Interrelationships Of Non-English Majors' EFL Writing Anxiety,Writing Strategies And Writing Achievements

College English Curriculum Requirements(2007)proposed that college non-English majors should possess basic ability and skill in English writing.In recent years,writing has always been the emphasis of college English instruction;students,however,have made few improvements in their English writing ability(Wang Haixiao 2014).It is pointed out that affective factors play an important role in English writing(Wang Lifei 2005),among which,anxiety is the main impedimental one(Oxford 1999).Ellis's(1994)L2 acquisition model and MacIntyre's(1994)SPMSU further manifest that anxiety,not working alone,exerts influences on L2 performance by affecting learners' strategy use.Based on these conditions,the present study is designed to investigate the interrelationships of English writing anxiety,writing strategies and writing achievements demonstrated by Chinese non-English majors.The research questions are presented as follows.(1)What are the characteristics of English writing anxiety and writing strategy use manifested by non-English majors?(2)What are the differences in English writing anxiety and writing strategy use demonstrated by high and low English writing proficiency groups?(3)What are the correlations between English writing anxiety,writing strategy use and writing achievements?(4)What are the predictive effects among English writing anxiety,writing strategy use and writing achievements?Employing quantitative questionnaire survey and English writing test,the present study adopted Guo Yan&Qin Xiaoqing's(2010)revised version of Cheng's(2004)SLWAI,Petric&Czarl's(2003)SLWSQ and English writing scores as the research instruments to collect data from 260 non-English major sophomores in SWJTU.The collected data were processed with SPSS 20 for Descriptive Statistics,Independent Samples T-test,Pearson Correlation Analysis and Path Analysis.The results are concluded as follows.(1)Non-English major students moderately experience English writing anxiety,among which,avoidance behavior is the most experienced one,reaching high anxiety level;lack of confidence comes the second at a moderate level;conceiving anxiety and classroom anxiety respectively ranks the third and the last,both experienced at a low level.In terms of English writing strategies,they are moderately applied.Among the four subcategories,compensation strategy is employed most frequently at a high level;metacognitive strategy and cognitive strategy are both moderately employed;social-affective strategy ranks the last,applied at a low frequency.(2)Non-English major students of high and low English writing proficiency groups manifest differences in English writing anxiety degree and the frequency of strategy use.Low proficiency writers experience a higher degree of English writing anxiety,including avoidance behavior,lack of confidence and conceiving anxiety;no significant difference is observed in students' classroom anxiety.Compared with low proficiency writers,those of high proficiency apply English writing strategies more frequently,including metacognitive strategy,cognitive strategy and social-affective strategy;in terms of compensation strategy,no significant difference is revealed.(3)Non-English major students' English writing anxiety,including avoidance behavior,lack of confidence and conceiving anxiety are significantly negatively correlated with their writing achievements.Nevertheless,a significant positive correlation is revealed between English writing achievements and strategy use,including the use of metacognitive strategy,cognitive strategy and social-affective strategy.In addition,students' English writing anxiety significantly negatively correlates with their use of writing strategies.Specifically,avoidance behavior is found significantly negatively correlated with the use of metacognitive strategy,cognitive strategy and social-affective strategy,whereas it manifests a significant positive correlation with compensation strategy;metacognitive strategy is significantly negatively correlated with all the four writing anxiety subcategories.(4)Non-English major students' English writing anxiety and writing strategy use are both direct predictors of writing achievements.Writing anxiety imposes a negative predictive effect on writing achievements,while writing strategy use exerts a positive one.Furthermore,students' writing anxiety is revealed directly and negatively predicting their use of writing strategies.Therefore,besides the direct effect of writing anxiety on writing achievements,there is also an indirect effect between them mediated by writing strategy application.The results show that non-English majors' English writing anxiety impedes their use of writing strategies and their improvements in writing achievements,while writing strategies play a facilitating role in English writing.It is hoped that this paper will help college English teachers realize the general condition and the importance of students' English writing anxiety,so that the negative influences of English writing anxiety on writing strategy application and writing performance can be reduced through employing appropriate teaching methods and strategy training plans.In this way,students' confidence and interest in English can also be activated.