Levels of anxiety
A further factor that you will need to be aware of is the level of anxiety felt by your students. Writing in a FL is a stressful activity which induces high levels of anxiety in students (Richards, 1990). Research has shown that FL writers are, in fact, very successful in transferring some of their first-language skills when composing texts, even if they continue to be constrained by limited knowledge of vocabulary, structure and content (Grabe and Kaplan, 1996). Even so, FL writers also have a higher level of anxiety than that of their native-speaker counterparts. As Hyland (2002) observes, FL writers tend to plan less than their native-speaker counterparts, they have greater difficulty in generating material, are less fluent and accurate, and reflect less on the writing process itself.
In 1985, Krashen (best known for his 'natural' approach to language acquisition), conceived the notion of an 'affective filter': that is, a sliding barrier that moves into place to prevent input and effective absorption of the language when anxiety is at a high level. We know from our experience that FL students may feel a sense of linguistic insufficiency that can lead to social embarrassment and frustration (a high affective filter). Our role seems to be to 'lower the affective filter'. Anxiety may also result from the fact that writing (unlike speech) suggests decision and 'commitment'. The fact that writing remains inscribed long after the event (unlike speech, which is ephemeral), can leave individuals feeling exposed and vulnerable when conveying thoughts.
In FL writing, your students may also feel anxious for some or all of the following reasons:
- the writing process is a solitary one;
- there is little immediate feedback ;
- there are many elements that students have to 'get right' when writing (see below);
- students may be perfectionists or high achievers;
- students do not easily appreciate who they are writing for;
- students may be unduly worried about their 'marks';
- students may be over-worried about making mistakes;
- students may have had negative experiences of learning a FL in the past.
If we look more closely at what exactly is involved in the writing skill, it is perhaps not surprising that it can cause so much anxiety. Students have to pay attention simultaneously to at least four fundamental areas:
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Figure 9.1 What do students have to 'get right' when writing in a FL?
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Reflection activity 4
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Now have a look at the following comments from a group of FL learners - they are all advanced writers of English as a second language. Try to put yourself in their position and imagine what they are experiencing as they write. Student 1: When I start writing I try to write mind map, a sort of mind map on paper, as you know, I put main subject that I'm going to research in the middle. I then, I put some words and related subjects around that. But the problem is, er, how to organize each sentence, how to connect each sentence together. Student 2: I like to write sentences economically, in an exact way, because the essays are only 4,000 words and it's not proper to do a casual and general discussion. Student 3: The problem is, er, how to organize each sentence, how to connect each sentence, and, er, another problem is, I don't have, I don't have many connecting words, so that's why I use, I sometimes use the similar or same expressions. And it's, yeah, I feel its quite poor. Student 4: Paraphrasing....(er) yes I should do that, I know, but, er, unfortunately I don't really do it. I don't have enough vocabulary and expressions, so paraphrasing is a problem. Make a few notes about why each student feels anxious. What might you do to help the students if they were in your writing class? Check your ideas with the commentary. |
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