Luận văn tốt nghiệp WRITING APPREHENSION AMONG FIRST YEAR FAST TRACK STUDENTS IN FELTE, ULIS, VNU

A significant number of studies have been carried out to investigate different aspects of writing apprehension. However, up to now, there has been little research on English as a second language writing apprehension in the context of Vietnam. The current research was conducted to fill the gap. The paper dealt with the subject quantitatively and qualitatively in an attempt to find out whether firstyear fasttrack students in Faculty of English Language Teacher Education, University of Languages and International Studies are experiencing writing apprehension or not. Then the main causes of writing apprehension among firstyear fasttrack students were examined. The possible remedies for such a phenomenon were also suggested. To identify the current situation of writing apprehension among firstyear fasttracks students, the researcher adopted Gungle and Taylor’s version of Writing Apprehension Test (WAT) to determine the levels of writing anxiety among students. For the purpose of identifying the main sources of writing apprehension among firstyear fasttrack students, along with the semistructured interviews, the researcher used the adapted version of the Second Language Writing Anxiety Reason Scale (SLWARS) by Selma (2013). Both forms of the questionnaires were distributed to 42 firstyear fasttrack students in FELTE. The study adopted the analytical descriptive method to analyze the responses to the questionnaires. To find out possible solutions to help students reduce writing apprehension, two teachers who are teaching the students English writing were invited to participate in the interviews. The findings of the study reveal that the majority of firstyear fasttrack students in FELTE, ULIS are experiencing writing apprehension. Besides, the main causes of writing apprehension among those students include lack of vocabulary, lack of topical knowledge and test anxiety. The study also proposes certain suggestions in teaching and learning to help students alleviate their apprehension in writing. Teachers should promote the use of vocabulary quizzes, peerediting, unfamiliar writing topics, inclass timed practice, and mock tests. In parallel, students should find an effective way of learning and reviewing new words such as using flashcards, read widely and prepare careful and early for the test. With these findings, the paper would serve as a good reference for both teachers and students to have a closer look at this issue, then take actions to help firstyear fasttrack students reduce writing apprehension.

I hereby state that I: Nguyen Thi Giang, QH10E2, being a candidate for thedegree of Bachelor of Arts (TEFL) accept the requirements of the College relating tothe retention and use of Bachelor’s Graduation Paper deposited in the library

In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in thelibrary should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance withthe normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or reproduction ofthe paper

Signature

Nguyen Thi Giang

May 5th, 2014

Secondly, I would like to send my special thanks to the enthusiastic first-yearfast-track students as well as to two kind teachers in CLC Division for their patienceand willingness to participate in this study

Last but not least, I would like to send my appreciation to my family, dearclassmates for their support and encouragement all the way Without them, I would nothave been able to complete this graduation paper

A significant number of studies have been carried out to investigate differentaspects of writing apprehension However, up to now, there has been little research onEnglish as a second language writing apprehension in the context of Vietnam Thecurrent research was conducted to fill the gap The paper dealt with the subjectquantitatively and qualitatively in an attempt to find out whether first-year fast-trackstudents in Faculty of English Language Teacher Education, University of Languagesand International Studies are experiencing writing apprehension or not Then the maincauses of writing apprehension among first-year fast-track students were examined.The possible remedies for such a phenomenon were also suggested

To identify the current situation of writing apprehension among first-year tracks students, the researcher adopted Gungle and Taylor’s version of WritingApprehension Test (WAT) to determine the levels of writing anxiety among students.For the purpose of identifying the main sources of writing apprehension among first-year fast-track students, along with the semi-structured interviews, the researcher usedthe adapted version of the Second Language Writing Anxiety Reason Scale(SLWARS) by Selma (2013) Both forms of the questionnaires were distributed to 42first-year fast-track students in FELTE The study adopted the analytical descriptivemethod to analyze the responses to the questionnaires To find out possible solutions tohelp students reduce writing apprehension, two teachers who are teaching the studentsEnglish writing were invited to participate in the interviews

The findings of the study reveal that the majority of first-year fast-trackstudents in FELTE, ULIS are experiencing writing apprehension Besides, the maincauses of writing apprehension among those students include lack of vocabulary, lack

of topical knowledge and test anxiety The study also proposes certain suggestions inteaching and learning to help students alleviate their apprehension in writing Teachersshould promote the use of vocabulary quizzes, peer-editing, unfamiliar writing topics,

in-class timed practice, and mock tests In parallel, students should find an effectiveway of learning and reviewing new words such as using flashcards, read widely andprepare careful and early for the test With these findings, the paper would serve as agood reference for both teachers and students to have a closer look at this issue, thentake actions to help first-year fast-track students reduce writing apprehension

LISTS OF TABLES, FIGURES, AND ABBREVIATIONSList of tables

Table 1 - Writing apprehension levels among first-year fast-track students in FELTE,

ULIS, VNU

Table 2 - Causes of writing apprehension among first-year fast-track students in

FELTE, ULIS

Table 3 – Dominant causes of writing apprehension among first-year fast-track

students in FELTE, ULIS, VNU by levels of writing apprehension

List of figure

Figure 1: Writing apprehension levels among first-year fast-track students in FELTE,

