A Study Of Anxiety In The English Writings By Chinese EFL Learners

In EFL teaching & learning process, the study of anxiety has been an academic focus. More specifically, whether or not the students'attitude towards writing would bring influence on the level of students'writing has been another concern for researchers. If the anxiety does really matter, then how and to what extent it might impact on the scores of students'writings? Will it be positive or negative, or both? The present study aims to do research into the influence on the students'anxiety and writing level which was brought by teachers'feedback.The present study has analyzed the writings of two classes of non-English majors and different feedback from the teachers, aiming to reveal the necessary relation between teachers'feedback and students'anxiety.Data for this study come from two classes of students who would be required to write English compositions on 8 different topics in 16 weeks of one semester. The first experiment consists of 48 students of non-English majors from one class, divided into two groups. Each group consists of 24 students, who would receive different feedback and comments from their teachers in a period of 16 weeks continuously in the same semester; and the second experiment includes 24 non-English majors from another class, also divided into two groups. Each group contains 12 students, with one group having feedback both from their peers in the same group and from their teachers, and with the other group only having feedback from the teachers. The experiment lasts 16 weeks continuously in the same semester. The purpose of this study is to discover the different response of anxiety and the efforts on their writing level from the students who experienced the different ways of feedback. In this study, the author tends to achieve some thought-provoking data in a scientific way. In order to achieve this aim, instruments of teachers'feedback, peers'feedback, questionnaire, observation, interviews and conferencing are all employed.The main findings of the present study are listed in the following:1). The influence of teachers'feedback on students'level of writing is apparent.