WRITING ANXIETY: A CASE STUDY OF APPLIED LINGUISTICS POST-GRADUATE STUDENTS

Adamma M. Amadi

Abstract


The ability to write in English language is essential for postgraduate students in the Department of English. Therefore, this study assesses the level of writing anxiety amongst students in a public university in Malaysia. This study adopts Cheng’s (2004) Second Language Writing Anxiety Inventory (SLWAI). The SLWAI have proven to have a high internal consistency. The participants for this research were 20 postgraduate students. This study was conducted when the students were writing a conference proceeding for their assessment. The reliability of the instrument was carried out and the result shows a strong reliability of .847. The analysis and its elucidations show that most of the students have moderate anxiety. 60% of the students have moderate anxiety, 10% have high anxiety and 30% have low anxiety. On the preponderance of the types of anxiety, somatic anxiety has the highest mean. The study, therefore, concludes that most of the students exhibit physiological symptoms such as nervousness, sweat, and tension when writing in English.

Keywords


Writing anxiety, Postgraduate students, Applied Linguistics, SLWAI

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