ULIS-VNU

List of abbreviations

FELTE - Faculty of English Language Teacher Education

ULIS - University of Languages and International Studies

VNU - Vietnam National University

EWAQ - English Writing Apprehension Questionnaire

FLSES - Foreign Language Self-Esteem Scale

WAT - Writing Apprehension Test

SLWARS - Second Language Writing Anxiety Reason Scale

Table of Contents

ACCEPTANCE 1

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT i

ABSTRACT ii

LISTS OF TABLES, FIGURES, AND ABBREVIATIONS ii

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 2

1.1 Background of the study and problem statement 2

1.2 Aims of the research 2

1.3 Research questions 2

1.4 Significance of the Study 2

1.5 Scope of the study 2

1.6 Organization of the study 2

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2

2.1 Theoretical background 2

2.1.1 Definitions of writing apprehension 2

2.1.2 Causes of writing apprehension 2

2.1.3 Effects of writing apprehension 2

2.1.4 Solutions to reduce writing apprehension 2

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 2

3.1 Research design 2

3.2 Participants 2

3.2.1 Participants in questionnaires 2

3.2.2 Participants in interviews 2

3.3 Data collection 2

3.3.1 Data collection instruments 2

3.3.2 Data collection procedures 2

3.4 Data analysis 2

3.4.1 Data analysis instrument 2

3.4.2 Data analysis procedures 2

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 2

4.1 Writing apprehension levels among first-year fast-track students in FELTE, ULIS-VNU 2

4.2 Main causes of writing apprehension among first-year fast-track students in FELTE, ULIS, VNU 2

4.3 Possible solutions to help first-year fast-track students in FELTE, ULIS, VNU reduce their apprehension in writing 2

4.3.1 Solutions to help students build vocabulary 2

4.3.2 Solutions to help students feel less anxious towards the writing test 2

4.3.3 Solutions to help students broaden their background knowledge 2

4.4 Discussions of the findings 2

4.4.1 Levels of writing apprehension among first-year fast-tracks students in FELTE, ULI, VNU 2

4.4.2 Causes of writing apprehension among first-year fast-track students in FELTE, ULIS 2

4.4.3 Possible solutions to reduce apprehension in writing among students 2

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 2

5.1 Major findings of the study 2

5.2 Implications of the study 2

5.2.1 Pedagogical implications for teachers 2

5.2.2 Pedagogical implications for students 2

5.3 Limitations of the study 2

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5.4 Suggestions for further studies 2

REFERENCES 2

APPENDICES 2

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

The first part of the study discusses the background of the study and problemstatement, the aims, the scope as well as the significance of the study along with abrief overview of the research The three research questions are clearly identified towork as the guidelines for the whole paper

1.1 Background of the study and problem statement

Writing has always been regarded as playing a prominent role in learningEnglish as a Second Language (ESL) Writing improves language acquisition aslearners experiment with words, sentences, paragraphs or even larger pieces ofwritings to express their ideas and to enhance the grammar and vocabulary they arelearning in class (Bello, 1997) It is the area in which learners are expected to beoffered adequate time to develop their writing skill

Writing is such a complex process that most ESL learners at all levels believethat it is one of the most difficult language skills to master (Kurk & Atay, 2007; Latif,2007) or a sophisticated skill compared with other skills (Daud, Daud & Kassim,2005; and Abu Shawish & Atea, 2010) Hence, many ESL learners suffer from writingapprehension

Daly and Miller (1975) defined “writing apprehension” as “the generalavoidance of writing situations perceived by individuals to potentially require someamount of writing accompanied by the potential for evaluation of that writing.”Researchers have used many terms to refer to writing apprehension such as anxietyand blocking (Gungle and Taylor, 1989; and Al-Ahmad, 2003) Writing tasks tend toincrease students’ anxiety levels, which may de-motivate students and cause negativeattitudes towards writing and their confidence (Sharples, 1993) Estimates of the

percentage of anxious writers in the student population, Aikman (1985) reports, areapproximately the same as for anxious speakers - about 10 to 25 percent.

Writing apprehension is a serious problem that can hinder the performance ofboth native and non-native English learners (Ibrahim & Noor, 2011; Hanna, 2010; Al-Ahmad, 2003) Al- Ahmad (2003) asserts that “All the remarks of researchers in ESL/EFL field indicated that writing apprehension is a real problem facing ESL/EFLstudents’ apprehension” He also mentions that ESL writing apprehension is more of achallenge as it affects the learners’ writings more in a negative way Researchers such

as Masny & Foxall, 1992; Cornwell & McKay, 1999; and Al-Ahmad, 2003 claim thatmore attention should be paid to ESL context because of the complexity of thecondition in second language learning

In the past, an enormous amount of research has been done on writingapprehension that ESL learners experience (Daly, 1978; Daly & Miller, 1975a, 1975b;Daly & Wilson, 1983; Faigley, Daly & Witte, 1991; McCarthy, Meier, & Rinderer,1985; Onwuegbuzie, 1999; Pajares & Johnson, 1993; Phinney, 1991; Shell, Colvin, &Bruning, 1995; Shell, Murphy, & Bruning, 1989) However, recently, there has notbeen much research conducted to investigate ESL writing apprehension in generallyand in the context of ESL learning in Vietnam in particular Based on all the rationales

above, the researcher has decided to conduct a study on “Writing apprehension among first-year fast-track students in FELTE, ULIS, VNU.”

1.2 Aims of the research

This research paper is intended to base on the perspectives from students tofirstly investigate whether first-year students in the Fast-track program in Faculty ofEnglish Language Teacher Education division in Vietnam National University areexperiencing writing apprehension or not Secondly, this study also aims at figuringout the main causes of writing apprehension among first-year fast-track students

Lastly, based on the perspectives of teachers, the researcher aims to propose possiblesolutions to help students cope with writing apprehension.

1.4 Significance of the Study

Once finished, the study could serve as a reference for ESL teachers, especiallythose in FELTE, VNU to be aware of the writing apprehension levels, the causes ofwriting apprehension as well as the suggested solutions to help students deal withwriting anxiety, thereby having proper adjustments to their teaching methods to helpstudents reduce their writing anxiety and have better written products Besides, ESLlearners, especially first-year fast-track students in FELTE, ULIS, VNU could refer tothe findings of the study so that they could be informed of the causes and solutions towriting apprehension to help themselves feel more confident in writing and improvetheir writing experience Moreover, this study would also fill the gap in the literature

on ESL writing apprehension in the context of Vietnam and serve as a good source ofreference for other researchers who are interested in the same or related subjects

1.5 Scope of the study

The research focuses on the levels of writing apprehension, the main causes of

writing apprehension among first-year fast-track students in FELTE, ULIS, VNU.Besides, the study proposes possible solutions in both teaching and learning to copewith students’ apprehension in writing The research would be carried out in two first-year fast-track classes with a major in English Language Teacher Education inFELTE, ULIS, VNU The aggregate number of participants is 42 All participants arequalified and suitable to participate in the research

1.6 Organization of the study

The paper consists of five chapters, which are presented as follows

Chapter 1 is the introduction, which states the background of the study, the statement of the problem, the aims, scope, significance of the study as well as the research questions

Chapter 2 is the literature review, which discusses all the necessary literature related to the study

