Writing anxiety in the midst of the pandemic

• Main Author: Ugalingan, Gina B.
• Format: text
• Published: Animo Repository 2021
• Subjects: Rhetoric; Performance anxiety; VID-19 Pandemic, 2020- —Influence; Other English Language and Literature
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/faculty_research/11115
• Institution: De La Salle University

In the midst of the pandemic, students grapple with the different challenges of accomplishing their academic requirements while adjusting to the unfamiliar territory of fully online distance learning. Students know that having good writing skills is important as they are evaluated on how they clearly express their knowledge and understanding of the lessons. The ability to produce good written outputs especially among tertiary students is expected based on the assumption that they have learned the basic structures of a good paragraph in grade school and high school. On the contrary, ESL writers are often anxious and insecure with their writing skills. Bandura’s (1997) self-efficacy theory explains that students with high writing self-efficacy perform better than those who have little confidence about their writing abilities. Students who are experiencing writing anxiety might not be able to produce high-marked outputs. This study aims to identify the different levels of writing anxiety experienced by the Purposive Communication students as they accomplish their writing output. The study utilized the Second Language Writing Anxiety Inventory (Cheng, 2004) where it measures three categories of writing anxiety, namely, somatic, cognitive and avoidance behavior. The participants of the study were ninety-five (95) Purposive Communication undergraduate students of De La Salle University-Manila. Results showed that as a group, the participants experienced moderate to slightly moderate levels of writing anxiety. Among the three categories of writing anxiety, results showed that participants scored a moderate level of writing anxiety in the cognitive category. Key Words: writing anxiety; ESL tertiary students; online distance learning; self-efficacy