NUFS TEACHER DEVELOPMENT SYMPOSIUM PROCEEDINGSJapanese University Learners’ Foreign Language Writing Anxiety
JANE HISLOP
Nagoya University of Foreign Studies

Abstract
This paper explores foreign language writing anxiety among Japanese university students
enrolled in a compulsory English academic writing course which was taught online for anindefinite period of time due to the COVID-19 virus. All students were English majors andwere taking either a second or third-year writing course taught by the author. The courses were
taught online using Zoom and Google Classroom and the study addresses language learners’
anxiety in both online and offline writing since students completed some writing tasks online
during class and other tasks offline as homework. This study began with an initial reflection
given to students as a preliminary task prior to the beginning of the spring semester. Findings
showed that students had feelings of anxiety in various aspects of their writing and thisprovided the motivation for the present study. The paper focuses on students’ anxiety in second
language writing and shows that they held strong views about their past experiences of writing
and their expectations of the upcoming course.
Introduction
This research is part of a larger study exploring students’ views about second language writing.
It was conducted at the beginning of the 2020 academic year as the university prepared to go
online due to the COVID-19 virus. This study began with a reflection given to students which
was part of the preliminary activities they were required to complete prior to beginning thesemester online. The purpose of this reflection was to explore students’ experiences about
writing academic English and to gain an understanding of the concerns students may have prior
to moving to an online mode of teaching. Findings from the reflection showed that students
had experienced writing anxiety in their academic writing courses. Although students were notasked directly about anxiety in writing, it had emerged as a common theme throughout the
preliminary reflection in both second- and third-year classes. The present study, therefore, aims
to investigate anxiety among these writing students as they prepared for a semester online andafter they had gained some experience in this new mode of learning. In the reflection, there
were many references to anxiety when writing in English. Words such as “anxious”, “fear”,“worried” and “stress” appeared frequently in their reflections. To gain a deeper insight into

JAPANESE UNIVERSITY LEARNERS’ FOREIGN LANGUAGE WRITING ANXIETY
anxiety among students, a second reflection was given to students on completion of their firstessay.
Both the second- and third-year writing courses taught by the author followed a process writing
approach involving recursive and overlapping stages; students were expected to complete
various prewriting activities such as freewriting, mind-mapping, brainstorming, and outlining,
before moving on to drafting, peer-reviewing, revising, editing, and proofreading their writing.
Literature Review
Anxiety, among other affective variables, can have a great influence on learners’ experiencesin language classrooms. Research into language anxiety began a few decades ago with manyof the studies focusing on anxiety in speaking in foreign language classrooms or on language
learning in general and therefore did not target other language skills such as writing (Horwitz,
2001; Horwitz, Horwitz, & Cope, 1986). In the following years, there has been a considerable
amount of research conducted in the field of anxiety in second and foreign language classrooms.
Research into anxiety in second language writing tends to focus on the negative impact thatwriting anxiety causes students such as the detrimental effect it can have on learners’
performance and experience in writing classes including reduced levels of self-confidence(Hassan, 2001; Liu & Ni, 2015) and a reluctance to spend time on planning their writing
assignments which is an important part of the process approach to writing. Many studies havealso investigated the sources of writing anxiety (Cheng, 2004; Choi, 2013). Studies have shownthat there are various sources of writing anxiety such as organizing and developing ideas during
the writing process (Jawas, 2019), a lack of writing competence, or a perceived lack of writing
competence, including a lack of grammatical knowledge and academic vocabulary (Yu, 2020),
a fear of negative feedback from peers or their teacher (Abdel-Latif, 2015; Hislop & Stracke,
2017; Lu & Liu, 2011) and past experiences of receiving negative feedback.
The Study
Context
Participants in this study were all English majors enrolled in either a second or third-year
compulsory academic writing course at a Japanese university. There were two second-year
writing classes and two third-year writing classes. There were 20 students per class in thesecond-year writing course and 18 students per class in the third-year writing course and all
four classes were taught by the author. In the second-year writing class, students wrote two
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argument essays per semester. In the third-year writing class, students were required to write athesis on a topic of their choice with approval from their teacher. The topic needed to be onethat had had sufficient research, so that students were able to conduct a relevant literature
review and one in which students could conduct their own original research in the form of asurvey or interview. Classes were 90 minutes long and were held once a week on Zoom. Google
Classroom was used by the teacher to post materials and to communicate important information
to students who also uploaded their outlines and essay drafts to the site. A writing class in bothcourses would usually begin with 10 minutes freewriting, group discussion of the freewriting
topic in breakout rooms, and introduction of the lesson focus by the teacher. The second halfof the class would typically be in the form of a workshop with students working on their
outlines or drafts with help and feedback from the teacher. Students were also required to shareideas about the topic they were researching and to discuss their main arguments.
Data Instruments
At the beginning of the spring semester, students were given a preliminary reflection tocomplete which they uploaded to Google Classroom (Appendix A). The reflection included
general questions about students’ perceptions of writing and their expectations for theupcoming semester. When reading students’ responses to the reflection, the teacher noticed
that students often expressed strong feelings of anxiety. She decided to give students a second
reflection (Appendix B) around the middle of the semester which focused on students’concerns about writing in English and their feelings about online writing classes. Students
completed the second reflection when they had completed the final version of their first pieceof writing. Data were analyzed inductively. For the purpose of this paper, only those themes
which are related to anxiety in second language writing are included. When presenting thefindings, all quotes are written using the students’ own words and have not been corrected.
Pseudonyms have been used to protect the identity of the participants.
Findings and Discussion
The data analysis from the reflections revealed six main sources of students’ anxiety: lack ofwriting ability, comparison with peers, feedback, fear of making mistakes, fear of plagiarism,
and overcoming challenges.

