Foreign Language Anxiety in Academic Writing

Abstract

This study is aimed to investigate Foreign Language Anxiety (FLA) in academic writing specifically to EFL students at university level. The factors that cause the students feel anxious in English writing represent on close-ended questionnaires that the researcher asks the students to answer. In addition, the researcher does direct observation by acting as a passive observer where she has no role in conducting or helping the lecturer in teaching the writing course. In this case, what the researcher does is finding an appropriate spot in classroom in order to have a clear description regarding with ongoing process of teaching and learning of writing course of English Department students at Widya Gama Mahakam University, Samarinda, Indonesia. As a result, data analyzed by using Likert Scale indicate that High Anxiety (HA) appears to be the highest level in students' anxiety with nine out of sixteen anxiety statements. In addition, Moderate Anxiety (MA) is also showed on the result with six out of sixteen anxiety statements. Furthermore, although Low Anxiety (LA) appears in only one out of sixteen statements, it is correlated to other facts i.e. the apprehension of working with English writing assignment under time constraint, lack of selfconfidence because of inadequate capability in English language proficiency such as structural rules in English as well as an ability to relate and compare theories among experts to support their writing. Further implication for better research and lecture of English writing course in the future is also pointed out in this study.

Correcting Feedback on Essay Composition: EFL Students’ Preferences between Traditional and e-Feedback

“…Referring to the study from Rezaei & Jafari (2014), feedback from the lecturer played an important role in improving the students' writing ability. That study is also supported by a research from Ariyanti (2017), where she found that in High Anxiety Level was indicated from the apprehension of obtaining negative comment from the lecturer. Furthermore, another study related to the importance of feedback came from Ahmadi, Maftoon, & Mehrdad (2012).…”

English Writing Anxiety and the Writing Problems of Indonesia EFL Learners

“…To address the research question of the type of anxiety most respondents suffered from, the data of questionnaire were grouped into Somatic Anxiety, Cognitive Anxiety, and Avoidance Behaviour which were based on the items of the questionnaire. Somatic anxiety was indicated by items number 2,9,11,13,15,17,18,20,22, and 23 (10 items), cognitive anxiety was indicated by items number 1, 3, 5, 10, 16, 17, 19, 24, 25, and 27 (10 items), and avoidance behaviour was indicated by items 2, 4, 6, 8, 12, 14, 26 (7 items).…”

“…Language anxiety, defined as a kind of subjective feeling of tension, apprehension, nervousness, and worries which very often arouses automatically from the nervous system [1], has become one of the major problems faced by Indonesian learners in the effort to master English. The study of Ariyanti for example found that many learners were suffering from a high level of writing anxiety [2]. Another study as written by Wahyuni and Umam also found out that more than half of their research respondents suffered from a high writing anxiety [3].…”

EFL Students' Difficulties and Needs in Essay Writing

“…Hence, by doing this technique, students" confidence to write an English essay will be increased and their writing anxiety will be decreased [26]. It is true because the complex process of producing a qualified writing is starting from content up to grammatical aspects are potential to drive the students to high anxiety level [27]. Therefore, it is important to note that giving feedback is not merely judging whether the students go wrong in writing, but it tends to a matter of guidance and making the students comprehend on how to deal with their misconception.…”