Luận văn tốt nghiệp WRITING APPREHENSION AMONG FIRST YEAR FAST TRACK STUDENTS IN FELTE, ULIS, VNU

ACCEPTANCE
I hereby state that I: Nguyen Thi Giang, QH10E2, being a candidate for the
degree of Bachelor of Arts (TEFL) accept the requirements of the College relating to
the retention and use of Bachelor’s Graduation Paper deposited in the library.
In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the
library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with
the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of
the paper.
Signature
Nguyen Thi Giang
May 5
th
, 2014
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I am deeply indebted to a number of people for their contribution to the
completion of this graduation paper.
First and foremost, I would love to express my deepest gratitude to my
supervisor, Ms. Phung Thi Kim Dung, for her generous support and careful guidance
and correction, without which this thesis would never be completed.
Secondly, I would like to send my special thanks to the enthusiastic first-year
fast-track students as well as to two kind teachers in CLC Division for their patience
and willingness to participate in this study.
Last but not least, I would like to send my appreciation to my family, dear
classmates for their support and encouragement all the way. Without them, I would not
have been able to complete this graduation paper.
ABSTRACT
A significant number of studies have been carried out to investigate different
aspects of writing apprehension. However, up to now, there has been little research on
English as a second language writing apprehension in the context of Vietnam. The
current research was conducted to fill the gap. The paper dealt with the subject
quantitatively and qualitatively in an attempt to find out whether first-year fast-track

students in Faculty of English Language Teacher Education, University of Languages
and International Studies are experiencing writing apprehension or not. Then the main
causes of writing apprehension among first-year fast-track students were examined.
The possible remedies for such a phenomenon were also suggested.
To identify the current situation of writing apprehension among first-year fast-
tracks students, the researcher adopted Gungle and Taylor’s version of Writing
Apprehension Test (WAT) to determine the levels of writing anxiety among students.
For the purpose of identifying the main sources of writing apprehension among first-
year fast-track students, along with the semi-structured interviews, the researcher used
the adapted version of the Second Language Writing Anxiety Reason Scale
(SLWARS) by Selma (2013). Both forms of the questionnaires were distributed to 42
first-year fast-track students in FELTE. The study adopted the analytical descriptive
method to analyze the responses to the questionnaires. To find out possible solutions
to help students reduce writing apprehension, two teachers who are teaching the
students English writing were invited to participate in the interviews.
The findings of the study reveal that the majority of first-year fast-track
students in FELTE, ULIS are experiencing writing apprehension. Besides, the main
causes of writing apprehension among those students include lack of vocabulary, lack
of topical knowledge and test anxiety. The study also proposes certain suggestions in
teaching and learning to help students alleviate their apprehension in writing. Teachers
should promote the use of vocabulary quizzes, peer-editing, unfamiliar writing topics,
in-class timed practice, and mock tests. In parallel, students should find an effective
way of learning and reviewing new words such as using flashcards, read widely and
prepare careful and early for the test. With these findings, the paper would serve as a
good reference for both teachers and students to have a closer look at this issue, then
take actions to help first-year fast-track students reduce writing apprehension.
LISTS OF TABLES, FIGURES, AND ABBREVIATIONS
List of tables
Table 1 - Writing apprehension levels among first-year fast-track students in FELTE,
ULIS, VNU

Table 2 - Causes of writing apprehension among first-year fast-track students in
FELTE, ULIS
Table 3 – Dominant causes of writing apprehension among first-year fast-track
students in FELTE, ULIS, VNU by levels of writing apprehension
List of figure
Figure 1: Writing apprehension levels among first-year fast-track students in FELTE,
ULIS-VNU
List of abbreviations
FELTE - Faculty of English Language Teacher Education
ULIS - University of Languages and International Studies
VNU - Vietnam National University
EWAQ - English Writing Apprehension Questionnaire
FLSES - Foreign Language Self-Esteem Scale
WAT - Writing Apprehension Test
SLWARS - Second Language Writing Anxiety Reason Scale
Table of Contents
ACCEPTANCE 1
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
i
ABSTRACT ii
LISTS OF TABLES, FIGURES, AND ABBREVIATIONS iv
Table of Contents v
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1
1.1. Background of the study and problem statement 1
1.2. Aims of the research 2
1.3. Research questions 3
1.4. Significance of the Study 3
1.5. Scope of the study 4
1.6. Organization of the study 4
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