Chapter 3 is the methodology, which describes how the study was carried out

in FELTE, ULIS, VNU Sub steps in this process include the data collection/ analysis instruments as well as data collection/ analysis procedures

Chapter 4 deals with the results as well as discussion of the findings of the study

Chapter 5 is the conclusion, where the summaries about the major findings of the research, implications, limitation as well as suggestions for further studies are presented

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter presents the theoretical background of the study Particularly,definitions, causes, effects as well as solutions to ESL writing apprehension arediscussed

2.1 Theoretical background

2.1.1 Definitions of writing apprehension

The term “writing apprehension” was first coined by Daly and Miller (1975a)

to refer to behaviors that includes a writer’s tendency to avoid situations that involvewriting, to experience a sense of anxiety when faced with a writing situationaccompanied by some amount of perceived evaluation, and to experience frustrationwhile in the process of writing Daly and Miller offered a comprehensive definition ofwriting anxiety They addressed both the behaviors and feelings of apprehensivewriters during the process of writing: people tend to avoid a writing situation in thepre-writing, experience frustration while writing, or suffer from the fear of evaluationafter their writings are finished

Agreeing with Daly and Miller on the tendency that writing apprehensioncauses a person to avoid writing, Bloom (1985) defined writing anxiety as “a label forone or a combination of feelings, beliefs, or behaviors that interfere with a person’sability to start, work on, or finish a given writing task that he or she is intellectuallycapable of doing” He also added that in the context of second language learning,writing apprehension is often governed by a lack of personal belief in the individual’sown ability to write In addition to the feelings and behaviors of apprehensive people,Bloom went a step further than Daly and Miller that he also addressed the beliefsabout one’s writing ability However, Bloom’s definition of writing anxiety was too

general about the nature of feelings and behaviors that apprehensive writers tend tohave when faced with a writing task or situation

Looking at writing apprehension from a slightly different perspective,Takahashi (2009) considered it a “fear of the writing process that outweighs theprojected gain from the ability to write” Rather than describing the feelings, beliefs orbehaviors of apprehensive people, Takahashi takes the fear of writing and the expectedgain from writing ability into account and compare them His perspective offers a newinsight into writing apprehension; however, the proposed relationship between the fear

of writing and benefits from the ability to write is still vague More specificinformation about the gain from writing or the way to carry out such comparisonshould be added so that the definition would be clearer

Each person has a different view of writing apprehension depending on one’sperspectives and experiences Of all the discussed definitions above, despite the factthat it was introduced a long time ago, the one given by Daly and Miller (1975a) gavethe most comprehensive description of writing apprehension The researcher chose toadopt this definition to conduct the research

2.1.2 Causes of writing apprehension

Many studies have tried to shed light on the causes of apprehension in writingamong ESL learners One of the main sources of writing anxiety among ESL students

is the lack of topical knowledge (Leiki & Carson, 1997; Hyland, 2003) The level andspecificity of topical knowledge (also referred to as background knowledge,knowledge schemata or real-world knowledge) may have a huge impact on languagelearners’ response to the writing task (Backman & Palmer, 1996) The learners whohave sufficient prior knowledge of the writing topic may feel confident whenapproaching the writing task and hence have a positive response to it On the otherhand, those who do not have the relevant and adequate topical knowledge may feelnervous and apprehensive when dealing with the writing task

Another factor contributing to writing apprehension of ESL writers is the lack

of linguistic knowledge ESL learners often suffer from the burden of learning to write

in English; they themselves consider linguistic difficulties their main problems inEnglish writing and the main source of anxiety when they fail to express their thoughtsand ideas in appropriate English (Hyland, 2003) Abdel Latif (2007) examined therelationship between linguistic competence and Egyptian ESL university students’writing anxiety The study found out that linguistic knowledge was negatively related

to apprehension in writing that the students experienced, which meant the less thelinguistic knowledge of ESL learners is, the more anxious they feel towards writing.Besides, Mojica (2010) examined ESL students’ problems in writing and points outthat vocabulary and grammar (linguistic knowledge) are viewed by ESL learners as thetop writing difficulties Hence, the lack of linguistic knowledge, typically theinsufficient knowledge about vocabulary and grammar, might cause ESL learners tosuffer from apprehension in writing

In addition, test anxiety is another dominant cause of writing apprehensionamong ESL students According to Horwitz et al (1986), test anxiety refered to “atype of performance anxiety stemming from a fear of failure.” ESL writing test is aproductive activity influenced strongly by time pressure; students, even the best andwell-prepared ones, often tend to make more errors in test-taking situations than innormal settings Hence, failure in tests is common in academic context, and is one ofthe main sources of writing apprehension among ESL students

Researchers have also found out that fear of negative evaluation of writingcauses students to feel apprehensive of writing Maria (2006) found out from herresearch that students develop high level of writing apprehension because of theirwritings being evaluated whether the evaluation source is self, teachers or peers Thisresult coincided with what Rankin-Brown (2006) found out that students avoid writingdue to their worries about self-evaluation, teacher evaluation and peer evaluation

because students feel afraid of losing their identity when being evaluated poorly.Although similar to test anxiety, fear of negative evaluation in writing was broader inscope because it refered not only to fear of poor performance in test but also to the fear

of academic and personal evaluations made by peers and teachers (MacIntyre &Gardner, 1991)

Writing apprehension also resulted from low second language self-confidence

of ESL students Hassan (2001) emphasized the importance of self-confidence indetermining students’ response to writing tasks In his second language writing anxietyresearch, Hassan (2001) studied the relationship between writing anxiety and self-esteem of 192 third-year students who enrolled in the English Department in Egypt byusing an English Writing Apprehension Questionnaire (EWAQ) and a ForeignLanguage Self-Esteem Scale (FLSES) He found out that there existed a significantnegative relationship between writing apprehension and second language self-esteem:

Low apprehensive students had higher self-esteem than High Apprehensive students and vice versa… Low self-esteem students obtained significantly higher writing apprehension scores than their high self-esteem counterparts… This means that the low self-esteem group was more apprehensive/ anxious than the high self-esteem group (p.24)