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JAPANESE UNIVERSITY LEARNERS’ FOREIGN LANGUAGE WRITING ANXIETY
Lack of writing ability
The main source of students’ anxiety was their perceived lack of proficiency in various aspectsof their ability in their writing skills. Specifically, students were anxious about their lack ofknowledge in the following areas: vocabulary, grammar, organization, APA, and gathering
sources:
I often made the vocabulary and grammatical mistakes and use the wrong way to write
essay because I do not know much about the correct grammar, paragraph structureand essay structure. My sentences were short, lack of information or boring, so I worry
that the reader could not have fun through reading my essay. [Sae]Students expressed their concerns that the reader would not enjoy reading their essay due to alack of academic writing ability. Students were worried not only about the teacher reading theirwork, but also about their classmates reading and responding to their writing during the peer
review. Students also wrote about their frustration at not being able to express themselves whenwriting in academic English: “I became anxious because it is difficult for me to write inacademic English. For example, I always feel stress when I can't write what I want to convey
things” [Noriko].
Students also wrote about how much longer it took for them to write in academic English withsome students writing that it takes an “extremely long time.” They also wrote about how
different it is to everyday English which is the variety of English they are most accustomed to.
However, sometimes anxiety was not due to their lack of ability in academic English, but tothe difficulty in finding sources of information: “I am worried about references. We cannot go
to the library to find references for writing because of coronavirus, and I am afraid I might be
not able to find enough information” [Shun]. In addition to finding online sources, students inthe writing program were strongly encouraged to visit the library to find books and journals on
their topics, however, due to the pandemic, this was no longer possible. It was a common
concern among students that they would not be able to find enough information on their topics
on the internet. Some students explicitly said that there was a lack of English sources on theinternet, although clearly this was not the case.

