A Correlational Study Of Senior High School Students’ English Writing Self-Efficacy, Writing Apprehension And Writing Achievement

Since the 1970 s, second language researchers have gradually transferred their attention from “teaching methods” to “learners’ individual differences”. As one of the most important individual differences, the emotion of learners is attracting more and more attention. English writing is the skill that can embody students’ comprehensive English ability, so their emotion in the process of writing should be noticed. Moreover, senior high school students’ average writing scores 15.28 and 14.97 are not satisfying in the college entrance examination in 2013 and 2014 in Hebei province. Therefore, this research investigates the correlation of senior high school students’ English writing self-efficacy, English writing apprehension and English writing achievement.Five research questions are answered. 1) What are status quos of senior high students’ English writing self-efficacy, writing apprehension and writing achievement respectively? 2) What is the relationship of English writing self-efficacy and writing apprehension and writing achievement? 3) Is there any difference in writing self-efficacy and writing apprehension between different genders? 4) Is there any difference in writing achievement among different levels of writing self-efficacy and writing apprehension? 5) Whether writing self-efficacy and writing apprehension can predict writing achievement? If can, which is the stronger predictor? And how do they affect writing achievement?The study employs the method of empirical research with two questionnaires as instruments to collect quantitative data and the average of three times of English writing scores as subjects’ English writing achievement to investigate the research questions. 171 senior one students from three parallel classes engaged in this research. The collected data was processed by Statistical Package for the Social Sciences(SPSS 17.0). The statistics methods are following. 1) Descriptive analysis was employed to describe the status quos of senior high school students’ writing self-efficacy, writing apprehension and writing achievement respectively. 2) Pearson correlation analysis was used to explore the relationship of writing self-efficacy and writing apprehension and writing achievement. 3) Independent-Sample T Test was employed to examine the difference in writing self-efficacy and writing apprehension between genders. 4) One-Way ANOVA analysis was employed to examine the difference in writing achievement among different levels of writing self-efficacy and writing apprehension. 5) Multiple Regression Analysis was used to explore the predictor of writing achievement, and the path analysis was employed to explore the way of their influence on writing achievement.Based on these methods of data statistics, the findings are following. 1) The senior high school students’ writing self-efficacy is in the medium level. Their writing apprehension is in the medium level. Their writing achievement is also in medium level----a little higher than the passing grade. 2) Writing self-efficacy is significantly positive correlated with writing achievement; writing apprehension is significantly negative correlated with writing achievement; writing self-efficacy is significantly negative correlated with writing apprehension. 3) There is no significant difference in writing self-efficacy and writing apprehension between different genders. 4) There is the significant difference in writing achievement among different levels of writing self-efficacy and writing apprehension. 5) Writing self-efficacy is a predictor of writing achievement, and writing apprehension cannot predict writing achievement. Writing self-efficacy could influence writing achievement directly, and writing apprehension influences indirectly writing achievement by the mediating of writing self-efficacy.In the end, some pedagogical implications on English writing are provided based on this research in the aim of improving students’ writing proficiency.