Writing Anxiety: EFL Postgraduate Students Writing Research Papers in English

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Montarat Rungruangthum

Abstract

This paper aims to examine the factors that lead to writing anxiety as perceived by EFL learners and the strategies they use to cope with their anxiety while writing research papers in English. Four postgraduate students (three Thai and one Chinese) studying in the first-year international PhD program in Applied Linguistics were asked to submit their research papers at the end of the course. The Second Language Writing Anxiety Inventory (SLWAI) questionnaire was administered in Weeks 10 and 14 to assess their anxiety levels while they
were writing their papers. A semi-structured interview was used to elicit the causes of writing anxiety and coping strategies. The results show that the factors causing anxiety about their writing were: teachers and grading. Leki’s (1995) framework of coping strategies reveal that these participants frequently used Focusing strategies and Stopping writing when they wrote research papers in English.

Key words: Writing anxiety, writing research paper, and English as a Foreign
Language

Article Details

How to Cite
Rungruangthum, M. (2014). Writing Anxiety: EFL Postgraduate Students Writing Research Papers in English. Journal of Studies in the English Language, 6. Retrieved from https://so04.tci-thaijo.org/index.php/jsel/article/view/21854
Issue
Vol. 6 (2011)
Section
Articles
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Author Biography

Montarat Rungruangthum

Montarat Rungruangthum is a PhD. candidate in Applied Linguistics at King Mongkut’s University of Technology
Thonburi, under the program Strategic Scholarships for Frontier Research Network. Her research interests are linguistics
and social psychology. Currently, she is conducting research on cyber deception by Thai internet users. She can be reached
at lect.montarat@gmail.com