A Study Of The Effects Of Writing Anxiety On Chinese EFL Students’ English Writing

Writing is one of the basic skills for Chinese EFL learners to master and also one of the most difficult skills for them to learn. As an important affective factor that influences foreign language learning, anxiety has attracted the attention of a great many researchers and educators. However, most of the previous studies at home and abroad focused on the extensive research of general language anxiety. Despite a shift of interest to language-skill-specific-anxiety in recent years, the major concern of researches is speaking and listening. Studies on writing anxiety in foreign language learning have been neglected to a great extent. In particular, there has been little research conducted from the perspective of the effects of writing anxiety on writing achievements measured by analytic scoring. The relationships between writing anxiety and learner variables, including writing attitudes, self-perceived writing proficiency and writing motivations, are seldom explored, too. Given the importance of anxiety to writing and the inadequacy of the previous studies on writing anxiety, the author attempts to carry out a systematic and empirical study of writing anxiety of Chinese EFL students, with emphasis on the effects of writing anxiety on the English writing of non-English majors.The author of the thesis aims to answer the following questions:firstly, to explore the general situation of writing anxiety among Chinese EFL students;secondly, to examine the relationship between writing anxiety and writing achievements measured by holistic scoring and analytic scoring; thirdly, to study the relationship of writing anxiety with writing attitudes, self-perceived writing proficiency and writing motivations; finally, to identify the potential sources of writing anxiety. The participants of the study are92non-English major sophomores at Shandong University. The instruments of the study include Second Language Writing Anxiety Inventory (SLWAI)(Cheng,2004), the Background Questionnaire, writing test and the interviews of nine students. All the data are processed with the help of SPSS17.0. Reliability analysis, descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation analysis and one-way ANOVA are performed respectively on the target samples. The findings of the study indicate that Chinese EFL students commonly experience writing anxiety. It was found that writing anxiety is significantly and negatively correlated with writing achievements. Among the three subscales of SLWAI, Avoidance Behavior and Cognitive Anxiety have higher mean scores than Somatic Anxiety and are more closely associated with writing achievements. There is a significant difference in writing achievements among the high-anxiety group, moderate-anxiety group and low-anxiety group. Moreover, by means of analytic scoring, writing anxiety was found to have a negative influence on the vocabulary, grammar, content and organization of students’ compositions, which is especially obvious for vocabulary and grammar. The scores for vocabulary and grammar exhibit significant differences among three anxiety groups. The results also show that writing anxiety has significant and negative relationships with writing attitudes, self-perceived writing proficiency and writing motivations. Some potential sources are suggested from the interviews, including limited language knowledge, lack of writing strategies, unfamiliar topics, fear of negative evaluation, lack of practice and writing test.At the end of the thesis, some pedagogical implications are offered for English writing teaching, so that teachers and students can realize the impact of writing anxiety on writing achievements and take effective measures to reduce anxiety level and improve writing proficiency. In accordance with the sources of writing anxiety, it is suggested that teachers should make great efforts to improve students’writing proficiency and offer multiple opportunities for students to practice writing. It is also necessary for teachers to build up students’self-confidence, give proper feedback and create a relaxed classroom atmosphere.