A Study Of Correlation Between Writing Anxiety, Writing Strategies And English Writing Achievements On Senior Middle School Students

Language anxiety and language learning strategies, as important affective and cognitive variables in the process of L2 acquisition, play vital role on the effects of second language acquisition. Writing is an important part of English learning. There have been numerous studies that have shown the influence of the degree of writing anxiety and the use frequency of strategies on the effect of English writing proficiency. However, few studies refer to the correlation between English writing anxiety and writing strategies. What’s more, most of research subjects of the correlation study are college students, but little about senior middle school students. Hence, the present study aims to investigate correlations between writing anxiety, writing strategies and English writing achievements on senior middle school students.In order to answer the above research questions, the author investigates 105 senior middle school students from a country high school in the city of Yu lin. Firstly, in order to make sure the reliability of the questionnaires, the pilot studies of English writing questionnaire and strategy questionnaire have been conducted respectively. Only after the pilot studies produce satisfactory results, can the two questionnaires be applied to the formal investigation and research. Through carrying out the writing anxiety and strategy questionnaires and English writing test for subjects, the empirical data is collected. SPSS 17.0 is employed to conduct descriptive analysis and correlation analysis. Moreover, in order to make a further explanation for the causes of English writing anxiety, 6 students are randomly selected to take an interview. The results of the interview are collated and summarized.The findings of the present study can be finally drawn that 1) senior middle school students commonly experience a moderate level of English writing anxiety. The anxiety component what they most frequently experience is avoidance behavior, followed by cognitive anxiety, and somatic anxiety is seldom experienced. English writing test, poor writing skills, and fear of negative evaluation are main causes of English writing anxiety; senior middle school students achieve a moderate level of use frequency of English writing strategies. With regard to the use frequency of writing strategies in different stages, senior middle school students most frequently employ while-stage strategies, followed by pre-stage strategies. Revising-stage strategies are least frequently employed by senior middle school students. As for the individual strategies in pre-writing stage, meta-cognitive strategies are employed more frequently than cognitive strategies. As for the individual strategies in while-writing stage, compensation strategies are most frequently employed by senior middle school students while the memory strategy is seldom used. As for the individual strategies in revising-stage, social strategies are most frequently employed by senior middle school students while affective strategies are least frequently used; Senior middle school students make a moderate level of English writing achievements, and the level of English achievements are not distributed evenly. 2) English writing anxiety significantly correlates negatively with English writing achievements. Among the three components of writing anxiety, avoidance behavior and somatic anxiety most obviously correlate negatively with English writing achievements; the use of English writing strategies has a positive correlation with English writing achievements. Revising-writing strategies most obviously correlate positively with English writing achievements; English writing anxiety significantly correlates negatively with the use of writing strategies. Pre-writing strategies and revising strategies most significantly correlate negatively with the writing anxiety when writing in English. The present study indicates that senior middle school students’ English writing anxiety can be reduced by using of writing strategies especially pre-writing strategies and revising-writing strategies, which can further improve students’ English writing achievements.