learners' writing anxiety levels: a process-based approach

Writing is one of the most difficult and neglected skills for EFL learners. Gamification, the use of game elements to increase user experience and interest in non-game content, can be used to deal with writing anxiety which is considered as a hindering affective factor in successful language learning. Within this scope, this study aims to investigate the effect of the online gamification tool "˜Edmodo" on EFL learners' writing anxiety levels. The experimental design, one of the quantitative methods, was preferred. Data were collected through a background questionnaire and the Second Language Writing Anxiety Scale, involving 22 items scored on a five-point Likert response scale. Data were analysed with the Statistical Package for Social Sciences software. The results showed that the students who completed the activities and who were graded through Edmodo had significantly lower anxiety levels than the students using the traditional pen and paper. Keywords: Gamification, foreign language, writing, anxiety.

Factors affecting male and female Indonesian EFL students’ writing anxiety

This study is aimed at investigating the writing anxiety levels of foreign language learners and factors affecting the foreign language writing anxiety levels on the learners based on the gender variable. It applies close-ended questionnaires as instruments to collect the data, adopted from Cheng (2004) about Second Language Writing Anxiety Inventory (SLWAI), and Causes of Writing Anxiety Inventory (CWAI) questionnaire adopted from Younas (2014). The results of the study show that Indonesian English learners suffered a mediocre level of English writing anxiety, especially cognitive anxiety as preference. In relation to gender, female students tend to have significantly higher anxiety level than male in terms of writing English compositions. The study reports that both male and female learners suffered from anxiety due to lack of linguistic competence.