Reducing Student Writing Anxiety

Debatable Issues of English Writing Apprehensions: A Qualitative Study of Taiwanese English Majors’ Perspectives

“…However, reducing intellectual functioning to merely cognitive matters is simply no longer justifiable both on theoretical grounds and in light of empirical evidence. Numerous scholars also argue that anxiety has a mostly negative effect on learning (e.g., Guo & Wang, 2014;Jee, 2015;Tomlinson, 1981Tomlinson, , 2016Yan & Wang, 2012). They do not believe it automatically translates into the stimulation of encouraging behaviors.…”

“…Most studies agree with that the learning apprehensions cause students feel frustrating and becoming weaker in learning process. (Krashen, 2016, Tomlinson, 1981) Students tend to feel be demotivated in writing can hold negative attitude toward their writing tasks, producing papers of low quality, have negative impressions of their own writing and are more likely to avoid situations where writing is required (Ho, 2016;Sanders-Reio, et al, 2014). Hence, promoting learners' affirmative attitudes for learning has become a fundamental key to an effective and successful writing course.…”

“…This empirical study was conducted in an English majors' advanced-level writing course to explore relevant explanations about why Taiwanese university students experienced "anxiety" (Tomlinson, 1981(Tomlinson, , 2016. Seventeen participants of junior grade at a southern Taiwan university had cooperated with their teacher to examine their anxiety occurring during writing in English.…”

The Effect of Cooperative Writing Activities on Writing Anxieties of Prospective Primary School Teachers

“…This situation affects students' motivations and also causes them to be uninterested in the writing process. However, it is probable that the students who have various prejudices about the evaluation process related to the essay that they have written, are affectively anxious (Tomlinson, 1981).…”

“…According to Tomlinson (1981), writing anxiety can result from a combination of many cognitive and affective factors. Students' feeling anxiety cognitively about writing may be due to the lack of knowledge about the steps of the writing process and the operations that need to be done at these steps.…”