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Comparison with peers
The second main source of students’ anxiety was the tendency for them to compare their ability
and level of proficiency with their peers. Students were very much aware of their own ability
and wrote about how they compared unfavorably with their classmates. Comments like thesefrequently appeared in the reflections: “My friends are better than me at grammar” and“Especially, I am lack of vocabulary. My classmates know a lot”. In addition to a perceived
lack of grammar and vocabulary, some students referred to their lack of imagination and how
this made writing essays difficult: “I have no imagination like my friends” [Yuri]. Yuri
explained how she found writing essays difficult due to her lack of imagination and thought
her writing was “boring”. Students were also worried about not being able to write enoughwords in their freewriting or to reach the minimum number of words in their essay drafts. “Myclassmates write enough but I cannot. I realize that I am inferior to everyone” [Kensuke]. It isclear that students were continually comparing their ability and progress with their classmates.
Surprisingly, this was a belief shared among both higher and lower level students.
Feedback
The third source of anxiety was regarding the feedback students received from both theirteacher and their peers. In terms of teacher feedback, their concerns were that they would not
be able to grasp the meaning of their feedback: “I’m anxious when I don't understand theteachers feedback” [Kento]. Students trusted the feedback from their teacher, although they
worried that it would be too difficult for them to understand. However, they often viewed theirpeers’ feedback as unreliable and comments like the following were common among students:“I worry my classmates’ feedback is not reliable” [Nao]. Rather than regarding their classmates’
feedback as useful and helpful, there was instead a tendency for students to mistrust peer
feedback.
Fear of making mistakes
The fourth source of anxiety was the fear of making mistakes. Students wrote about how they
worried about making mistakes in grammar, using incorrect words and making mistakes with
APA in-text citations and referencing. Some students also had unrealistic expectations ofthemselves: “I think it is too difficult because I do not have perfect English writing skills. So I
feel stress that I will make many mistakes” [Yuriko]. Students often wrote that they lacked theability to write in academic English and some students wrote that their main goal was todevelop perfect English academic writing skills.
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JAPANESE UNIVERSITY LEARNERS’ FOREIGN LANGUAGE WRITING ANXIETY

Fear of plagiarism
The fifth source of students’ anxiety in writing was their fear of plagiarism. Students were very
concerned about using APA correctly: “In essay class we should use APA style, but I’m notused to writing in APA style. I use casual phrase when I speak English class and talk withfriends, so APA is so difficult for me to use. I worry I will fail the essay” [Daiki]. Students
wrote how difficult APA was for them since it is only ever used in academic writing andtherefore was very unfamiliar for them, however, they did understand the importance of using
APA in their writing. This can be seen in students’ concern regarding accidental plagiarismand how worried they were that they may accidentally forget to use quotation marks when
copying a sentence from a text. Some also worried that they may copy their friends’ ideas: “Ifeel stress that I may forget to quote or copy my friends’ ideas” [Yumi]. Students were very
aware of the issue of plagiarism, but felt that they lacked the skills to avoid it.
Overcoming challenges
Although students expressed their anxiety about writing in academic English, the study also
found that students were able to overcome some of these challenges. In some cases, students
were motivated to spend more time revising their work. “I have less spelling mistakes. WhenI finish writing, I spend a lot of time reviewing my essay. I always review it, so I do not makecarless mistakes” [Noriko]. Students expressed a willingness to improve their writing skills
and comments such as “I will improve my writing skills” and “I want to turn my weaknesses
into strengths” were found throughout both reflections.
Interestingly, students seemed to adapt very well to the online mode of teaching and there waslittle anxiety among students regarding the new online mode of learning. Some students wrote
about their preference for online classes since the classes seemed to have fewer students and it
seemed “less scary”. Although the number of students in the classes was similar to previous
years, students seemed to feel that the classes were smaller and less threatening than classroom
lessons.
Limitations
There are several limitations to the present study. First, data were only collected from two
reflections therefore limiting the amount of data collected and were only collected at the
beginning of the course and again half-way through the course. Reflections given throughout
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JAPANESE UNIVERSITY LEARNERS’ FOREIGN LANGUAGE WRITING ANXIETY
the writing process could have yielded interesting data regarding whether students felt stresswhen they were not being evaluated, for example, during the early planning stages of theiressay draft such as when they were freewriting, brainstorming ideas, and developing their
thesis statement and essay outline. Also, regular reflections throughout the writing process may
have revealed at what stages students experience higher levels of anxiety. Furthermore, allreflections were written by students in English; they may have been better able to articulate
their feelings had they been allowed to write in Japanese.
Conclusion
The study showed that the students held strong views regarding the factors that made themanxious and that they had experienced anxiety about writing both prior to the start of thesemester and while they were writing their first draft of the essay. Students’ greatest concern
was regarding their writing ability and how their writing would be received by their teacher
and peers. They demonstrated an awareness that academic English is different to the variety ofEnglish that they use in everyday communication, however they believed that they lacked theknowledge and ability to write academic essays effectively. Furthermore, they worried about
accidentally plagiarizing their classmates work or inadvertently copying others’ drafts while
they were sharing their work in breakout rooms. In addition, they also felt anxious concerning
the reaction of their peers to their drafts. Although they worried about their peers reading theirpaper, there was a tendency among students to mistrust this feedback and did not consider it tobe as reliable as that of teacher feedback. Despite this lack of trust in their peers’ feedback,students compared themselves unfavorably to their classmates in terms of their ability inacademic writing and viewed their peers as being superior to themselves regardless of theiractual ability. Students also appeared to have unrealistic expectations of themselves and theirlearning objectives, with some students aiming for unattainable goals such as developing
perfect academic writing skills. Clearly, students did not regard making mistakes as animportant part of the learning process and a common source of anxiety was a fear of making
mistakes. Although students were worried about several aspects of writing in a second language,
this anxiety was not always a negative influence on learners’ experiences in second language
learning. At times, being aware of this anxiety helped students to overcome it and provided
them with the motivation to improve their writing.

