Students\u27 writing proficiency and level of anxiety toward academic English writing

There is a growing interest in promoting strong writing skills among college and university students as a majority of their academic tasks are written in form. When learners faced a bulk of writing tasks, they may possibly experience different levels of anxiety toward writing. The need to examine the writing proficiency and anxiety levels among students in the tertiary level led to the fulfillment of the study. Participants include forty-two (42) college freshman students from one of the satellite campuses of Batangas State University. Data obtained comprises of a writing performance test, Second Language Writing Anxiety Inventory (SLWAI) Cheng (2004), and a semi-structured interview. The results of the study indicated that although the college freshmen were performing well, with average to high writing proficiency as revealed in the writing performance test, they have moderate to high levels of writing anxiety. This explains the facilitative effect of anxiety, which makes students perform well despite the given circumstance. Cognitive anxiety was the most common type of anxiety, followed by avoidance anxiety, and lastly the somatic anxiety. From the perspective of the students, writing course can be made interesting by creating a class of stress-free environment that focuses on learners\u27 writing needs and expectations rather than setting far-achieved goals and putting too much pressure that could have debilitative effect in their writing performance. © 2019 Author(s)