Besides, Cheng (2002) also pointed out that even students of high secondlanguage writing competence may not view themselves as good writer and may stillsuffer from writing anxiety Therefore, low second language self-confidence may lead

to writing apprehension among ESL students

Lack of writing practice may also be responsible for ESL students’ experience

of apprehension in writing Karakaya and Ulper (2010) conducted a study onprospective teachers to develop the reliability of anxiety scale to investigate writingapprehension among students This instrument enabled the researchers to come up

with the finding that a lack of out of school and in-class practice session increasewriting apprehension among students

Furthermore, lack of effective feedback from teachers may lead students tofeel apprehensive of writing Feedbacks on students’ writings are crucial in ESLinstruction because they help students be aware of how well they have succeeded inthe writing tasks, and what they should improve in future writings Hence, they types

of feedback the instructors give are likely to affect students’ emotions directly, theirattitude towards the writing process (Bachman & Palmer, 1996; Cheng, 2001; Hyland,2003) For instance, a relevant, complete, and clear feedback with positive commentscan produce a good backwash in ESL writing performance and reduce the feelings ofanxiety as well In contrast, a harsh feedback with negative comments on students’mistakes is likely to make students feel bad about their writing competency, and fearwriting (Conrad & Goldstein, 1999)

Lack of effective instructions from English writing tutors, which leads tostudents’ deficits in composition skills, has also been found to cause writingapprehension among ESL learners Grundy (1985) claimed that serious writingapprehension problems result from instructors’ not teaching the teachable aspects ofwriting, including the theoretical and practical parts Sharing the same viewpoint,Abdel (2007) made it clear that teachers’ focus on teaching the theoretical concepts ofwriting and neglect of practical aspects account for high English writing apprehensionamong students This deficits in skills training led to students’ lack of compositionskills, which also causes writing anxiety among students (Faigley, Daly & Witte,1991)

By reviewing all of these above mentioned studies, the researcher realize thatwriting apprehension is caused by various factors, namely the lack of topicalknowledge, lack of linguistic knowledge, fear of negative evaluation, fear of test, low

second-language self-confidence, lack of practice, lack of effective feedbacks andinstructions from English writing teachers, and lack of composition skills

2.1.3 Effects of writing apprehension

Writing apprehension has been found to have certain impacts on students aswell as on their writing performance Two effects of second language writing anxietyfrequently found in previous works are “distress associated with writing and aprofound distaste for the process” (Madigan et al., 1996; Cheng, 2002) For example,higher apprehensive writers tend to avoid taking writing courses and prefer academicmajors and careers that have relatively little to do with writing (Cheng, 2002)

Writing apprehension has also been found to have negative influence onstudents’ performance Hassan (2001) used both Writing Quality Task and WritingQuantity Task to find out that low apprehensive students write better quality worksthan their high apprehensive counter-parts Besides, those low anxious students writemore than high anxious ones

Previous studies have also pointed out that writing apprehension has certainimpacts on writing processes and behaviors of students Cheng (2004) specified theseeffects such as physiological effects as reflected in unpleasant feelings of tension ornervousness, cognitive interference in writing process, and avoidance of writing Healso used the participants’ performance on a timed English essay writing task as anindex of their English writing performance to measure the correlations between thespecific writing anxiety and writing performance The findings showed a significantnegative correlation between anxiety and performance

Generally writing apprehension has negative impacts on students and theirwriting performance Hence, it is crucial to find out feasible solutions to help studentsbecome less anxious when facing a writing situation and become better writers

2.1.4 Solutions to reduce writing apprehension

The subject of how to decrease the writing apprehension levels among ESLlearners have been thoroughly studied in previous research and many solutions havebeen proposed to help students feel less anxious when writing

Reading and writing should be taught concurrently as this method has beenfound to reduce students' writing apprehension By exposing students with readingmaterials, this integrated approach not only helps broaden students’ backgroundknowledge but also provides students with good writing models and helps studentsimprove their linguistic knowledge, thereby reducing errors(Daud, and Abu Kassim,2005: 16) Hao & Divell (2002) concur and add:

…introducing reading materials in writing class and giving students reading instruction on them will assist learners in gathering information to support, develop and generate new ideas; at the same time, they may extend their lexical and syntactic repertoire by imitation or copying On the local level, they can imitate the words, phrases, idioms, discourse markers or sentences they have read and understood; on the global level, they may imitate some elements of the content, sentence structure, organization or style.

Hence, integrating reading into the writing lesson helps equip students withknowledge and ideas to write Students can improve their vocabulary and linguisticcompetence, as well as background knowledge thanks to the reading materialsintroduced in writing class Therefore, students will feel more prepared and lessanxious when facing a writing situation This method of teaching reading and writingconcurrently is a promising solution to reduce writing apprehension among students Addressing the fear of evaluation that students suffer from when it comes towriting, Clark (2005) suggests teachers give students writing assignments that are notgraded such as journal writing, exploratory writing on a topic, and rough drafts ofessay In addition, using peer feedback as a substitute for teacher feedback when it

works is also recommended to ease students from pressure when they receive teachers’comments This kind of feedback should be given in non-threatening way (Borich,2004; Clark, 2005; Kurk and Atay, 2007; Grabe and Kaplan 1996, Krause, 2001)

As for the low second-language self-confidence, encouraging students to havehigh self-efficacy might help reduce writing apprehension and improve students’writing ability Takahashi (2011) shares that increasing students’ motivation and highself-perceived proficiency can reduce their level of writing apprehension Agreeingwith Takahashi, Clark (2005) recommends developing students’ confidence in theirwriting ability by keeping a positive attitude and making positive self-affirmations, aswell as getting encouraging feedback from teachers and peers

Another feasible solution is teaching writing as a process rather than a finalproduct (Rankin-Brown, 2006: 4; Clark, 2005:5; Grabe and Kaplan, 1996: 87).Process-oriented approaches concern the process of how ideas are developed andformulated in writing Writing is considered a process through which meaning iscreated This approach characterizes writing as following a number of processes: First,

a writer starts writing ideas as drafts Subsequently, he checks to see whether thewriting and the organization makes sense to him or not After that, he checks whetherthe writing will be clear to the reader This approach focuses on how clearly andefficiently a student can express and organize his ideas, not on correctness of form.Errors are welcomed in this teaching method Hence, students will feel less pressuredfrom trying to avoid errors and receiving negative evaluation; instead, they canconcentrate on writing and getting their messages across Besides, the processapproach also gives students the chance to receive feedback from teachers and peers toimprove the shortcomings of their writing before working on the final drafts Tutorscan give students comments on their writing during different stages of writing: duringthe pre-writing, teachers can give feedbacks on the ideas as well as the outline of thestudents’ writing; then after students finish the first draft, tutors can comment on the

organization, linguistic strengths and weaknesses, … and offer recommendations forways to improve the quality of the writings Based on effective feedbacks fromteachers, students can be aware of the good and not so good aspects of their writings,thereby making appropriate revision to better the writings and improve their writingskills, which makes students feel less apprehensive of writing.

