Literature Review There many reasons to why one person may be more successful than another person. A couple of reasons might be due to motivation or identity to the language. One other reason could be due to anxieties learning a language. Throughout my life, I have heard a lot about second language speaking and listening anxieties, but I have not heard much about how anxiety or writing anxieties can affect second language writing. Therefore, I wanted to look more into the research and conduct research on the correlations of second language anxieties and writing. Through my research, there are themes we need to consider to fully understand anxieties and the correlations with writing anxieties. These themes include the effects of anxiety on second language writing, the factors that contribute to second language writing and the teaching methods that could inhibit or contribute to writing anxieties as well. In order to fully understand second language anxieties, we need to look at the effects of anxiety on student performance. Through multiple research studies there is a definite correlation between second language anxieties and second language writing. One research team conducted a study in a Taiwan University to investigate the relationship between second language classroom anxieties, second language writing anxieties and achievement (Cheng, 2000). Classroom anxiety associated and not associated with writing were found to be correlated with writing achievement (Cheng,
Many people have a habit of writing differently and it can be good or bad. In the essay “The Importance of Writing Badly,” Bruce Ballenger encourages students to write spontaneously without any rules or “error-free sentences.” He believes that there are no wrong way to express how a person feel. It may not be the correct way to write it but it still allows a person to write continuously. Ballenger allows students to write badly because he is more interested in encouraged thinking.
To address this phenomenon, researchers have proposed different theories of test anxiety to account for the effects of test anxiety on the deficits of academic performance. According to scholars such as Schmidt and Riniolo (1999), the cognitive aspects of test anxiety - worry and task-relevant thinking - are also present in social anxiety. Therefore, students who experience test anxiety may also suffer from other types of psychological and cognitive problems such as self-esteem, cognitive development, social skills and memory. Essentially, the students who suffer from test anxiety are individuals who are unable to cope with any types of stress. Considering the stressful nature of
It is crucial when it comes to promoting interest in writing that students are confident in their skills. If students do not exemplify confidence then the writing process will be very daunting. In order to promote confidence in the classroom, the teacher can encourage that student’s write about things that interest them, whether it is journaling about their weekend, or writing fictional stories. When the teacher gives opportunities for students lacking
Writing is an essential tool and has been noted as a precursor for great speaking by teachers at all grade levels. However, with writing being an important aspect throughout one’s academic career and beyond, it is one of the most tedious tasks to teach. It sounds like a cliché, but in order to get better at something, one has to keep completing the task and each time, accomplish something different while maintaining prior knowledge. There are various ways that enhance a student’s writing abilities and the focus of these research strategies will prove that encouraging students to write enhances writing.
Throughout my entire life – just like anyone else – English and writing papers has been present. In our society, writing papers is a necessary part of educating our youth and helping them to become smarter individuals. For me, these papers have always been a dreaded experience. As soon as a teacher starts talking about a paper that is coming up, my brain instantly starts freaking out. From one-page papers that had to be written in middle school, to a twenty minute presentation I had to give at the end of my senior year – and everything in between – my fear of writing spans over most of my life and doesn’t seem to be getting any better.
I am a first-generation American, but due to my family’s constant moving between the U.S. and Mexico, I did not learn English till the age of 10—so around the 5th grade. I was in ESL courses in middle school. And eventually moved on to regular English in high school and soon enough became an English honor student. But even then, I experienced great difficulty writing papers, primarily because I struggled with thesis statements. Reading comprehension is not difficult, especially not, because I have a tendency of underlining and annotating. Now, after graduating from community college, I do believe I am a better writer, but I do believe there will always be room for improvement.
During this semester in English 107, I have progressed more as a writer. Before I went to University of Arizona, my writing was rigid. I wrote five-paragraph TOEFL style essay all the time in my high school life. After I attended in English 107, I was not confident about my writing skill. Throughout these three projects we have done, I become more and more confident about my writing skill than before. The Student Learning Outcomes also helped me to grow as a writer a lot. In these goals, I did well on several of them, but I still need to work on the other goals.
Writing has never been easy for me. When it comes to writing, my level of confidence is low. Being bilingual has its ups and downs; it is a gift, but sometimes it is hard for me to articulate exactly what I mean in English. In the past, I wrote essays because they were a requirement, but I did not enjoy it. When I had to write my first university-level essay, I was very nervous because I thought my writing was not good enough. When I finished writing that paper, I felt a sense of accomplishment just from completing it. My perspective changed once I gained a little courage, and I felt ready to practice my writing and eventually grow as a writer.
English is a hard language to learn, for there are numerous elements of effective usage and writing. Many people, including me, struggle in writing because of a lack of knowledge. Since middle school, English was not a strong suit of mine. I struggled with the simplest of tasks often taking a considerably longer time to complete a task than the other students. Unmotivated teachers and a lack of interest resulted in remedial writing skills. To put it simply, I had little confidence in my writing and I dreaded taking the class because of the writing involved. In spite of my fears, I took the course and I was able to perfect and challenge my mediocre writing skills.
Regarding anxiety in my composing capabilities, it is certainly recognizable by previous endeavors with college composition classes. Suffering with a deficiency of being a self-assured author, transcribing ones thoughts into statements is not completely appalling. Nevertheless, with dropping out of Composition II in the proceeding semester, this reveals a second attempt participating in a Composition II class. However, in view of the fact of studying Composition I in fall of 2014, believing entirely that I have undergone a significant development in writing ability. Although, realizing that there is always a constant possibility of further improvement within all aspects of writing.
The goal of the research is to increase depression literacy, decrease stigma, and increase help-seeking knowledge and behavior in Latinos. Furthermore, the research evaluated a fotonovela which in Spanish-language culture makes them an effective vehicle for health promotion and health education. Since the small pamphlets can be traded among individuals, they possess an element of portability that traditional materials lack. Since the fotonovela concept is familiar to Hispanics and Latinos, regardless of age, health educators have used the fotonovela to focus in important health messages.
My personal background (Second languages student and how it affect my writing process and style)
An individual that has strives to live with anxiety or an anxiety disorder faces many struggles daily because of the feelings the conditions stimulate. There are an infinite amount of symptoms, causes, and consequences, but an equal amount of treatment options and ways to handle anxiety. Anxiety disorders can be viewed as general or extremely specific, but all in all each one affects the life of a person living with one or knowing someone who struggles with it. In regards to teenagers specifically, between three and five percent children and adolescents in the United States have some sort of anxiety disorder (Foa and Andrews 2). With the many challenges teenagers already face because of pressure based on school, athletics, social
Foreign language anxiety is composed through three different performance anxieties. These include test anxiety, communication apprehension, and fear of the negative evaluation. Students that have language anxieties have struggled in a variety of ways. They have to go to school on a day to day basis struggling with as little as not being able to communicate with their peers. This makes it hard for students since they are not able to ask for help as easily as non foreign students. It can be hard for these students to adjust to a new environment being as they are trying to fully adapt
A tutor can also be very helpful to its students when it comes to overcoming those language obstacles. By judging of the state of its student, a tutor has the freedom to choose which of the above mentioned suggestions will be used during the overcoming process. Although there may not be a classroom of students to whom the tutor is teaching, the one-on-one environment allows a greater sense of intimacy and a safer atmosphere (Leigh, 2009).