This document summarizes a study on the foreign language writing anxiety of Turkish EFL pre-service teachers. The study found that the majority of participants had moderate writing anxiety levels and there was a negative correlation between anxiety levels and writing performance. Participants reported difficulties with vocabulary usage, expressing ideas, and following writing rules and formats. They associated their anxiety with exams, time pressure, and lack of writing practice. The study recommends reducing anxiety through self-evaluation, peer review, and process-based writing instruction to help pre-service teachers and future students.

1. A Closer Look at the Foreign
Language Writing Anxiety of
Turkish EFL Pre-service
Teachers
Zafer SUSOY & Seray TANYER
Hazırlayan
Anadolu University – Eskişehir/TURKEY

2. A Closer Look at the Foreign Language Writing Anxiety of Turkish EFL Pre-service Teachers
 The focus of writing classes: on the written product
rather than on the writing process.
 Students writing short paragraphs or occasional
short essays
 Students’ occasional work are corrected gramatically
(Mechanical feedback)
 Other aspects of writing process are hardly touched

3. A Closer Look at the Foreign Language Writing Anxiety of Turkish EFL Pre-service Teachers
Writing
in
Tertiary
Level
Learners expected to write welldeveloped English essays
 to pursue academic goals
 to pass the prep-classes offered
in many universities
 to succeed in many degree
programs

4. A Closer Look at the Foreign Language Writing Anxiety of Turkish EFL Pre-service Teachers
Why pre-service English teachers ?
 Scarce number of research on writing anxiety from
the perspective of pre-service English teachers in a
Turkish context (Atay and Kurt, 2006; Kurt and
Atay, 2007; Öztürk and Çeçen, 2007)
 Future teachers playing an important role in molding
their students’ ideas and attitudes towards writing
(Palmquist and Young, 1992)

5. A Closer Look at the Foreign Language Writing Anxiety of Turkish EFL Pre-service Teachers
The foreign language writing anxiety levels
of Turkish pre-service teachers of EFL
The relationship between the writing
anxiety and the writing performance
Underlying perceptions and attitudes
towards writing in L2 as well as possible
sources of writing anxiety

6. A Closer Look at the Foreign Language Writing Anxiety of Turkish EFL Pre-service Teachers
What is the level of writing anxiety of
Turkish EFL pre-service teachers?
Is there any relationship between the
participants’ writing anxiety and writing
performance?
What are the participants’ underlying
perceptions and attitudes towards writing
in L2?

7. A Closer Look at the Foreign Language Writing Anxiety of Turkish EFL Pre-service Teachers
Randomly selected
‘Academic Writing
and Report Writing’
course
48
(Fourty-eight)
pre-service
teachers of English
Between ages
18-21

8. A Closer Look at the Foreign Language Writing Anxiety of Turkish EFL Pre-service Teachers
Second Language
Writing
Apprehension
Inventory (SLWAI)
(Cheng, 2004)
An open-ended
questionnaire
comprised of 6
questions (Atay
and Kurt, 2006)
The participants’
first midterm
exam scores as
an index of their
writing
performance

9. A Closer Look at the Foreign Language Writing Anxiety of Turkish EFL Pre-service Teachers
The SLWAI and the students’ writing scores
were analyzed by means of SPSS 20.
Pearson Correlation Coefficient test
One-way ANOVA
Pattern coding strategy for the open-ended
questionnaire(Miles and Huberman,1994).

10. A Closer Look at the Foreign Language Writing Anxiety of Turkish EFL Pre-service Teachers
the nearest number.
M
SD
Min.
Max.
Writing Score
59.69
15.824
5
87
Anxiety Score
67.38
13.500
26
91
Anxiety Category
Frequency (N=48)
Percentage*
Low Anxiety
10
21
Moderate Anxiety
29
60
High Anxiety
9
19
*The percentages were rounded off to the nearest number.

11. A Closer Look at the Foreign Language Writing Anxiety of Turkish EFL Pre-service Teachers
A significant negative (-) weak correlation between writing
anxiety level and writing performance (r=-0.288, p < .05)
The Distribution of Writing Scores in Three Anxiety Level

12. A Closer Look at the Foreign Language Writing Anxiety of Turkish EFL Pre-service Teachers
*p<.0
The Results of One-way Anova
Writing Score
Sum of
Squares
df
Mean
Square
F
Between groups
856.096
2
428.048
1.765
Within groups
10912.216
45
242.494
Total
11768.313
47

13. A Closer Look at the Foreign Language Writing Anxiety of Turkish EFL Pre-service Teachers
Table 4 Perceived difficulties about writing in L2
Inappropriate Usage and Meaning of Vocabulary
Fixed Patterns and rules of writing
Inability to express one’s thoughts in L2
Inability to generate ideas
Writing topic
Time of Writing
No Perceived Difficulty
Number of respondents: 31
Frequency(f)
14
7
5
4
3
3
3
Percentage(%)
45
22
16
12
9
9
9

14. A Closer Look at the Foreign Language Writing Anxiety of Turkish EFL Pre-service Teachers
 ‘A word might have more than one meaning and I cannot
decide which one to use’
 ‘ I have great difficulty if I cannot use a dictionary. Because
I can forget even the most common words while writing’
 ‘ It is difficult to express my ideas effectively due to my
inadequate vocabulary knowledge’
 ‘ I cannot be creative, cannot deviate from some certain
patterns’
 ‘ There are lots of rules. I forget what I will write while
concentrating on the rules’

