Exploring The Correlation Between English Writing Proficiency And Affective Variables Of Non-English Majors

Writing, together with listening, speaking and listening are four important skills to learn a language. Writing is also an indispensable part of second language acquisition. Writers will encounter a lot of trouble when they write either in L1 or L2. While the present College English writing teaching and learning is far more satisfactory. Therefore, the writing process deserves investigation.Many scholars have devoted themselves to finding effective ways to improve the writing ability. As for the influence of affective factors concerned, some researches have been carried out abroad, represented by Daly and Boice, while few studies in the area have ever been run in China. Therefore the thesis will investigate the relationship between affective variables and writing, especially take anxiety and attitude into consideration. The research attempts to answer the following questions: (1) What is the distribution of writing scores according to the assessing criteria? (2) What is the relationship between writing anxiety and writing proficiency? (3) What is the relationship between writing attitude and writing proficiency?The paper first offers a discussion and critique of the previous literature related to the present study. The relevant studies of writing and affect have been reviewed. The terms such as writing, anxiety, and attitude have been defined. The effects of anxiety and attitude on language learning are also examined. Furthermore, input and output filter theory is interpreted to justify the present study.Then the thesis presents the description of the methodology for the study, including subjects, instruments, data collection procedures and analysis methods.Chapter Four provides a detailed description and discussion of the statistical results and findings of the survey in relation to the research questions. The findings are as follows: (1) The participants perform slightly better in their writing assignment. More thanhalf of the participants can achieve the passing point, which is contrary to theprevious conclusions.(2) Writing apprehension, including evaluation, stress, product apprehension, has been experienced in the writing process. Although the correlation coefficient (r=-.3O4, p<.05) is rather weak, correlation does exist between writing apprehension and writing score.(3) Writing attitude influences writing score (r=.269, p<.05) positively. Among the five subscales, attitude, lateness, editing have positive correlation with writing score, while complexity, blocking are negatively correlated with writing score. Moreover, lateness and editing are highly correlated with writing score.It concludes with the summary of the present study. The methodological consideration and pedagogical implications of the study are also put forward. The limitations of the study are also included.