A Study Of The Correlation Of English Proficiency And Learning Motivation With Writing Anxiety

It is generally acknowledged that motivation and anxiety are regarded as two important affective factors in second language acquisition (SLA). Students with different English proficiency or different learning motivations vary with their English writing anxiety, and differences in English proficiency and learning motivation can influence writing anxiety.Though there has been plenty of research in recent years to investigate the influence of motivation and anxiety on the learning of English, research on the correlation of college students' English proficiency and learning motivation with writing anxiety was not so much. Based on this, the present thesis is intended to investigate the correlation of the college students' English proficiency and learning motivation with writing anxiety.The data of the present study was gathered from 141 third-year college students in three universities in Shandong Province. Through data analysis, results and findings of the present study are as follows: there was significant correlation between English proficiency and writing anxiety; English proficiency was significantly and negatively correlated with writing anxiety and the students' extrinsic motivation was also negatively correlated with writing anxiety. With regard to genders, male students and female students represented significant differences in English proficiency and writing anxiety. Finally, there were significant differences in English proficiency, learning motivation and writing anxiety between students with high English proficiency and students with low English proficiency.Grounded on the above results and findings, the present thesis proposed some beneficial suggestions for English writing. Teachers should improve students' self-confidence by improving their English proficiency and enhancing their intrinsic motivation, develop cooperative learning and give positive feedback and encouragement to alleviate their writing anxiety in the learning of English writing. Besides, good relationship with students and a harmonious learning environment are also very important for the students to achieve better learning effects. For the students, they should improve their English proficiency and cultivate their interests in learning English to further achieve the goal of improving their writing ability. Limitations and suggestions for further research are presented finally.