Besides, to feel less worried about the writing test, it is essential that studentsare prepared for the test Ellis (2000) claims that there is no substitute for knowing theformat of the test as well as the materials In addition, Paulk (2001) suggests thatstudents should also spend time on doing mock tests in the conditions similar to testingconditions such as practicing writing under time pressure with no interruption Thisapproach will help students get prepared mentally and used to the testing conditions,thereby avoiding nervous feelings that students may experience during the real test There exist various solutions to help reduce the severity of writingapprehension among students Certain approaches may work for certain people.Hence, teachers and students should work together to find out suitable ways ofteaching and learning to reduces students’ apprehension in writing

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

In the previous chapter, a brief overview of the literature on the research topicwas given, which laid the theoretical basis for the whole study In this chapter, themethod employed to answer the three research questions would be discussed in details.The participants, instruments and procedures of data collection and analysis would bejustified

3.1 Research design

This research will apply mixed method of data collection and analysis,including both quantitative and qualitative strategies To be specific, face-to-facequestionnaires and semi-structured interviews are both conducted in this research Thestudy is carried out in two phases In phase 1, quantitative data will be acquired fromthe first instrument, questionnaires, particularly from the Likert scales questions Inphase 2, qualitative data will be collected from some face-to-face semi-structuredinterviews with participants who are selected according to the result of questionnaire

to gather more in-depth information while ensuring the reliability and validity ofinformation

This combined methodology has been found to be better than either onlyquantitative or only qualitative method (Flemming, 2010; Wisdome, Cavaleri,Onwuegbuzie & Green, 2012) As Johnson, Onwuegbuzie & Turner (2007) stated:

“Mixed methods research capitalizes on the strength of both qualitative andquantitative methodologies by combining approaches in a single research study toincrease the breadth and depth of understanding” (as cited in Wisdom et al, 2012).Both questionnaires and face-to-face semi-structured interviews have their ownadvantages in supporting the researcher in answering the research questions They alsorequire two different analysis strategies The former requires quantitative analysisstrategies while the latter will be analyzed through qualitative ones Consequently,

combining these two methods will offer the researcher the best support in answeringthe research questions

3.2 Participants

3.2.1 Participants in questionnaires

As the purpose of this research is to investigate writing apprehensionamong first-year fast-track students in FELTE, ULIS, VNU, 42 students areselected as the research participants to take part in responding to questionnaires.Studying the same syllabus for writing class, those students are from two differentclasses in the fast-track program They are members of class E1 and E2 majoring

in English Language Teaching

The students at these two classes passed the entrance examination to ULIS,VNU in July, 2013 and then passed the placement test at the beginning of thefreshman year to be qualified as a fast-track student They are currently in thesecond semester of the freshman academic year at this college, and are supposed to

be at higher level than other mainstream students in FELTE, ULIS, VNU Most ofthese participants’ level of English proficiency is pre-intermediate According tothe university’s course outline for fast-track program, these first-year fast-trackstudents are expected to acquire the B2 degree at the end of the second semester ofthe first year Each week, they have a writing class which lasts for around 2 hoursand a half, and have to spend approximately 2 hours each week on writinghomework

3.2.2 Participants in interviews

With regards to the student-informants who take part in interviews oncauses of writing apprehension, a selection process was carried out In order toguarantee the validity and reliability of the samples, this research chose stratified

random sampling, a probability sampling technique According to Agresti &Finlay (2008), stratified sampling is widely used when the entire population isdivided into different subgroups or strata, then the final subjects are randomlyselected proportionally from different strata In the context of this research, thewhole population, or 42 students who participated in questionnaires, were thendivided into three groups according to their levels of writing apprehension: high,moderate or low level of writing anxiety Then 5 interview participants, or around10% of the population, were selected ramdonly and proportionally from these threedifferent groups Hence, each group would have at least 1, and at most 3 interview-informants

With regards to informants participating in the interviews on the possiblesolutions to help students reduce ESL writing apprehension, the two teachers whoare teaching English writing to first-year fast-track students were invited to sharetheir perspectives as well as offer possible suggestions

3.3 Data collection

3.3.1 Data collection instruments

3.3.1.1 Questionnaires

Justification for the use of questionnaires

Questionnaires are “any written instruments that present respondents with aseries of questions or statements to which they are to react either by writing outtheir answers or selecting from among existing answers” (Brown, 2001, p.6)

Over the past two decades, the questionnaire has emerged as one of themost widely used data-elicitation tools in second language research (Oxford andBurry-Stock, 1995) ‘Student-completed, summative rating scales’ (surveymethods) have proven to be one of the most popular methods for second languageresearchers (Oxford and Burry-Stock 1995; Bedell and Oxford 1996)

Questionnaires have helped to generate a broad picture of strategy use acrossdifferent learner populations and to establish relationships between various learnerfactors and learners’ strategy use (Oxford and Crookall 1989; Oxford and Burry-Stock 1995; Cohen 1998; McDonough 1999; Hsiao and Oxford 2002).