2.1. Theoretical background 5
2.1.1. Definitions of writing apprehension 5
2.1.2. Causes of writing apprehension 6
2.1.3. Effects of writing apprehension 10
2.1.4. Solutions to reduce writing apprehension 11
CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 14
3.1. Research design 14
3.2. Participants 15
3.2.1. Participants in questionnaires 15
3.2.2. Participants in interviews 15
3.3. Data collection 16
3.3.1. Data collection instruments 16
3.3.2. Data collection procedures 21
3.4. Data analysis 23
3.4.1. Data analysis instrument 23
3.4.2. Data analysis procedures 24
CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 27
4.1. Writing apprehension levels among first-year fast-track students in FELTE,
ULIS-VNU 27
4.2. Main causes of writing apprehension among first-year fast-track students in
FELTE, ULIS, VNU 30
4.3. Possible solutions to help first-year fast-track students in FELTE, ULIS, VNU
reduce their apprehension in writing. 36
4.3.1. Solutions to help students build vocabulary 36
4.3.2. Solutions to help students feel less anxious towards the writing test 38
4.3.3. Solutions to help students broaden their background knowledge 41
4.4. Discussions of the findings 43
4.4.1. Levels of writing apprehension among first-year fast-tracks students in FELTE,
ULI, VNU 43
4.4.2. Causes of writing apprehension among first-year fast-track students in FELTE,

ULIS 44
4.4.3. Possible solutions to reduce apprehension in writing among students 46
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 48
5.1. Major findings of the study 48
5.2. Implications of the study 50
5.2.1. Pedagogical implications for teachers 50
5.2.2. Pedagogical implications for students 50
5.3. Limitations of the study 51
Despite the researcher’s great effort, this study still bears certain
shortcomings. 51
5.4. Suggestions for further studies 51
REFERENCES 53
APPENDICES 62
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
The first part of the study discusses the background of the study and problem
statement, the aims, the scope as well as the significance of the study along with a
brief overview of the research. The three research questions are clearly identified to
work as the guidelines for the whole paper.
1.1. Background of the study and problem statement
Writing has always been regarded as playing a prominent role in learning
English as a Second Language (ESL). Writing improves language acquisition as
learners experiment with words, sentences, paragraphs or even larger pieces of
writings to express their ideas and to enhance the grammar and vocabulary they are
learning in class (Bello, 1997). It is the area in which learners are expected to be
offered adequate time to develop their writing skill.
Writing is such a complex process that most ESL learners at all levels believe
that it is one of the most difficult language skills to master (Kurk & Atay, 2007; Latif,
2007) or a sophisticated skill compared with other skills (Daud, Daud & Kassim,
2005; and Abu Shawish & Atea, 2010). Hence, many ESL learners suffer from writing
apprehension.

Daly and Miller (1975) defined “writing apprehension” as “the general
avoidance of writing situations perceived by individuals to potentially require some
amount of writing accompanied by the potential for evaluation of that writing.”
Researchers have used many terms to refer to writing apprehension such as anxiety
and blocking (Gungle and Taylor, 1989; and Al-Ahmad, 2003). Writing tasks tend to
increase students’ anxiety levels, which may de-motivate students and cause negative
attitudes towards writing and their confidence (Sharples, 1993). Estimates of the
percentage of anxious writers in the student population, Aikman (1985) reports, are
approximately the same as for anxious speakers - about 10 to 25 percent.
Writing apprehension is a serious problem that can hinder the performance of
both native and non-native English learners (Ibrahim & Noor, 2011; Hanna, 2010; Al-
Ahmad, 2003). Al- Ahmad (2003) asserts that “All the remarks of researchers in
ESL/EFL field indicated that writing apprehension is a real problem facing ESL/EFL
students’ apprehension”. He also mentions that ESL writing apprehension is more of a
challenge as it affects the learners’ writings more in a negative way. Researchers such
as Masny & Foxall, 1992; Cornwell & McKay, 1999; and Al-Ahmad, 2003 claim that
more attention should be paid to ESL context because of the complexity of the
condition in second language learning.
In the past, an enormous amount of research has been done on writing
apprehension that ESL learners experience (Daly, 1978; Daly & Miller, 1975a, 1975b;
Daly & Wilson, 1983; Faigley, Daly & Witte, 1991; McCarthy, Meier, & Rinderer,
1985; Onwuegbuzie, 1999; Pajares & Johnson, 1993; Phinney, 1991; Shell, Colvin, &
Bruning, 1995; Shell, Murphy, & Bruning, 1989). However, recently, there has not
been much research conducted to investigate ESL writing apprehension in generally
and in the context of ESL learning in Vietnam in particular. Based on all the rationales
above, the researcher has decided to conduct a study on “Writing apprehension
among first-year fast-track students in FELTE, ULIS, VNU.”
1.2. Aims of the research
This research paper is intended to base on the perspectives from students to
firstly investigate whether first-year students in the Fast-track program in Faculty of

