A Correlational Study Between Writing Anxiety And The Use Of Writing Strategy Of Chinese English Majors

Foreign language writing research is a rapidly growing area in the field of second language acquisition. In the last few decades a great body of literature has been created in this field. Despite of the considerable studies of foreign language writing, however, relatively little research has been completed related to foreign language writing anxiety and the use of writing strategy, let alone the research concerning their relationship,In other words, the research linking to the relationship between foreign language writing anxiety and the use of writing strategy is still open to further investigation.On the basis of the former relevant researches on the relationship between language learning anxiety and the use of language strategy at home and abroad, and with the help of Cheng’s second language writing anxiety inventory (2004) and Petric and Czarl’s writing strategy questionnaire (2003), the author conducts a study to investigate the characteristic of English writing anxiety and the use of English writing strategy by231Chinese English major students from Guangxi Normal University, and to determine if there exist a linear relationship between students’ English writing anxiety and their use of writing strategy. Analysis results of the study suggest that1) English major students suffer just moderate level of writing anxiety. Specifically, avoidance behavior ranks the highest, sequenced by cognitive anxiety and somatic anxiety.2) Students from different grades suffer the same degree of anxiety when writing in English.3) Students with favorable attitude suffer less writing anxiety than those with negative attitude.4) English major students receive moderate frequency use of writing strategy. Specifically, they favor planning strategy mostly, then come revising strategy and while-writing strategy.5) The frequency use of English writing strategy increase as students advance to higher level.6) Students with positive attitude use while-writing and revising strategies more than those having negative attitude, while no difference is observed in planning strategy.7) Students with high English writing anxiety receive lower frequency use of English writing strategy than those with low anxiety.This study provides many insights about English writing anxiety, the use of English writing strategy and the relationship between the two, which might facilitate future researches in this direction.