The Effects Of Reading-to-Write Task On Writing Anxiety And Writing Achievement

The reading-to-write task has been widely adopted by many large-scale examinations at home and abroad,and it is also one of the hottest research topics.The previous researches on the kind of writing tasks mainly focused on writing quality,but few studies discussed the effects of reading-to-write tasks on anxiety.In this study,two empirical studies(Study One and Study Two)were conducted to explore the effects of reading-to-write tasks on writing anxiety and writing achievement by questionnaire investigation,language assessment and depth interview,aiming at expanding the application research in this field,and providing scientific basis for teachers to improve their teaching.Study One aims to answer the following two questions:1.What effects does the reading-to-write task have on the students’ writing anxiety compared to the independent writing?2.What effects does the reading-to-write task have on the students’ writing achievement compared to the independent writing?Study Two aims to answer the following two questions:1.What effects does the difficulty of the reading material in the reading-to-write task have on the students’ writing anxiety?2.What effects does the difficulty of the reading material in the reading-to-write task have on the students’ writing achievement?In order to get a profound understanding,two empirical studies were conducted to explore the effects of reading-to-write tasks on writing anxiety and writing achievement from different perspectives.Study One is a comparative study between the reading-to-write task and the traditional independent writing task.200 non-English major postgraduates from Lanzhou Jiaotong University were selected as the participants(100 in the Independent Group and 100 in the Reading-to-Write Group).Before the experiment,the independent sample t-test showed that there was no significant difference in writing proficiency(p>0.05)and in writing anxiety(P>0.05)between two groups.In the experiment,the participants in the Independent Group completed the independent writing,while the participants in the Reading-to-Write Group completed the reading-to-write task.The participants in both groups responded to the Questionnaires of Anxiety in English Writing immediately after writing.The results of independent sample t-test revealed writing achievement in the Reading-to-Write Group was significantly higher than that of the Independent Group(p<0.05),writing anxiety in the Reading-to-Write Group was significantly lower than that in the Independent Group(p<0.05).The results of paired sample t-test showed writing anxiety has decreased significantly from 2.97 to 2.54 within the Reading-to-Write Group(p < 0.05),while there was no significant difference within the Independent Group(p>0.05).These results imply that the reading-to-write task has a positive effect on improving writing achievement and alleviating writing anxiety.Study Two is to investigate whether reading materials with different difficulties in reading-to-write tasks can affect students’ writing anxiety and writing achievement.100non-English major postgraduates from Lanzhou Jiaotong University participated in this experiment(50 in the High Difficulty Group and 50 in the Low Difficulty Group).Before the experiment,the independent sample t-test showed that there was no significant difference in writing proficiency(p >0.05)and writing anxiety(p >0.05)between two groups.During the experiment,the participants in two groups finished reading-to-write tasks with different difficulties of reading materials respectively.After that,they all completed the Questionnaires of Anxiety in English Writing immediately.The results of independent sample t-test revealed writing achievement in the High Difficulty Group was significantly lower than that of the Low Difficulty Group(p < 0.05),and writing anxiety in the High Difficulty Group was significantly higher than that in the Low Difficulty Group(p<0.05),further conforming that reading materials with low difficulty were more effective than reading materials with high difficulty for learners to improve their writings.We selected four participants from each group in Study One and three participants from each of the two groups in Study Two to join the semi--structured interview.The findings can be summarized as follows: 1)Compared with the independent writing,the reading-to-write task can significantly alleviate learners’ anxiety and improve their writing achievements.The main reasons are that the background information and opinions given in the reading material provide examples and templates for learners,stimulate the existing content schema in their brains,and increase their writing motivation and desire.2)In the reading-to-write task,the reading material with low difficulty can make students feel less anxious and get better writing achievements than the reading material with high difficulty.Within the limited time,reading materials with clear idea,language,structure will provide learners with great help.