An Investigation On Self-regulation Strategies Of Rural Senior High School Students’ English Writing Anxiety

Writing anxiety refers to learners’ anxiety behaviors in the process of writing,such as avoiding writing tasks,worrying that their articles will be read or commented by others,etc.It will hinder the smooth progress of the writing process.（Daly ＆ Miller 1975）The self-regulation strategy of writing anxiety refers to the actions or strategies used by individuals consciously to alleviate the negative or anxious emotions caused by writing and promote the smooth progress of writing.Writing anxiety is prevalent in the English learning process of senior high school students in China,which has a lot of adverse effects on their English learning.The study of the current situation of rural senior high school students’ English writing anxiety and their use of self-regulation strategies is conducive to better promote senior high school students’ understanding of anxiety and learn to use self-regulation strategies to promote English learning.This study adopted questionnaires and interviews to investigate the current situation of senior high school students’ English writing anxiety and their use of self-regulation strategies with the help of Krashen’s affective flter hypothesis and humanism.343 students from rural senior high schools in Meixian district of Meizhou city,Guangdong Province were selected as the subjects.Specifically,the first questionnaire “Second Language Writing Anxiety Inventory” designed by Taiwanese scholar Cheng（2004）was adopted in this study to investigate the overall situation of students’ English writing anxiety.In addition,this study adopted “English Writing Anxiety Self-Regulation Strategy Scale” designed by Chinese scholars Ma Jie and Dong pan（2017）to investigate the overall use of students’ self-regulation strategies from four dimensions of action strategy,conception strategy,avoidance strategy and affective strategy.This study aims at exploring the following three questions:（1）What is the general situation of English Writing Anxiety in rural senior high school?（2）What is the general situation of self-regulation strategies do senior high school students use?（3）Are there any differences in the usage of writing anxiety self-regulation strategies among students with different anxiety levels? If there are differences,what are the reasons?The results show that:（1）Rural senior high school students generally experience English writing anxiety,and the anxiety level is at medium level.Specifically,the anxiety level from high to low is avoidance behavior,somatic anxiety and cognitive anxiety.（2）The frequency of the use of self-regulation strategies among rural senior high school students reaches the medium level.Among them,affective strategy was the most frequently used,while conception strategy and avoidance strategy were the average,and the frequency of the use of action strategy was the lowest.（3）There is no difference in the use of total self-regulation strategies among students of different anxiety levels.But when it comes to the four specific dimensions,there are significant differences in the use of action strategy,conception strategy and avoidance strategy,no difference exists in affective strategy.The reasons that affect the choice and use of self-regulation strategies of students of different anxiety levels include insufficient knowledge of EWA and SRS,students’ different self-efficacy,insufficient willpower and motivation,single evaluation method.Based on the above research results,some suggestions for teachers and students are put forward.For teachers:（1）Improving the Understanding of EWA and SRS.（2）Providing Guidance for Students in the Use of SRS.（3）Using Various Teaching Methods.（4）Adopting Different Kinds of Evaluation Methods.For students:（1）Increasing the Understanding of EWA and SRS.（2）Enhancing Self-efficacy.（3）Strengthening Willpower and Motivation.