Feelings of anxiety, apprehension, and nervousness remain a prevailing phenomenon in learning a second or a foreign language. This explanatory sequential research examined the influence of language learning anxiety on students' second language (henceforth L2) writing and speaking performance. A total of 162 students in an engineering University in Manila, the Philippines participated in the initial quantitative phase, in which they accomplished a self-developed scale adapted from Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope's (1986) Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) to fit the context of the present investigation. Speaking and writing scores from an institutional English language test were also used as measures for the outcome variables. The analyses of variance yielded significant results for both anxiety on speaking [F(2,162)=43.35; p=0.00; η p 2 =0.35] and anxiety on writing [F(2,162)=10.73; p=0.00; η p 2 =0.12]. The findings on the influence of language learning anxiety on speaking corroborate previous studies that found high levels of anxiety to have debilitative impact on L2 speaking. Interestingly, however, the influence of anxiety on writing reflects the less frequent facilitative impact of anxiety on language abilities found in a very small number of studies in the literature. Therefore, in the consequent, qualitative phase, the researchers conducted semi-structured interviews among nine, purposefully selected respondents and focused on the factors explaining the dissimilar influence of anxiety on L2 speaking and writing. Results exposed the double-edged nature of anxiety within the study's context. On one hand, social comparison-instigated anxiety debilitated speaking task performance. On the other, grade anxiety facilitated constant correction, which aided the engineering students in writing task performance. Besides implication for research, the pedagogical implications of the results in relation to teaching engineering students as learners of English are provided.

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Whether students' goals for learning English as a second language (L2) are oriented towards performing better than others or mastering one's skills had not been traditionally investigated in language motivational research. Premised on Pintrich's (2000) revised achievement goal theory, this explanatory sequential research (Creswell, 2014) examined the influence of learners' goal orientation in L2 to their writing and speaking performances. 162 Filipino students enrolled in an English for Academic Purposes (EAP) course in a University in Manila participated in the study. They initially accomplished the Goal Orientation in A L2 Scale (GOALS) developed to fit the current context, α= .93. Then, they took two language tests, i.e., a group conversation in English for L2 speaking and an individual essay for L2 writing. Both were administered in the EAP classes as an entry requirement. Analyses yielded significant results on the influence of goal orientation on both speaking and writing. Results suggest that students with a performance orientation to L2 learning performed significantly better than those with either a mastery or a multiple goal orientation. In keeping with the sequential design, the researchers proceeded with semi-structured interviews among nine purposefully selected respondents to understand the quantitative results in greater detail. The follow-up interviews focused on two aspects of the statistical results: maladaptive influence of multiple orientation and the adaptive influence of performance orientation in L2 learning. The paper closes with implications for research and language teaching.

The need for effective English speaking skills in engineering fields compels schools to innovate curricula that shall address the language skills of a 'global engineer.' The impact of engineering curricular reforms trickled down among students who contend with language learning anxiety, besides anxiety from mathematics and other technical courses. In this paper, the researchers explored English speaking anxiety among 162 engineering students in an engineering University in Manila, Philippines. A mixed-method, explanatory sequential design was used. This method combines the quantitative and qualitative approaches in investigating the phenomenon under study, i.e., English speaking anxiety. In the quantitative phase, the researchers used data from the speaking component of a self-developed scale and speaking performance scores yielded from an interactive English conversation task. Analysis revealed a significant negative relationship between speaking anxiety and speaking task performance, pointing to the debilitative influence of anxiety on task performance. In the qualitative phase, semi-structured interviews among nine purposefully selected students revealed that both peers and teachers were common sources of speaking anxiety and in a variety of ways. The findings point to speaking anxiety as an important psycho-and sociolinguistic phenomenon, which is hinged on the specific roles that language teaching and learning plays in preparing engineering students as future language consumers and users in highly technical, specialized, and competitive engineering fields.

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