scholarly journals Figuring out the Levels, Types, and Sources of Writing Anxiety Among Undergrad ESL Students in Pakistan

Author(s):  
Atia Ali Solangi ◽  
Sadia Memon ◽  
Shoukat Ali Lohar

Effective English writing skills are essential for students’ academic, professional, and even personal growth. Particularly, in a country where The English language is used as a second language or co-official language. Because Effective writing is considered as an instrument to measure students’ intellectual ability and academic performance. Anxiety/ apprehension can adversely affect students’ English language writing skills due to several factors. The prime objective of this study was to figure out the extent, types, and sources of writing anxiety in undergrad ESL students. 200 ESL undergrad students were selected as the sample for the research study and two survey questionnaires were adopted as a tool for data collection; SLWAI by Cheng (2004) and CWAI by Razaeaia and Jafari (2014). Data analysis indicated that the extent of writing anxiety in undergrad ESL students was moderate and avoidance anxiety was found to be the leading type of anxiety experienced by ESL students. Moreover, fear of writing tests, lack of topic knowledge, pressure for perfection in written work, and fearing of teachers ‘negative comments and evaluations were found as the main sources of writing anxiety in undergrad ESL students.

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-27
Author(s):  
Muhammad Fareed ◽  
Imran Khan ◽  
Huma Akhtar

English language writing skills play a significant role in academic and professional lives in the ESL context. Anxiety can have debilitating effects on learning English language listening, reading, speaking and writing skills. The objective of the current study was to explore the causes of writing anxiety in Pakistani undergraduate ESL students. The data for this study were collected from Pakistani ESL students and English language teachers in Karachi with asample that had both public and private-sector representation. Group interviews were held to collect the data. Interview protocols were designed for the interviews of the students and the teachers and checked for self-validity and expert validity. Three group interviews were carried out with the undergraduate ESL students and two with the ESL English language teachers. All of the interviews were audio recorded and transcribed. Respondent validation technique was used for the transcription and similarly, inter-coder reliability was carried out for respondents’ Urdu translation into English. The findings revealed multiple causes of Pakistani ESL students’ English language writing anxiety.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 115-118
Author(s):  
Shabnam Ismayilova ◽  

Affective factors play an integral role in English language learning. If we want to be successful in teaching language writing, we need to look into these socio-psychological factors of students. There is a correlation between self-efficacy and writing anxiety that directly influences students’ writing performance. Students’ self-confidence in writing can minimize the anxiety. Pedagogically, methods are chosen specially by teachers, because of acquisition and learning of writing skills of students.


2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (9) ◽  
pp. 52
Author(s):  
Chia-Pei Wu ◽  
Huey-Ju Lin

<p>This study utilized the Oxford Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) and an English writing anxiety scale to examine the relationship between learning strategies and English writing anxiety in 102 university-level English language learners (ELLs) with Limited English Proficiency (LEP) in a university in Taiwan. Kruskal Wallis Test results revealed no significant association between learning strategies and English writing anxiety. The common learning strategies utilized by participants were compensation, social, memory and mixed strategies. The interview data indicated that ELLs suffered considerably from writing anxiety. Coping strategies of highly anxious ELL of each learning strategy group is also reported. However, further studies of larger populations and comparison of different ethnic groups as well as quantitative statistics analyses are needed.</p>


2021 ◽  
Vol 45 (6) ◽  
pp. 25
Author(s):  
Yoko Oi

本研究は、自己評価や他己評価による英作文学習不安に対する影響とthe Second Language Writing Anxiety Inventory (Cheng, 2004)の妥当性を探るのが目的である。分析方法は、293人の日本の高校生を対象に自己評価と他己評価の2グループに分けた後、10日間の間に、5回の英作文作成と生徒評価活動(自己評価か他己評価)を集中的に行った。それぞれの生徒評価活動前後に、高校生の英作文学習不安の因子構造変化のグループ比較を、探索的因子分析を使って行った。結果は、事前の因子構造は自己評価グループと他己評価グループは同様だが、実験後は違いが見られた。しかし、主要因子は、実験前後ともに認知的不安による英作文への回避意識であることは変わりがなかった。本研究が英作文授業の活性化につながる事を示唆したい。 This study examined the effects of self-assessment vs. peer assessment on Japanese high school students’ writing anxiety and the validity of Cheng’s (2004) Second Language Writing Anxiety Inventory (SLWAI). After assignment to either the self-assessment or peer-assessment condition, two groups of Japanese high school students (N=293) participated in a series of five writing and student-assessment sessions over a period of 10 days. An exploratory factor analysis was then conducted on SLWAI data collected before and after these sessions to compare the effects of the writing practice and student assessment type on the factor structure of the two groups’ writing anxiety. The results showed post-treatment factor structure differences that had not been present initially. Nevertheless, the main factor both before and after the treatment sessions was English writing avoidance due to cognitive anxiety. These findings suggest the importance of dealing with learner anxiety to improve English writing instruction.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isyaku Hassan ◽  
Ayuni Madarina Abdul Rahman ◽  
Mohd Nazri Latiff Azmi

