Investigating Factors Causing English Writing Anxiety among Undergraduate Students of Balochistan, Pakistan

Abstract

One of the primary skills of language is writing which has a significant impact on students’ academic achievement, particularly in Pakistani education system. Students experience various levels and types of anxiety while writing an academic English essay, which could affect their performance negatively. In order to determine the reasons of writing anxiety of SBKWU’s BS students, the current research study focuses on examining the types and levels of writing anxiety among Baluchistan undergraduate students. This quantitative study’s theoretical foundation was the Horwitz, Horwitz, and Cope (1986) hypothesis of language anxiety. The participants of the study included 100 SBK Women University Quetta undergraduate students. Two groups—50 students randomly chosen from BS first semester and 50 students from BS eighth semester at University in Balochistan, Pakistan. The questionnaire used was modified from (Cheng, 2004) and the data was evaluated through SPSS. The study’s findings demonstrated that first-semester students experience greater anxiety, heart palpitations, mental blankness, and shivering when they start writing. There was a fear of receiving bad grade, panic attacks, avoidance of situations, and their thoughts became confused when they wrote in English.