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JAPANESE UNIVERSITY LEARNERS’ FOREIGN LANGUAGE WRITING ANXIETYBIO DATA
Jane Hislop teaches English at Nagoya University of Foreign Studies. She holds a PhD in
Applied Linguistics and an MA in Linguistics (TESOL). She has also taught English atuniversities in New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates. Her research interests include
second language writing, peer review, anxiety in language learning, and learner beliefs.
References
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university students. Journal of Research in Reading, 38(2), 194-212.
Cheng, Y. S. (2004). EFL students’ writing anxiety: Sources and implications. English
Teaching & Learning. 29(2), 41-62.
Choi, S. (2013). Language anxiety in second language writing: Is it really a stumbling block?
Second Language Studies, 31(2), 1-42.
Hassan, B. A. (2001). The relationship of writing apprehension and self-esteem to the writing
quality and quantity of EFL university students. Foreign Language Annals, 35(5), 647656.
Hislop, J., & Stracke, E. (2017). ESL students in peer review: An action research study in auniversity English for Academic Purposes course. University of Sydney Papers in
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Horwitz, E. K., Horwitz, M. B., & Cope, J. (1986). Foreign language classroom anxiety. The
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Linguistics, 21, 112-126.
Jawas, U. (2019). Writing Anxiety among Indonesian EFL students: Factors and Strategies.
International Journal of Instruction, 12(4), 733-746.
Liu, M., & Ni, H. (2015). Chinese University EFL Learners' Foreign Language Writing
Anxiety: Pattern, Effect and Causes. English Language Teaching, 8(3), 46-58.
Lu, Z., & Liu, M. (2011). Foreign language anxiety and strategy use: A study with Chinese
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Yu, M. (2020, March). Analysis on the Sources of L2 Writing Anxiety. In 4th International
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JAPANESE UNIVERSITY LEARNERS’ FOREIGN LANGUAGE WRITING ANXIETYAppendix A
REFLECTION 1
Give your answers to the following questions. Please give as many details as you can.
1. How do you feel about writing in Japanese?
2. How do you feel about writing in English?
3. What are your strengths when writing in English?
4. What are your weaknesses when writing in English?
5. What do you like best about writing in English?
6. What do you like the least about writing in English?
7. What are you looking forward to the most about having an online Writing course thissemester?
8. What are you least looking forward to about having an online Writing course thissemester?

Appendix B
REFLECTION 2
1.

What are your main concerns about writing in English?

2.

Would you prefer to have a writing class online or in the classroom?

3.

Any other comments?

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