Developing writing proficiency is complex as students need to master specific rules and acquire certain skills. This complexity often obstructs students’ interest and eventually affects their comprehension and performance in language learning. Research has highlighted the significance of English as a Second Language (ESL), particularly in the Malaysian context. This study, therefore, aims to evaluate the effectiveness of blended learning in developing English writing skills, particularly among ESL learners at a Polytechnic in Malaysia. The study adopted quasi-experimental analysis in which pre-test and post-test were used as data-gathering instruments. The data were gathered from a purposive sample of 60 ESL students separated into an experimental group and a control group. The data were analyzed using the Mann-Whitney U test via the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The findings showed that blended learning is significantly effective in developing writing performance among ESL students in the selected institution. Further analysis revealed a slight improvement among students who learned through the traditional approach. This study highlights useful findings that could be useful in designing English curriculums, particularly in higher institutions. However, this experiment focuses on students’ performance, further research may explore instructors’ practices in Malaysian higher intuitions.


Dialogue journal writing is a tool utilised in the teaching of writing that allows teachers to provide feedback and responses to students’ writing in a non-corrective manner. It is believed that this teaching tool can improve students’ overall writing ability. Over a span of 20 years of published studies, this systematic review will examine the effectiveness of dialogue journal writing on English language learners’ overall writing skills. A total of 692 English language learners (ELLs) in 1997 to 2019 are represented in the analyses across 19 studies; seven cases of action research, one case study and eleven experimental studies. Findings suggest that ELLs benefit from dialogue journal writing in terms of specific English writing skills both academically and socially. Implications for further study and practice are also discussed.


Research studies on ESL writing are more interested in providing operational writing strategies for academic writing. However, there are not many studies on challenges faced by students and their solutions. The main aim of this paper is to provide a systematic literature review of academic writing studies which focused on investigating students’ academic writing challenges and their solutions. The papers used in this study were published from 2010 until 2019. A systematic search of literature proposed in this paper employs the exploratory approach for identifying and evaluating twenty-seven articles published in the authentic Journals. The themes of the review are divided into two categories, one which is related to ESL Malaysian students and another category is regarding non-Malaysians, this is due to the context of the study which will be conducted in Malaysia and therefore a review of studies done on Malaysian student academic writing is justified. The review shows there is a broader context of ESL students’ academic writing challenges and factors influencing students’ academic writing skills. In addition, as mentioned above, the review clearly shows the highlight of previous studies was on strategies which help improve students writing skills. As a conclusion, the review signifies that there are three major enormous challenges faced by ESL students in academic writing, such as teaching methods, students’ attitude towards English, and language ability. And the solutions to the challenges are to employ active learning English language teaching methods, for example, Task-Based learning (TBL), Blended learning, Collaborative learning and cognitive approach, in teaching writing.


2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (6) ◽  
pp. 1495-1507
Author(s):  
Chutamas Sundrarajun

English language writing is seen as one of the most difficult skills for undergraduate students. When composing a piece of writing, students usually face various problems ranging from grammatical aspects to expressing ideas and opinions. To answer the research questions, this study employed a mixed method of both qualitative and quantitative approaches to identify the students’ perceptions towards Business Article Writing Course, as well as to pinpoint their challenges when working on the written assignments. The intensive data were collected from 20 fourth year students majoring in Business English via the use of questionnaire and a semi-structured interview. The findings give teachers, course designers, and educational organizations an insight into students’ problems in learning English language writing. It also highlights the need to integrate different genres of writing to enhance students’ writing skills so that they can use such techniques to overcome any struggles when composing a piece of writing.   Keywords:  Academic Writing, EFL, Writing Strategies, Peer Feedback


Author(s):  
Bashak Tarkan-Blanco

Academic writing is a difficult task for many post-secondary students in the U.S. However, it is particularly challenging for ESL students due to linguistic and cognitive factors. This challenge may lead to second language writing anxiety (SLWA), as a result of which some students may perform poorly on writing assignments and eventually fail the course. Although previous research studies offer instructional strategies to address SLWA, they are insufficient in their theoretical basis and practical application. Thus, this paper fills that gap by situating those pedagogical recommendations within their theoretical foundations and includes a sample writing assignment with a student self-regulation checklist.


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