Personal factors predicting EFL Learners’ writing anxiety

Abstract

The present study investigated the relationship between writing anxiety with gender, writing self-efficacy and writing achievement, since this issue is quite common in foreign language classrooms and usually has a negative effect on students’ writing performance. The participants were 21 intermediate level students at a state university in Turkey. An independent samples t-test found no significant difference between the writing anxiety levels of males and females. A statistically significant negative correlation between writing anxiety and writing self-efficacy levels of the students was found in the correlation analysis. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) found a significant difference among three achievement groups regarding their writing anxiety levels. Lastly, the results of the two-way ANOVA indicated a main effect of writing anxiety on students’ actual written competence/skills but there was no main effect of gender. Moreover, the interactional effect of gender and writing anxiety was not statistically significant. These results indicate that although there is no relationship between students' gender and their writing anxiety level, students' writing achievement and writing self-efficacy have an effect on their writing anxiety level. This study also calls for more student-centred and process-oriented approaches in language classrooms.   Keywords: Writing anxiety; gender; writing self-efficacy; writing achievement