Abstract

The tenet of this study is to investigate the use of writing strategies in reducing writing apprehension and uncovering its effect on EFL students` writing achievement. It also attempts to explore associations between foreign language apprehension, writing achievement and writing strategies. The primary aims of the study were to explore the relationship between writing strategies that EFL university students employ and writing apprehension, relationship between writing strategies use and students` writing achievement, and differences between high and low writing anxiety in their writing strategy use. Data were drawn from 198 (68 males and 130 females) EFL-major university students. The participants were asked to respond to a Writing Anxiety Inventory (SLWAI; Second Language Writing Anxiety Inventory) (Cheng, 2004) and to complete a Writing Strategies Inventory (Petric & Czarl, 2003). Some interviews were also conducted with some students to explore salient effective writing strategies that they used and the difficulties they faced during writing composition. Correlation, t-test, and ANOVA analyses were used to determine relationships between writing strategies and writing achievement and between students of high and low anxiety. The results of the study calls into question the common assumption that some of the Saudi undergraduates’ writing apprehension is pertinent to writing achievement. The results indicated that students with low writing anxiety were more users of writing strategies than the high anxious ones. Moreover, a significant negative correlation was found between students’ writing apprehension and their writing achievement.

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