Language anxiety: Differentiating writing and speaking components

Abstract

This study investigated the links between second language classroom anxiety and second language writing anxiety as well as their associations with second language speaking and writing achievement. The results indicate that second language classroom anxiety, operationalized by Horwitz, Horwitz, and Cope's Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale, and second language writing anxiety, measured by a modified second language version of Daly and Miller's Writing Apprehension Test, are two related but independent constructs. The findings suggest that second language classroom anxiety is a more general type of anxiety about learning a second language with a strong speaking anxiety element, whereas second language writing anxiety is a language-skill-specific anxiety. Nevertheless, low self-confidence seems to be an important component of both anxiety constructs.