Evaluating Afghanistan University students’ writing anxiety in English class: An empirical research

Abstract

Writing anxiety leads to poor writing performance among learners as it hinders their writing. This study investigated the level, types, and causes of writing anxiety among Afghan EFL students. A total of 133 undergraduates was selected as the respondents. The study used a quantitative research method and the data was collected using a questionnaire derived from Second Language Writing Anxiety Inventory and Cause of Writing Anxiety Inventory. Both descriptive and inferential statistics of SPSS were used to analyze the data. The findings of the study indicated a moderate level of writing anxiety, with cognitive anxiety as the dominant type of writing anxiety. In addition, the inferential analysis showed no significant differences in the level of writing anxiety across gender and their years of study. However, a statistically significant difference was found among students from different backgrounds who possessed different English proficiency levels (beginner, intermediate, high-intermediate, and advanced). Moreover, linguistic problems, time pressure, the pressure to be perfect, and the fear of teachers’ negative evaluation were discovered to be the leading causes of writing anxiety. Finally, it is believed that the findings of this study may provide several implications for practitioners in this field to be more aware of students’ writing anxiety in English class. It may alert them of the negative effects of writing anxiety and they may try to make the class as stress-free as possible to improve students’ performance in writing.