Oxford and Burry-Stock (1995) are confident that such a methodologicalapproach can be cost-effective and allow both researchers and participants to gain

a rapid understanding of the participants’ opinions These valuable features ofquestionnaires match the aim of the researcher in finding out the causes for theprocrastination in third year students at the fast-track program at ULIS, VNU aswell as eliciting possible solutions to help students with this problem For thatreason, questionnaires were employed into the study

Questionnaire design

In this study, two questionnaires will be used to answer the researchquestions: Writing Apprehension Test (WAT) and Writing Strategy Questionnaire

Questionnaire 1: Writing apprehension test (WAT)

For this study, the researcher used Daly and Mille’s Writing Apprehension Test(WAT) which was adapted by Gungle and Taylor (1989) to assess students’sapprehension about writing This is a 26-item questionnaire that features 13 items withpositive polarity and 13 with negative polarity Scoring is done on a 5-point Likertscale, which included the variables (1) strongly agree, (2) agree, (3) Uncertain, (4)disagree, (5) strongly disagree This inventory was specifically designed to measureself-reported writing apprehension To date, the WAT is the instrument most widelyused to measure anxiety related to second-language writing Internal consistency of theWAT is high (.94) as is test-retest reliability (.92) This test was originally developedwith reference to first-language learners, particularly English native speakers, andtherefore may not address the essential aspects of foreign-language writing anxiety

Gungle and Taylor adapted it to make the questionnaire suitable for second languagewriting anxiety

The guidelines for processing the questionnaires were clearly stated by Dallyand Miller (1975) The score for each statement chosen as strongly agree, agree,uncertain, disagree, and strongly agree is worth 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 point(s) respectively Thetotal score for each participant was computed by adding the points for all the positivestatements (including statements 1; 4; 5; 7; 8; 13; 16; 18; 21; 22; 24; 25; 26), thensubtracting the sum to the sum of all the negative ones (including statement 2; 3; 6; 9;10; 11; 12; 14; 15; 17; 19; 20; 23) separately Then, the difference of these two sums(positive minus negative) was added to the mean of 78 given by Daly and Miller(1975a) According to Daly and Miller (1975), a total score between 25-59 shows asignificant level of writing apprehension; scores in the middle range from 60-96indicate that the anxiety is moderate, or not significantly unusual Scores in the rangefrom 97-130 indicate a low level of L2 writing anxiety

The lower the scores are, the more severe level of writing apprehension thatthe students are experiencing Besides, Te closer the scores are to the limits of eachrange, the more apt that the students are to experience feelings and behaviorcharacteristics of those who have scores in the range next to the mentioned limits Forexample, for students with moderate level of writing anxiety, if their scores are closer

to 60 than to 96, they tend to have the feelings or behaviors of those who have scores

in the range 25-59 and experience high level of writing apprehension Hence, theresponses to the WAT would help the researcher to answer the first research question:

From the perspective of students, are first-year fast-track students in FELTE, ULIS, VNU suffering from writing apprehension?

Questionnaire 2: Causes of ESL writing apprehension questionnaire

Questionnaire 2 is adapted from Selma (2013) to examine the causes ofESL writing apprehension among first-year fast-track students The researcherchose to adapt the Second Language Writing Anxiety Reason Scale (SLWARS)developed by Selma (2013) because of the similarities in the objectives andparticipants of Selma’s research and those of this study The SLWARS wascreated by Selma to find out the main causes of writing apprehension among 150first-year students at Anadolu University, English Language Teaching Department.Besides, the researcher also chose to adapt the SLWARS because it had well-established reliability and validity Selma administered the SLWARS in the 5thweek of the 14th-week semester and then asked the students to do the SLWARSagain three weeks later for the second time to examine the test-retest reliability ofthe scale The test-retest reliability of the scale was high (.81) as was internalconsistency (.87)

The SLAWRS consists of 20 items, each of which is scored on a five-pointlikert response scale ranging from 1 (strongly agree) to 5 (strongly disagree) Theresearcher adapted the SLAWRS by rearranging the order of 20 items so that theitems belonging to one group of sources of writing apprehension would be next toeach other Hence, the adapted version of the SLAWRS, Causes of ESL WritingApprehension questionnaire, still has 20 items covering different causes of writing

apprehension, particularly lack of topical knowledge (item 1,2), lack of linguistic

knowledge (items 3,4), fear of negative evaluation (items 5,6), low language self-confidence (item 7), lack of writing practice (items 8,9), fear of writing test (item 10), lack of composition techniques (items 11, 12, 13, 14), lack

second-of effective feedbacks from teachers ( items 15, 16), lack second-of effective instructions from teachers (items 17, 18, 19, 20) Besides, Causes of Writing Apprehension

questionnaire was also scored on the five-point likert scale as described above Theresponses to this questionnaire would reveal the answer to the second research

question: From the perspective of students, what are the main causes of writing

apprehension among first-year fast-track students in FELTE, ULIS, VNU?

3.3.1.2 Semi-structured interviews

Justification for the use of interview

Interviewing is a way to collect data as well as to gain knowledge fromindividuals Kvale (1996) regarded interviews as “an interchange of views betweentwo or more people on a topic of mutual interest, sees the centrality of humaninteraction for knowledge production, and emphasizes the social situatedness ofresearch data.”

According to McNamara (1999), interviews are particularly useful for gettingthe story behind a participant’s experiences; the interviewer can pursue in-depthinformation around the topic They may be useful as follow-up to certain respondents.Hence, interviews will complement questionnaires well in eliciting clarification frominterviewees on their answers to the questions on the questionnaires In the case of thestudy, the interviews will be focused on investigating interviewees’ views on thecauses as well as solutions to writing apprehension among first-year fast-track students

in FELTE, ULIS, VNU

Interview design

The researcher chooses to use semi-structured form in which the interviewersuse a list of guided questions to elicit answers and/or explanations from theparticipants According to Drever (1995), semi-structured interviews enables the deepexploration of experiences and give interviewees freedom in responses whileinterviewers still retain control over the course of the whole interaction All theinterviews are conducted face-to face because face-to-face interviewing is appropriatewhere the depth of meaning is important and the research is primarily focused in

gaining insight and understanding (Gillham 2000, page 11; Ritchie &Lewis 2003,p.138)

The interviews’ purpose was to use conversation, discussion, as wellquestioning, of students or teachers to provide insights on the investigated subjects

Interviews with selected students: The interview aims at getting in-depth

information about the causes of writing apprehension among first year-fast trackstudents, and to see if levels of writing apprehension affect the sources of writingapprehension in students or not The information collected from these interviews alongwith the data from the questionnaire 2 would help the researcher answer the second

research question: From the perspective of students, what are the main causes of

writing apprehension among first-year fast-track students in FELTE, ULIS, VNU?

Interview with teachers: The interview aims at eliciting possible solutions to

writing apprehension from the perspective of teachers The guided questions for theinterviews are designed based on the results from the questionnaires to collect in-depthinputs from targeted interviewees The responses received during these interviews

would help the researcher answer the third research question: From the perspective of

teachers, what are possible solutions in teaching and learning to help reduce writing apprehension among first-year fast-track students in FELTE, ULIS, VNU?