English Language Teacher Education division in Vietnam National University are
experiencing writing apprehension or not. Secondly, this study also aims at figuring
out the main causes of writing apprehension among first-year fast-track students.
Lastly, based on the perspectives of teachers, the researcher aims to propose possible
solutions to help students cope with writing apprehension.
1.3. Research questions
In short, the objective of the study is to answer the three following
questions:
1. From the perspective of students, are first year fast-track students in
FELTE, ULIS, VNU suffering from writing apprehension?
2. From the perspective of students, what are the main causes of writing
apprehension among first-year fast track students in FELTE, ULIS, VNU?
3. From the perspective of teachers, what are possible solutions in teaching
and learning to help reduce writing apprehension among first-year fast-track
students in FELTE, ULIS, VNU?
1.4. Significance of the Study
Once finished, the study could serve as a reference for ESL teachers, especially
those in FELTE, VNU to be aware of the writing apprehension levels, the causes of
writing apprehension as well as the suggested solutions to help students deal with
writing anxiety, thereby having proper adjustments to their teaching methods to help
students reduce their writing anxiety and have better written products. Besides, ESL
learners, especially first-year fast-track students in FELTE, ULIS, VNU could refer to
the findings of the study so that they could be informed of the causes and solutions to
writing apprehension to help themselves feel more confident in writing and improve
their writing experience. Moreover, this study would also fill the gap in the literature
on ESL writing apprehension in the context of Vietnam and serve as a good source of
reference for other researchers who are interested in the same or related subjects.
1.5. Scope of the study
The research focuses on the levels of writing apprehension, the main causes of
writing apprehension among first-year fast-track students in FELTE, ULIS, VNU.

Besides, the study proposes possible solutions in both teaching and learning to cope
with students’ apprehension in writing. The research would be carried out in two first-
year fast-track classes with a major in English Language Teacher Education in
FELTE, ULIS, VNU. The aggregate number of participants is 42. All participants are
qualified and suitable to participate in the research.
1.6. Organization of the study
The paper consists of five chapters, which are presented as follows.
Chapter 1 is the introduction, which states the background of the study, the
statement of the problem, the aims, scope, significance of the study as well as the
research questions.
Chapter 2 is the literature review, which discusses all the necessary literature
related to the study
Chapter 3 is the methodology, which describes how the study was carried out
in FELTE, ULIS, VNU. Sub steps in this process include the data collection/ analysis
instruments as well as data collection/ analysis procedures.
Chapter 4 deals with the results as well as discussion of the findings of the
study
Chapter 5 is the conclusion, where the summaries about the major findings of
the research, implications, limitation as well as suggestions for further studies are
presented.
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter presents the theoretical background of the study. Particularly,
definitions, causes, effects as well as solutions to ESL writing apprehension are
discussed.
2.1. Theoretical background
2.1.1. Definitions of writing apprehension
The term “writing apprehension” was first coined by Daly and Miller (1975a)
to refer to behaviors that includes a writer’s tendency to avoid situations that involve
writing, to experience a sense of anxiety when faced with a writing situation
accompanied by some amount of perceived evaluation, and to experience frustration

while in the process of writing. Daly and Miller offered a comprehensive definition of
writing anxiety. They addressed both the behaviors and feelings of apprehensive
writers during the process of writing: people tend to avoid a writing situation in the
pre-writing, experience frustration while writing, or suffer from the fear of evaluation
after their writings are finished.
Agreeing with Daly and Miller on the tendency that writing apprehension
causes a person to avoid writing, Bloom (1985) defined writing anxiety as “a label for
one or a combination of feelings, beliefs, or behaviors that interfere with a person’s
ability to start, work on, or finish a given writing task that he or she is intellectually
capable of doing”. He also added that in the context of second language learning,
writing apprehension is often governed by a lack of personal belief in the individual’s
own ability to write. In addition to the feelings and behaviors of apprehensive people,
Bloom went a step further than Daly and Miller that he also addressed the beliefs
about one’s writing ability. However, Bloom’s definition of writing anxiety was too
general about the nature of feelings and behaviors that apprehensive writers tend to
have when faced with a writing task or situation.
Looking at writing apprehension from a slightly different perspective,
Takahashi (2009) considered it a “fear of the writing process that outweighs the
projected gain from the ability to write”. Rather than describing the feelings, beliefs or
behaviors of apprehensive people, Takahashi takes the fear of writing and the expected
gain from writing ability into account and compare them. His perspective offers a new
insight into writing apprehension; however, the proposed relationship between the fear
of writing and benefits from the ability to write is still vague. More specific
information about the gain from writing or the way to carry out such comparison
should be added so that the definition would be clearer.
Each person has a different view of writing apprehension depending on one’s
perspectives and experiences. Of all the discussed definitions above, despite the fact
that it was introduced a long time ago, the one given by Daly and Miller (1975a) gave
the most comprehensive description of writing apprehension. The researcher chose to
adopt this definition to conduct the research.

