Abstract

Writing is an important skill in language learning and in academic achievement. The level of writing anxiety could affect students' achievements positively or negatively. This research aimed to examine the writing anxiety among Saudi female learners enrolled in English language departments at some Saudi universities. It also aimed to identify the sources of writing anxiety. To this end, a mixed method study was designed in which Writing Apprehension Test (WAT) Scale by Daly and Miller (1975) and an open-ended question were used to collect necessary data from 105 randomly selected learners. For data analysis, two different statistical procedures in Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and a specific formula suggested by Daly and Miller (1975) were applied. Coding was applied to qualitative data. The results indicated that the participants (N = 105) experience moderate level of writing anxiety. In addition, the main sources of writing anxiety were evaluation, generating ideas, grammar, time pressure, and lack of confidence.

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