The relationship between Writing Anxiety and Students’ Writing Performance at Wolkite University First Year English Major Students

Abstract

Abstract: This study was carried out to investigate the relationship between second language writing anxiety and students’ writing performance .The study employed correlation and descriptive study design. First year English language and literature students of Wolkite University were the participants of the study and they were selected by using simple random sampling technique. Questionnaire, writing performance tests and semi- structured interview were used as data collecting instruments. These data were analyzed using Pearson’s Product moment correlation, qualitative description of students’ interview results and one way ANOVA. In order to identify the significance of differences between the pairs of SL writing anxiety, multiple comparisons or post hoc test was also conducted .The results revealed that there was a significant, negative correlation between SL writing anxiety and writing performance. The semi-structured interview revealed that linguistic difficulties, insufficient writing practice, fear of tests, lack of topical knowledge and low self-confidence in writing performance. The results of the questionnaire showed that there is statistically significant difference in level of anxiety among high, average and low achievers and Avoidance Behavior and Cognitive anxiety are the most common and dominant type of ESL/FL writing anxiety. The investigation results also showed that the mean differences were statistically significant between the low anxiety and average anxiety, low anxiety and high anxiety and average anxiety and high anxiety.