A Study Of English Writing Anxiety Of Senior High School Students

In College Entrance English Examination, score of English writing accounts for a large proportion of the total English score. Although there are some reformations on exam patterns in College Entrance English Examination, the English writing is kept unchanged, which proves the importance of English writing. However, the situation of English teaching is not optimistic, and little attention is paid on English writing. Students experience writing anxiety during the process of writing. English Curriculum Standards for Senior Middle Schools(2003) raises requirements on emotion and attitude and advocates paying more attention on students' affective factors and improving their humanistic quality. Anxiety, as one of emotional factors influencing English learning, has important influences on English writing.Therefore, English writing anxiety should be given more and more attention to. In the relevant study of English writing anxiety, the comparative study is relatively less, especially, the comparison on English writing anxiety between key classes and ordinary classes.This study investigated the situation of English writing anxiety of students in Affiliated Middle school to Inner Mongolia Normal University which will provide suggestions and guidance for improving English writingteaching as well as reducing students' English writing anxiety.Questionnaire and interview were applied to collect data and conduct study. The writer took 400 students as research subjects which include 200 students from key classes and 200 from ordinary class in Grade One and Grade Two.The research questions are as follows:(1)What's the general degree of English writing anxiety of students in Affiliated Middle school to Inner Mongolia Normal University?(2) What are the differences on the degree of English writing anxiety between students in key classes and those in ordinary classes?(3) What are the reasons causing students experience English writing anxiety?The findings of this study are presented in the following.(1) Students in Affiliated Middle School to Inner Mongolia Normal University experience a moderate-level anxiety in English writing. They have a low degree on somatic anxiety, a moderate level on cognitive anxiety and avoidance behavior.(2) Students in key classes and ordinary classes experience a moderate-level English writing anxiety, and the general English writing anxiety of students in ordinary classes was higher than those in key classes.And there are highly significant differences on the general writing anxiety between key classes and ordinary classes. In terms of somatic anxiety,students in key classes have low degree on somatic anxiety, a moderate degree for students in ordinary classes; in terms of cognitive anxiety and avoidance behavior, both students in key classes and ordinary classes experience with a moderate degree. No matter in key classes or ordinary classes, the degree of avoidance behavior is the highest among the three dimensions. In addition, on the three dimensions, there are highly significant differences between key classes and ordinary classes.(3) The main reasons causing students' English writing anxiety are the misconceptions on English writing and the lack of English writing knowledge and skills.Finally, according to the results, the related suggestions are proposed to reduce students' English writing anxiety.