15. A Closer Look at the Foreign Language Writing Anxiety of Turkish EFL Pre-service Teachers
Table 5 People and situations associated with writing anxiety
Worries about exams and grades
Lack of previous writing practice and vocabulary
Time Pressure
Rules of Academic Writing
Writing Topics
Intensive Excitement
High Self-Expectations
Teachers
Peers
No Person Indicated
Number of respondents: 25
(f)
(%)
8
32
5
4
4
4
1
1
2
2
21
20
16
16
16
4
4
8
8
84

16. A Closer Look at the Foreign Language Writing Anxiety of Turkish EFL Pre-service Teachers
 ‘I get more anxious in cases where writing is
compulsory’
 ‘The pressure of completing writing on time makes
me panic’
 ‘While sitting in the exams, I feel too much pressure
on myself making me forget even the easiest words’
 ‘The only reason is that I have just met this kind of
serious issues, for the first time in my life’

17. A Closer Look at the Foreign Language Writing Anxiety of Turkish EFL Pre-service Teachers
Table 6 Physical Reactions to L2 writing
(f)
(%)
Sweating
Becoming Tense
Increase in the Heart Rate
Blushing
Handshaking
Fewer
Headache
No Physical Change
10
7
4
3
3
2
2
9
35
25
14
10
10
7
7
32
Number of respondents: 28

18. A Closer Look at the Foreign Language Writing Anxiety of Turkish EFL Pre-service Teachers
Table 7 Feelings About Writing
(f)
(%)
Hesitant About the Quality of the Written Product
Self-Confident and Satisfied
Uneasy About the Topic
Nervous
10
9
5
5
34
31
17
17
Number of respondents: 29

19. A Closer Look at the Foreign Language Writing Anxiety of Turkish EFL Pre-service Teachers
 ‘Whenever I write essays in English, I cannot help
asking to myself if I wrote well and correctly or if
I would get a good grade’
 ‘It is not because I don’t like writing. I have fears of
not making logical and correct sentences’
 ‘It feels as if there was always something missing in
my writing. The thought of my friends writing better
than me makes me nervous’

20. A Closer Look at the Foreign Language Writing Anxiety of Turkish EFL Pre-service Teachers
Table 8 Sharing of the Writing Anxiety Experiences
(f)
(%)
Those who share
with a classmate
no person indicated
Those who do not share
18
16
2
10
64
57
7
35
Number of respondents: 28

21. A Closer Look at the Foreign Language Writing Anxiety of Turkish EFL Pre-service Teachers
 ‘No, I haven’t shared. I don’t see any point in
complaining as there is no other way’
 ‘I do not share because I don’t think that it will work’
 ‘Yes, I frankly share. I go after my friends who are very
good in this course’
 ‘I shared and I received lots of advice’
 ‘With my classmates. We talk about the homework. These
are our common issues’
 ‘I share with my friends. We often share the same
worries’

22. A Closer Look at the Foreign Language Writing Anxiety of Turkish EFL Pre-service Teachers
Table 9 The Effects of Writing Attitudes on Future Teaching
(f)
(%)
Positive Effect
Performing writing practices eagerly
Pursuit of Academic Goals
Professional Success
Negative Effect
13
7
3
3
16
44
24
10
10
55
Number of respondents: 29

23. A Closer Look at the Foreign Language Writing Anxiety of Turkish EFL Pre-service Teachers
• ‘The reason I have difficulty in writing now is that we had
almost no writing
instruction before university. So I
definitely want to employ writing practices in the future’
• ‘I will help my students more just because I myself like
writing’
• ‘I hope I will not forget the importance of writing until
graduation and can impose the same on my students, too.’
• ‘The better I write, the more a successful teacher I will be’
• ‘I want to work at a university. I know writing articles in
academic life is very important’

24. A Closer Look at the Foreign Language Writing Anxiety of Turkish EFL Pre-service Teachers
 ‘How will I teach when I cannot write?’
 ‘I don’t think I will write in L2 in the
future’
 ‘I know that my insufficient English
writing will cause some problems in my
future teaching life’.

25. A Closer Look at the Foreign Language Writing Anxiety of Turkish EFL Pre-service Teachers
conventional teacher-centered evaluation
versus
contemporary evaluation methods such as
peer-reviewing or self-evaluation
(Kurt and Atay, 2007; Jahin, 2012)

26. A Closer Look at the Foreign Language Writing Anxiety of Turkish EFL Pre-service Teachers
 Self-evaluation (highly proficient
learners)
 Providing checklists or diaries to
encourage self-evaluation.
Zhang (2011)

27. A Closer Look at the Foreign Language Writing Anxiety of Turkish EFL Pre-service Teachers
Portfolio keeping
(Öztürk and Çeçen, 2007)
Guided writing techniques emphasizing the
writing process and providing aid and
encouragement during the writing process
(Januartini, Nitiasih and Suarnajaya, 2013)

28. A Closer Look at the Foreign Language Writing Anxiety of Turkish EFL Pre-service Teachers
Intervening in the writing process and using
more positive reinforcement and constructive
feedback to the students’ written work
Majority of the participants of this study
indicated a hesitation about their written
product.

29. Thank you for your attention
and interest…
Res. Asst. Zafer SUSOY (zsusoy@anadolu.edu.tr)
Res. Asst. Seray TANYER (seraytanyer@anadolu.edu.tr)
Hazırlayan
Anadolu University – Eskişehir/TURKEY