2.1.2. Causes of writing apprehension
Many studies have tried to shed light on the causes of apprehension in writing
among ESL learners. One of the main sources of writing anxiety among ESL students
is the lack of topical knowledge (Leiki & Carson, 1997; Hyland, 2003). The level and
specificity of topical knowledge (also referred to as background knowledge,
knowledge schemata or real-world knowledge) may have a huge impact on language
learners’ response to the writing task (Backman & Palmer, 1996). The learners who
have sufficient prior knowledge of the writing topic may feel confident when
approaching the writing task and hence have a positive response to it. On the other
hand, those who do not have the relevant and adequate topical knowledge may feel
nervous and apprehensive when dealing with the writing task.
Another factor contributing to writing apprehension of ESL writers is the lack
of linguistic knowledge. ESL learners often suffer from the burden of learning to write
in English; they themselves consider linguistic difficulties their main problems in
English writing and the main source of anxiety when they fail to express their thoughts
and ideas in appropriate English (Hyland, 2003). Abdel Latif (2007) examined the
relationship between linguistic competence and Egyptian ESL university students’
writing anxiety. The study found out that linguistic knowledge was negatively related
to apprehension in writing that the students experienced, which meant the less the
linguistic knowledge of ESL learners is, the more anxious they feel towards writing.
Besides, Mojica (2010) examined ESL students’ problems in writing and points out
that vocabulary and grammar (linguistic knowledge) are viewed by ESL learners as the
top writing difficulties. Hence, the lack of linguistic knowledge, typically the
insufficient knowledge about vocabulary and grammar, might cause ESL learners to
suffer from apprehension in writing.
In addition, test anxiety is another dominant cause of writing apprehension
among ESL students. According to Horwitz et al. (1986), test anxiety refered to “a
type of performance anxiety stemming from a fear of failure.” ESL writing test is a
productive activity influenced strongly by time pressure; students, even the best and
well-prepared ones, often tend to make more errors in test-taking situations than in

normal settings. Hence, failure in tests is common in academic context, and is one of
the main sources of writing apprehension among ESL students.
Researchers have also found out that fear of negative evaluation of writing
causes students to feel apprehensive of writing. Maria (2006) found out from her
research that students develop high level of writing apprehension because of their
writings being evaluated whether the evaluation source is self, teachers or peers. This
result coincided with what Rankin-Brown (2006) found out that students avoid writing
due to their worries about self-evaluation, teacher evaluation and peer evaluation
because students feel afraid of losing their identity when being evaluated poorly.
Although similar to test anxiety, fear of negative evaluation in writing was broader in
scope because it refered not only to fear of poor performance in test but also to the fear
of academic and personal evaluations made by peers and teachers (MacIntyre &
Gardner, 1991).
Writing apprehension also resulted from low second language self-confidence
of ESL students. Hassan (2001) emphasized the importance of self-confidence in
determining students’ response to writing tasks. In his second language writing anxiety
research, Hassan (2001) studied the relationship between writing anxiety and self-
esteem of 192 third-year students who enrolled in the English Department in Egypt by
using an English Writing Apprehension Questionnaire (EWAQ) and a Foreign
Language Self-Esteem Scale (FLSES). He found out that there existed a significant
negative relationship between writing apprehension and second language self-esteem:
Low apprehensive students had higher self-esteem than High Apprehensive students
and vice versa… Low self-esteem students obtained significantly higher writing
apprehension scores than their high self-esteem counterparts… This means that the
low self-esteem group was more apprehensive/ anxious than the high self-esteem
group. (p.24)
Besides, Cheng (2002) also pointed out that even students of high second
language writing competence may not view themselves as good writer and may still
suffer from writing anxiety. Therefore, low second language self-confidence may lead
to writing apprehension among ESL students.

