The Correlation between English Writing Anxiety and Writing Achievement in Junior High School Students

Xu+Hong

Emotion is common to mankind， it refers to a comprehensive psychological and physiological state which consists of a variety of human feelings， thoughts and behavior， is the psychological as well as the accompanying physiological response to the external stimulation（joy， anger， sadness， happiness， etc）.In language learning， emotion refers to learners feelings and attitudes during the process of learning.It impacts learners learning status and learning effect.Among many emotional factors， anxiety is the main obstacle for the learners to obtain learning effectiveness. （Ox-ford， 1999）

In China， almost all levels of schools have set up foreign language courses， there are countless L2 learners.In the teaching practice， we may find many people are intimidated by foreign language classes for various reasons， fear for reading foreign language books， frightened of using foreign language to communicate.This phenomena was called “foreign language anxiety”.The concept of foreign language anxiety was first proposed by E.K.Horwitz， M.B.Horwitz and J.A.Cope， who argue that “We conceive foreign language anxiety as a distinct complex of self-perceptions， beliefs， feelings， and behavior related to classroom language learning arising from the uniqueness of the language learning process.”（Horwitz， Horwitz & Cope 1986：128）. And based on this， they established the “Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale” （FLCAS）.A large number of studies based on it show that foreign language anxiety is prevalent in L2 learners and negatively correlated with foreign language achievement. Recently， these studies have dug into specific language skills anxiety such as listening anxiety， reading anxiety， spoken anxiety and writing anxiety.

Writing anxiety was first proposed by Daly&Miller （1975）， which refers to the anxiety behavior that learners have shown in the writing process， such as evading writing tasks and worrying that their essays are been read or commented by others. Early writing anxiety studies were conducted by native language learners （eg. Faigley， Daly&Witte1981；Fowler&Ross1982， etc.）.As foreign language writing usually cause more anxiety experience than native language writing， and learners usually more negative towards foreign language writing （Krashen1982）， foreign language writing anxiety research has been paid more attention.Cheng， Horwitz and Schallert（1999） have established Writing Apprehension Test （WAT）.The test describes the relationship between foreign language writing anxiety and writing anxiety in Taiwan English majors， and the results show that the foreign language writing anxiety is related to the general foreign language anxiety measured by the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale （FLCAS）.Due to “Writing Apprehension Test” was designed for native language writers， it may not be able to select some of the core features of foreign language writing （Cheng2004）.By considering thoroughly and studying the relevant research of predecessors， Cheng （2004） created “Second Language Writing Anxiety Inventory”（SLWAI）， specifically used to measure foreign language writing anxiety. The scale has high reliability and validity in real practice.endprint

A study of foreign language writing found that writing anxiety and writing performance were negatively correlated with high scores of students who were often worse than those with low anxiety levels（Horwitz et al.1986； Cheng et al.1999； Horwitz2001； Yan， Qin Xiaoqing2010； Zhou Baoguo， Tang Junjun2010， Zhang Hongxia， Zhu Yingying2012， etc.）， but no studies have shown that writing anxiety can effectively predict foreign language writing achievement. （McCathy et al.1985； Pajares&Valiante1997）.Most of these studies are quantitative research， and most of the subjects are college students （Cheng et al.1999； Guo Yan， Fan Weiwei2009； Zhou Baoguo， Tang Junjun2010； Guo Yan， Qin Xiaoqing2010； Liu Meihua2011； Zhang Hongxia， Zhu Yingying2012； Tu Chao lian2013； Li Hang2015， etc.）， few people pay attention to the high school students learning anxiety.In fact， high school students， especially junior high school students， since they are in the second adolescent period， they face both physical and mental development conflicts， psychological changes are more intense.Obviously， it has a huge impact on their foreign language learning.Anxiety as one of the important factors that affect the students foreign language learning， it is inevitable for junior high school students to encounter in foreign language learning.Guo Wei， Wu Wensheng （2008） used FLCAS scale on some primary and secondary school students， the results showed that foreign language classroom anxiety is prevalent in primary and secondary school students， which agreed with Horwitz et al. that foreign language anxiety is ubiquitous and foreign language writing anxiety should be given due attention as an aspect foreign language anxiety.

作者簡介：徐鸿（1990.03-），女，湖北荆门人，陕西师范大学外国语学院研究生在读。endprint