3.3.2 Data collection procedures

The procedure of collecting data fundamentally comprises of two mainsteps which will be conducted in turn

Since classes E1 and E2 have different timetables, to avoid coincidence, theresearcher initially contacted the monitors of the two classes and then arrangedappropriate time to distribute the questionnaires

 Step 2: Distribute and collect the questionnaires

On the days of appointment, the researcher came to the classes andadministered the questionnaires The researcher started off by introducing theresearch, the aim of the research as well as the significance of the students’participation in this study Then the researcher introduced the twoquestionnaires, guided students how they should complete them Thequestionnaires were distributed and collected at the same days

of writing apprehension

After the questionnaires were thoroughly analyzed and calculated, the studentswere divided into three groups depending on their levels of writingapprehension: high, moderate or low level of writing apprehension Then,stratified random sampling method was carried out to randomly select 5participants for the interviews on the causes of writing apprehension Thenumber of selected students from each group depended on the number ofmembers in that group The more members a group had, the more studentswould be chosen as participants in the interviews Each group would have atleast 1 member, and at most 3 ones, selected to take part in the interviews onsources of writing apprehension After the selection process was done, theresearcher contacted the targeted students and invited them to join theinterviews

participants

On the interview day, the researcher started with the introduction of theresearch, the aims of the interview and emphasized the significance of theparticipants’ answers to the research The researcher also made sure toguarantee confidentiality of interviewees’ participation During the interview,

the interviewer kept track of the sequence of questions, maintained acomfortable atmosphere, and encouraged responses of reflection, clarificationfrom interviewees in a controlled way The researcher also used a tape recorder

to record the exact words of interviewees The interviews were conducted inEnglish; the researcher also offered to interview in Vietnamese when neededbut the interviewees all felt comfortable using English

writing apprehension

After the main causes of writing apprehension are revealed, the researchercontacted two teachers who were teaching class E1 and E2 English writing toinvite them to join the interviews on possible solutions to help students copewith the main causes of writing apprehension

The details on how to conduct these interviews are similar to the ones in Step 4

3.4 Data analysis

3.4.1 Data analysis instrument

The data collected was analyzed using the qualitative and quantitative methods.Particularly, quantitative data will be collected from two questionnaires For the firstquestionnaire Writing Apprehension Test, the scores of each response were calculatedbased on the instructions from the writers, Daly and Miller With three ranges ofscores given, participants were divided into three groups of high, moderate or lowwriting apprehension respectively Those data gave the research the information toanswer the first research question For the Causes of ESL Writing Apprehensionquestionnaire, data was analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences(SPSS) 18, a widely used computer application for statistical analysis in social science.The descriptive analysis was employed On the other hand, qualitative data wascollected from semi-structured interviews

The researcher decided to mix two methods because some drawbacks of asingle method can be improved For example, as stated above, interview is useful toadd more in –depth information for the research compared with what is taken fromquestionnaire Jick (1979) assumed that “by using several data sources, methods andinvestigators one can neutralize bias inherent in one particular data source, investigator

or method” The subjectivity of data can be reduced if it is collected from more than asingle source Moreover, the mix of two methods can also eliminate the lack thevalidity and reliability of data The researcher can diversify ways to ask similarquestions to check the validity of the answers “to enhance an investigation” (Jick,1979)

3.4.2 Data analysis procedures

3.4.2.1 Data analysis from instrument 1 - questionnaires

answer the first research question

Quantitative method was applied to analyze the responses for the WATquestionnaires The scores of the responses were calculated on the scale of 26-

130 Based on the scores, the researcher divided the students into three groups.Those students who had their scores ranging from 26 to 59 were placed in the

High writing apprehension group Those with scores ranging from 60 to 96

were put in the Moderate writing apprehension group Those with scores ranging from 97 to 130 were placed in the Low writing apprehension group.

Then the percentage of each group was calculated to answer the first researchquestion about the situation of writing apprehension among first-year fast-trackstudents in ULIS

Questionnaire to answer the second research question

The data collected was recorded in SPSS 18 program to calculate the meanscores, standard deviations of each item in the questionnaire Comparing themean scores and standard deviations, the researcher would find out the majorcauses of writing apprehension, thereby getting the data to answer the secondresearch question.

3.4.2.2 Data analysis from instrument 2 – semi-structured interviews

After conducting the interviews with the students, the researcher spent aroundfour days to transcribe the scripts of the interviews to make them convenient foranalysis and quoting later Instead of transcribing all the speaking turns duringthe interviews, the researcher chose to write down only important points thathelp give clues to the questions

The information from the interviews was analyzed The researcher alsosummarized similar responses, clarified main ideas from the answers andcompared and contrasted them

to answer second research question

The results from Causes of ESL Writing Apprehension questionnaire and structured interviews with selected students were combined to answer researchquestion 2 on the main causes of writing apprehension among first-year fast-track students in FELTE, ULIS, VNU

The details on how this step was carried out were similar to the ones in Step 1

This step was carried out in the similar way as in Step 2 to propose answers forthe third research question on the possible solutions to reduce writingapprehension among first-year fast-track students in FELTE, ULIS, VNU.

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

In the previous chapter, the methodology of the study has been clarified withdescriptions of the participants, the instruments and the process of data collection andanalysis In this chapter, all the data collected from two instruments (questionnaire andinterview) will be revealed and discussed in detail in order to answer the researchquestions In the first section of this chapter, the writing apprehension levels amongfirst-year fast-track students in ULIS, VNU is revealed The second part is about themain causes of writing apprehension among first-year fast-track students Lastly, thethird part of this chapter proposes possible solutions in teaching and learning to helpreduce writing apprehension among those first-year fast-track students The answers tothe three research questions take turns to be illustrated in this chapter

4.1 Writing apprehension levels among first-year fast-track students in FELTE, ULIS-VNU.

The total score that each respondent gets on the Writing Apprehension Testwill determine the level of writing apprehension that the student is suffering from asdiscussed in the Methodology chapter Students are categorized as high apprehensive,moderate and low apprehensive writers if their scores are in the range 25-59, 60-96and 97-130 respectively The closer the scores are to 25, the more severe level of

writing apprehension the respondents are experiencing; the closer the scores are to

130, the more insignificant level of writing anxiety the students are dealing with.Figure I displays the distribution of writing apprehension levels among targetedstudents based on their apprehension level

Figure 1: Writing apprehension levels among first-year fast-track students in FELTE,

ULIS-VNU

Results from the data for Writing Apprehension Test show that all studentssuffer from some level of writing apprehension The majority of the students (31 out of42) or 74% of the participants score between 25 and 59 on the Writing ApprehensionTest and are suffering from high level of writing anxiety 3 other students or 7% of therespondents who have scores in the range 60-96 on the Writing Apprehension Test areexperiencing moderate level of writing apprehension The remaining 8 participants, or19% of the respondents, score between 97 and 130 and are dealing with low level ofwriting anxiety

Table 1 below shows the severity of writing apprehension among first yearfast-track students in more details.