Lack of writing practice may also be responsible for ESL students’ experience
of apprehension in writing. Karakaya and Ulper (2010) conducted a study on
prospective teachers to develop the reliability of anxiety scale to investigate writing
apprehension among students. This instrument enabled the researchers to come up
with the finding that a lack of out of school and in-class practice session increase
writing apprehension among students.
Furthermore, lack of effective feedback from teachers may lead students to
feel apprehensive of writing. Feedbacks on students’ writings are crucial in ESL
instruction because they help students be aware of how well they have succeeded in
the writing tasks, and what they should improve in future writings. Hence, they types
of feedback the instructors give are likely to affect students’ emotions directly, their
attitude towards the writing process (Bachman & Palmer, 1996; Cheng, 2001; Hyland,
2003). For instance, a relevant, complete, and clear feedback with positive comments
can produce a good backwash in ESL writing performance and reduce the feelings of
anxiety as well. In contrast, a harsh feedback with negative comments on students’
mistakes is likely to make students feel bad about their writing competency, and fear
writing (Conrad & Goldstein, 1999).
Lack of effective instructions from English writing tutors, which leads to
students’ deficits in composition skills, has also been found to cause writing
apprehension among ESL learners. Grundy (1985) claimed that serious writing
apprehension problems result from instructors’ not teaching the teachable aspects of
writing, including the theoretical and practical parts. Sharing the same viewpoint,
Abdel (2007) made it clear that teachers’ focus on teaching the theoretical concepts of
writing and neglect of practical aspects account for high English writing apprehension
among students. This deficits in skills training led to students’ lack of composition
skills, which also causes writing anxiety among students (Faigley, Daly & Witte,
1991).
By reviewing all of these above mentioned studies, the researcher realize that
writing apprehension is caused by various factors, namely the lack of topical
knowledge, lack of linguistic knowledge, fear of negative evaluation, fear of test, low

second-language self-confidence, lack of practice, lack of effective feedbacks and
instructions from English writing teachers, and lack of composition skills.
2.1.3. Effects of writing apprehension
Writing apprehension has been found to have certain impacts on students as
well as on their writing performance. Two effects of second language writing anxiety
frequently found in previous works are “distress associated with writing and a
profound distaste for the process” (Madigan et al., 1996; Cheng, 2002). For example,
higher apprehensive writers tend to avoid taking writing courses and prefer academic
majors and careers that have relatively little to do with writing (Cheng, 2002).
Writing apprehension has also been found to have negative influence on
students’ performance. Hassan (2001) used both Writing Quality Task and Writing
Quantity Task to find out that low apprehensive students write better quality works
than their high apprehensive counter-parts. Besides, those low anxious students write
more than high anxious ones.
Previous studies have also pointed out that writing apprehension has certain
impacts on writing processes and behaviors of students. Cheng (2004) specified these
effects such as physiological effects as reflected in unpleasant feelings of tension or
nervousness, cognitive interference in writing process, and avoidance of writing. He
also used the participants’ performance on a timed English essay writing task as an
index of their English writing performance to measure the correlations between the
specific writing anxiety and writing performance. The findings showed a significant
negative correlation between anxiety and performance.
Generally writing apprehension has negative impacts on students and their
writing performance. Hence, it is crucial to find out feasible solutions to help students
become less anxious when facing a writing situation and become better writers.
2.1.4. Solutions to reduce writing apprehension
The subject of how to decrease the writing apprehension levels among ESL
learners have been thoroughly studied in previous research and many solutions have
been proposed to help students feel less anxious when writing.
Reading and writing should be taught concurrently as this method has been

