Research On Model High School Students’ English Writing Anxiety In Hubei Province

English Curriculum Standards for Senior Middle Schools was promulgated by Chinese Ministry of Education in2003. It emphasizes the cultivation of students’comprehensive language abilities, including language skills, language knowledge, emotion and attitude, learning strategies and cultural awareness. The notion of paying attention to students’affective factors, improving their humanistic quality is also advocated in the new curriculum standards. In addition, the focus of foreign language education has shifted from studying how teachers teach to how students learn. Affective factor as one of the most important elements influencing the results of learning receives more and more attention. Researchers indicate that compared with other factors anxiety is one of the most crucial affective variables. In recent years relevant studies at home have broadened in language-skill-specific anxiety. Compared with other skills, studies of English writing anxiety don’t receive much attention. There is great room to investigate English writing anxiety among high school students, which will provide suggestions and guidance for reforming English teaching as well as reducing students’English writing anxiety.Questionnaire, English writing tasks and interview are adopted to collect data. The subjects are132Grade Two students from Xiaogan Senior Middle School. The questionnaire used in this study is based on consulting and slightly modifying of Cheng’s (2004) and Guo Yan&Qin Xiaoqing’s (2010) questionnaires. The English Writing Anxiety Questionnaire includes four factors, they are classroom teaching anxiety, conceiving anxiety, avoidance behavior and confidence towards English writings.Three research questions addressed in the present study are as follows:1. What is the general situation of English writing anxiety among model high school students in Hubei province?2. Is there any correlation between students’English writing anxiety and their English writing achievement? If yes, how are the two associated with each other? 3. Is there any gender difference in the perceiving of overall English writing anxiety and its four factors?Findings of the study can be summarized as follows:1. English writing anxiety commonly exists among high school students, the frequency of avoidance behavior is up to the highest level.2. Both the general English writing anxiety and the four subcategories are negatively correlated with subjects’English writing achievements.3. Although there doesn’t exist significant gender difference in the perceiving of English writing anxiety, males are more apprehensive about English writing than their female counterparts are.Answers drawn from interview reveal that the causes of English writing anxiety lie in:1. Lack of writing knowledge and skills;2. Misconception about writing;3. Fear of negative evaluation;4. Insufficient quantity of writing practice;5. Students’confidence towards finishing a writing task.Based on the findings, the thesis tries to put forward some suggestions for reforming English writing teaching in high schools and reducing high school students’English writing anxiety.For English teachers, they should:1. Endow writing practice with communicative and practical significance;2. Pay attention to the process of prewriting;3. Change the roles of teachers;4. Adjust the content of evaluation of writing;5. Change the ways of evaluation of writing;6. Cultivate students’positive attitude towards writing.For students, they should:1. Increase the frequency of English writing practice;2. Form proper understanding about English writing;3. Increase the quantity of input.