Table 1: Writing apprehension levels among first-year fast-track students in FELTE,ULIS-VNU

Low level of writing apprehension 97-130 113.5 119.5

As mentioned earlier, students with a score of 25 experience the highest level

of writing apprehension, while students with a score of 130 suffer from the lowestlevel of writing anxiety Besides, for each range of score, if the students have scorescloser to the limits, they tend to experience the thoughts and feelings of those whosescores are in the range next to the addressed limits For example, if students withmoderate level of writing apprehension have scores closer to the limit 60 than to thelimit 96, they tend to have the thoughts, feelings of those with high level of writingapprehension It can be seen from Table 1 that the mean score of those who experiencehigh level of writing apprehension is 39.06, which is lower than the median 42 of thescore range This indicates that these students have scores closer to the limit of 25 andare dealing with significantly high level of writing apprehension For students withmoderate level of writing anxiety, their mean score is 73 which is also lower to themedian 78 of the score range 60-96 This result implies that the students who aredealing with moderate level of writing apprehension tend to have the feelings andbehaviors of those who have high level of writing anxiety On the other hand, forrespondents with low level of writing apprehension, their mean score is 117.5, which

is higher than the median score of the range 97-130 That the participants with lowlevel of writing anxiety have scores closer to the limit of 130 reveals that they sufferfrom negligible level of writing apprehension

In general, the majority of first-year fast-track students in FELTE, ULIS aresuffering from significant apprehension in writing Only a small number of 8 out of 42participants are experiencing negligible level of writing apprehension Hence, anxiety

in writing is a severe problem among these students Attention should be paid toinvestigate the causes as well as possible solutions to help students reduce their levels

of apprehension in writing and improve their writing experience

4.2 Main causes of writing apprehension among first-year fast-track students in FELTE, ULIS, VNU

Table 2 below presents the results of questionnaire 2 on the causes of writingapprehension among first-year fast-track students in ULIS

Table 2: Causes of writing apprehension among first-year fast-track students in FELTE,ULIS, VNU

Causes of writing apprehension Mean Standard

deviation

1 When there is a topic, I do not know what to write about

2 I have difficulty in finding topics to write 1.97 0.816

3 I cannot express myself in English because I lack

grammar knowledge

2.98 1.002

4 I cannot write because I lack vocabulary 1.29 0.681

5 I feel afraid of receiving criticism on my writings from

6 I feel afraid of receiving negative comments on my

compositions from my friends

2.89 1.531

7 Writing is not for me because only skilled people can

8 I am not successful because I do not study regularly for

9 I have difficulty in this course because I do not have

writing habit

3.08 1.319

10 I fear the writing test in the final exam 1.42 0.712

11 I cannot organize what I want to write 3.18 0.653

12 I cannot combine ideas to each other when I write 2.41 1.379

13 I do not know how to support my ideas well 2.57 0.693

14 I do not know how to begin writing 3.41 1.523

15 The teacher does not answer students‟ questions 4.03 0.812

16 The teacher does not give feedback to student writing 3.98 0.915

17 The teacher does not give enough examples 3.69 1.251

18 The teacher passes on the new subjects very fast 4.17 0.711

19 The teacher does not teach the subjects clearly 3.84 0.974

20 The teacher spends little time showing me how to write 4.15 0.729

Because questionnaire 2 consists of 20 items scored on a five-point likertresponse scale ranging from 1 (strongly agree), 2 (agree), 3 (uncertain), 4 (disagree) to

5 (strongly disagree), the causes which have the mean score of less than or equal to 2are the sources of writing apprehension that most students claim to suffer from

As can be seen from the table, the mean scores for the causes range from 1.29 to4.17 out of 5, which indicates that the students feel apprehensive of writing for variousreasons However, of the 20 causes mentioned, lack of linguistic competency,

particularly lack of vocabulary (I cannot write because I lack vocabulary), fear of test (I fear the writing test in the final exams) and lack of topical knowledge (When there

is a topic, I do not know what to write about that topic; I have difficulties in finding topics to write) are the ones with the lowest mean score of 1.29; 1.42; 1.84 and 1.97

respectively The results signal that the three mentioned causes are the main factorsleading to apprehension in writing among first-year fast-track students

Besides the mean score, stand deviation, or the amount of dispersion around themean, also needs being taken into account to determine the main causes of writingapprehension With the mean score of 1.29, lack of linguistic competency has astandard deviation of 0.681, which means that individual responses on average might

be 0.681 away from the mean Fear of test has a standard deviation of 0.712, whichindicates that the scores for this source of writing apprehension on average might be0,712 away from the mean of 1.42 Similarly, lack of topical knowledge has a standarddeviation of 0.707 (item 1) and 0.816 (item 2), which shows that individual responsesfor this cause might be 0.707 or 0.816 away from the mean of 1.84 and 1.97respectively In general, with these mentioned values of standard deviation, it can beconcluded that individual responses for the three discussed causes of writingapprehension do not deviate much from the mean Hence, from the data collected fromthe questionnaire 2, the main causes of writing apprehension among first-year fast-track students in FELTE, ULIS are lack of linguistic competency (particularlyinadequate vocabulary), fear of test and lack of topical knowledge

The above three causes are the main sources of writing apprehension among thewhole population Table 3 below demonstrates the main causes of writingapprehension by the levels of writing anxiety among first-year fast-track students