Performance anxiety has been a much-discussed topic in recent years, but many questions surrounding it remain unanswered. This essay investigates how written corrective feedback affects students' performance anxiety and how students and teachers attempt respond to performance anxiety in the classroom. Two questionnaires were administered to teachers and students to investigate how they give and receive feedback and how they handle negative emotions. The results show that a large majority of the students experience anxiety about written assignments and that teachers need to work more on teaching emotional regulation in the classroom to help students better deal with performance anxiety.

No description available.

Compared with first language (L1) writing, writing in a second or foreign language (L2) is considered to be more challenging and difficult. The challenges and difficulties may result from both the cognitive and the affective aspects of writing. To mitigate the difficulties of L2 writing and help students master L2 writing, teachers could consider using the pedagogical strategies which can help enhance students' cognition in writing or students' writing performance, and also can help reduce students' fear of L2 writing. One of the pedagogical strategies is online collaborative writing supported by CMC. Collaborative learning helps enhance students' cognitive outcomes, such as academic achievement and cognitive development, as well as produce less anxiety in learning. CMC facilitates collaboration, and also provides more chances for interaction which could result in more thoughts. The more thoughts would facilitate to compose. Therefore, it is assumed that online collaborative writing is more effective than traditional collaborative writing in terms of writing performance and writing anxiety. The present study is a quasi-experimental study. Participants were 101 first-year college students from two intact classes of a private university in Taiwan. One class was randomly assigned as the control class. Participants were engaged in traditional collaborative writing. The other was the experimental class. Students wrote collaboratively via blogs. Before the treatment, both classes were asked to completed a background survey, a pre-test L2 writing anxiety questionnaire, and a pre-test individual writing task. The treatment lasted for ten weeks during which each collaborative group in both classes completed five collaborative writing tasks. After the treatment, a collaborative writing questionnaire, a post-test L2 writing anxiety questionnaire, and a post-test individual writing task were administered to all participants. Semi-structured individual interviews were conducted to the students who made the largest, medium, and lowest gains in both classes. Quantitative and qualitative analyses were conducted to analyze the data. In terms of the quantitative results, there were no significant difference in collaborative writing performance and the quantity of individual writing between classes. The experimental class only significantly performed better than the control class in the quality of individual writing. Concerning the writing anxiety measured, the control class was significantly lower than the experimental class. Regarding students' perceptions, the results of the questionnaire showed that the control class made much more positive responses than the experimental class. As for the qualitative results, students' interviews revealed (1) the function of collaborative writing, (2) the features of the media, (3) the difficulty they encounter during collaborative writing, (4) the positive and negative factors influencing their motivation to write, and (5) their suggestions for teachers. The qualitative results support the quantitative results. Overall, this dissertation study found that, based on statistic results, traditional collaborative writing seems to be more effective than blog-supported collaborative writing in decreasing the writing anxiety of the EFL college students with weaker English ability and little writing experience. In addition, according to students' perceptions and interview results, traditional collaborative writing also appears to be more acceptable in this context. Although the statistic results suggest that the effect of blog-supported collaborative writing on writing performance and writing anxiety seems to be limited and little probably due to the use of blogs as individual and synchronous tools, its effectiveness can not be completely denied because students' perceptions and interviews suggest its positive influence and outcome. L2 teachers are suggested to provide more training sessions, employ the collaborative writing activity as an out-of-class assignment, and carefully monitor the process of collaborative writing if they do use blogs in L2 writing instruction.

The aim of this study was to measure the level of ESL writing anxiety experienced by Chinese English majors. The effects of ESL writing anxiety on English writing performance, the students’ perception of the main causes of ESL writing anxiety and their learning style preferences in ESL writing class were also examined, which provided pedagogical implications of successful learning and teaching strategies for reducing ESL writing anxiety. This study was based on quantitative research and three questionnaires were used to collect data. The results of the SLWAI showed that there is a high level of ESL writing anxiety among Chinese English majors, and the Cognitive Anxiety is the most common type of ESL writing anxiety. The differences in the level of English writing anxiety between the groups of freshmen and sophomores reached the level of statistical significance. The sophomores were found to suffer significantly higher levels of English writing anxiety than the freshmen. Correlation analysis results suggested a negative relationship between measure of ESL writing anxiety and measures of writing performance (course grade and timed writing grade). An in-depth analysis of the causes of ESL writing anxiety revealed that linguistic difficulties, insufficient writing practice, fear of tests (TEM), lack of topical knowledge and low self-confidence in writing performance constitute the main sources of ESL writing anxiety experienced by Chinese English majors. Furthermore, suggestions on learning and teaching strategies for reducing ESL writing anxiety were provided on the basis of the acknowledge of sources of ESL writing anxiety and students’ learning style preferences in ESL writing class.

Son escasos los estudios enfocados en la ansiedad lingüística con respecto de las habilidades de escritura y lectura durante la formación de traductores. Asimismo, existe falta de conocimiento en la carrera de Traducción e Interpretación Profesional sobre la ansiedad lectora y escritora que se produce en los estudiantes durante el proceso de traducción en los talleres de traducción francés en la lengua extranjera. La presente investigación se centra en conocer las experiencias de ansiedad ante la lectura y escritura en francés durante el proceso de traducción en estudiantes de los cursos Traducción Directa 1 (Francés), Traducción Directa 2 (Francés) y Traducción Inversa (Francés). Para ello, se propone obtener información de los estudiantes mediante guías de grupo focal e inventarios (FLRAI y SLWAI). Se realizará la traducción de estos inventarios a partir del proceso de traducción y adaptación de la Organización Mundial de la Salud para adaptarlos al público objetivo. / There are few studies that focus on foreign language anxiety towards writing and reading skills during translator training. There is also lack of knowledge in the Professional Translation and Interpretation program regarding students’ reading and writing anxiety during the translation process in French translation workshops. This research focuses on understanding the experiences of reading and writing anxiety in French during the translation process in students of the courses French into Spanish Translation 1, French into Spanish Translation 2 and Spanish into French Translation. Therefore, we propose focus group guides and inventories such as FLRAI and SLWAI to obtain information from the students. These inventories will be translated based on the World Health Organization's process of translation and adaptation of instruments to suit the target audience. / Trabajo de investigación

In the current study, we explore and present different advantages creative writing can have on ESL and EFL-students’ writing and their attitude towards writing. We have also discovered some problems ESL or EFL-learners can come across in terms of writing in another language. In the syllabus for English in upper secondary school, it is stipulated that the students should be able to use their English in different situations. However, this is not always as easy as it might seem. Many ESL and EFL students claim that they feel anxious when it comes to writing in English, especially in an academic way, and do not feel confident enough with their own language production. This self-doubt is not unique for a specific country or region, it occurs all over the globe, and our Swedish students are certainly not an exception. Research shows that by practicing writing in a more creative and free way, the students can develop their language in a more relaxed setting, and at the same time increase their confidence and self-esteem regarding their language production.

No description available.