Words under Pressure: An Empirical Investigation of ESL Writing Anxiety and its Causes among Pakistani HSC-level Learners
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19685521Keywords:
Writing Anxiety, Levels, Causes, ESL LearnersAbstract
Purpose: Filling this gap in the existing literature, this empirical study examines ESL writing anxiety among Pakistani HSC-level learners. Additionally, it explores the causes of this skill-specific anxiety among 449 HSC-level Pakistani students. The participants were selected through purposive sampling from three public and two private colleges in Karachi, Pakistan.
Design/Methodology/Approach: Drawing on CVT theory, the explanatory-sequential study uses the philosophical stance of pragmatism for the required investigation.
Findings: The quantitative findings revealed: a) the majority of the respondents (N=280) experience a moderate level of writing anxiety, b) the smallest number of respondents (N=77) had a high level of writing anxiety, and c) 92 participants were found to have a low level of writing anxiety. Qualitative findings of the reflexive thematic analysis revealed that Pakistani HSC-level ESL learners experience anxiety due to evaluation pressure, cognitive overload, surveillance stress, underutilization of writing strategies, and ineffective instructional frameworks.
Implications/Originality/Value: The research suggests enhancing learners’ motivation to take part in writing activities. Moreover, it is proposed to take affective-motivational measures during the writing activities in L2 classroom environment with friendly behavior and tolerance. Furthermore, ESL learners should be utterly exposed to writing activities. The study recommends the research on other language skills at the HSC-level in future studies.
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