An Investigation On Senior High School Students’ English Writing Anxiety And Its Causes

Emotional factor is an important factor that affects students’ writing.Anxiety,as one of the negative emotions affecting students’ learning,has a significant impact on English writing,which requires more attention to English writing anxiety especially in the context of New College Entrance Examination reform.As a new test type,continuation task will be used nationwide with the comprehensive reform of College Entrance Examination is rolled out.Therefore,it is necessary to investigate the current situation and causes of writing anxiety of high school students,so as to give some suggestions to help students adapt the new test type quickly.Based on the Affective Filter Hypothesis and Humanism Theory,this study conducted with 343 students from a demonstrative high school and an ordinary high school in Zhanjiang,using questionnaires and interviews as research instruments and attempting to answer the following questions:(1)What is the current situation of English writing anxiety among high school students?(2)Are there any differences in writing anxiety between students in demonstrative high school and ordinary high school? And what are the differences?(3)What are the causes of senior high school students’ English writing anxiety?The results show that:(1)English writing anxiety of senior high school students is generally at moderate level.Among the four dimensions of English writing anxiety,avoidance behaviour is at the highest level,followed by lack of confidence,conceiving anxiety and classroom teaching anxiety.(2)In general,there is significant difference in English writing anxiety between students in demonstrative and ordinary high schools.Especially there only exits a significant difference on lack of confidence while there are no significant differences on classroom teaching anxiety,avoidance behavior and conceiving anxiety.(3)The overall causes of English writing anxiety among high school students are linguistic difficulties,low self-confidence,and fear of negative comments,insufficient practice and insufficient techniques and being afraid of continuation task.In addition,weak language knowledge and the lack of positive teacher expectation effects are the main reasons for the differences on lack of confidence between students in demonstrative high school and in ordinary high school.Based on the analysis on the above findings,this study offers suggestions on how to alleviate English writing anxiety among high school students from both the teacher’s perspective and the student’s perspective.For teachers,the following measures can be taken to alleviate students’ English writing anxiety:(1)guide students to strengthen their basic English knowledge;(2)enhance students’ confidence in English writing;(3)change the way of writing evaluation;(4)develop students’ interest in English writing;(5)enhance writing training on continuation task.For students,the following approaches can be adopted to reduce English writing anxiety:(1)take the initiative to learn and consolidate basic English knowledge;(2)enhance confidence in English writing;(3)accept teachers’ and peers’ assessments rationally;(4)develop an interest in English writing;(5)develop English reading habits.