found to reduce students' writing apprehension. By exposing students with reading
materials, this integrated approach not only helps broaden students’ background
knowledge but also provides students with good writing models and helps students
improve their linguistic knowledge, thereby reducing errors(Daud, and Abu Kassim,
2005: 16). Hao & Divell (2002) concur and add:
…introducing reading materials in writing class and giving students reading
instruction on them will assist learners in gathering information to support, develop
and generate new ideas; at the same time, they may extend their lexical and syntactic
repertoire by imitation or copying. On the local level, they can imitate the words,
phrases, idioms, discourse markers or sentences they have read and understood; on
the global level, they may imitate some elements of the content, sentence structure,
organization or style.
Hence, integrating reading into the writing lesson helps equip students with
knowledge and ideas to write. Students can improve their vocabulary and linguistic
competence, as well as background knowledge thanks to the reading materials
introduced in writing class. Therefore, students will feel more prepared and less
anxious when facing a writing situation. This method of teaching reading and writing
concurrently is a promising solution to reduce writing apprehension among students.
Addressing the fear of evaluation that students suffer from when it comes to
writing, Clark (2005) suggests teachers give students writing assignments that are not
graded such as journal writing, exploratory writing on a topic, and rough drafts of
essay. In addition, using peer feedback as a substitute for teacher feedback when it
works is also recommended to ease students from pressure when they receive teachers’
comments. This kind of feedback should be given in non-threatening way (Borich,
2004; Clark, 2005; Kurk and Atay, 2007; Grabe and Kaplan 1996, Krause, 2001)
As for the low second-language self-confidence, encouraging students to have
high self-efficacy might help reduce writing apprehension and improve students’
writing ability. Takahashi (2011) shares that increasing students’ motivation and high
self-perceived proficiency can reduce their level of writing apprehension. Agreeing
with Takahashi, Clark (2005) recommends developing students’ confidence in their

writing ability by keeping a positive attitude and making positive self-affirmations, as
well as getting encouraging feedback from teachers and peers.
Another feasible solution is teaching writing as a process rather than a final
product (Rankin-Brown, 2006: 4; Clark, 2005:5; Grabe and Kaplan, 1996: 87).
Process-oriented approaches concern the process of how ideas are developed and
formulated in writing. Writing is considered a process through which meaning is
created. This approach characterizes writing as following a number of processes: First,
a writer starts writing ideas as drafts. Subsequently, he checks to see whether the
writing and the organization makes sense to him or not. After that, he checks whether
the writing will be clear to the reader. This approach focuses on how clearly and
efficiently a student can express and organize his ideas, not on correctness of form.
Errors are welcomed in this teaching method. Hence, students will feel less pressured
from trying to avoid errors and receiving negative evaluation; instead, they can
concentrate on writing and getting their messages across. Besides, the process
approach also gives students the chance to receive feedback from teachers and peers to
improve the shortcomings of their writing before working on the final drafts. Tutors
can give students comments on their writing during different stages of writing: during
the pre-writing, teachers can give feedbacks on the ideas as well as the outline of the
students’ writing; then after students finish the first draft, tutors can comment on the
organization, linguistic strengths and weaknesses, … and offer recommendations for
ways to improve the quality of the writings. Based on effective feedbacks from
teachers, students can be aware of the good and not so good aspects of their writings,
thereby making appropriate revision to better the writings and improve their writing
skills, which makes students feel less apprehensive of writing.
Besides, to feel less worried about the writing test, it is essential that students
are prepared for the test. Ellis (2000) claims that there is no substitute for knowing the
format of the test as well as the materials. In addition, Paulk (2001) suggests that
students should also spend time on doing mock tests in the conditions similar to testing
conditions such as practicing writing under time pressure with no interruption. This
approach will help students get prepared mentally and used to the testing conditions,

thereby avoiding nervous feelings that students may experience during the real test.
There exist various solutions to help reduce the severity of writing
apprehension among students. Certain approaches may work for certain people.
Hence, teachers and students should work together to find out suitable ways of
teaching and learning to reduces students’ apprehension in writing.
CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY
In the previous chapter, a brief overview of the literature on the research topic
was given, which laid the theoretical basis for the whole study. In this chapter, the
method employed to answer the three research questions would be discussed in details.
The participants, instruments and procedures of data collection and analysis would be
justified.
3.1. Research design
This research will apply mixed method of data collection and analysis,
including both quantitative and qualitative strategies. To be specific, face-to-face
questionnaires and semi-structured interviews are both conducted in this research. The
study is carried out in two phases. In phase 1, quantitative data will be acquired from
the first instrument, questionnaires, particularly from the Likert scales questions. In
phase 2, qualitative data will be collected from some face-to-face semi-structured
interviews with participants who are selected according to the result of questionnaire
to gather more in-depth information while ensuring the reliability and validity of
information.
This combined methodology has been found to be better than either only
quantitative or only qualitative method (Flemming, 2010; Wisdome, Cavaleri,
Onwuegbuzie & Green, 2012). As Johnson, Onwuegbuzie & Turner (2007) stated:
“Mixed methods research capitalizes on the strength of both qualitative and
quantitative methodologies by combining approaches in a single research study to
increase the breadth and depth of understanding” (as cited in Wisdom et al, 2012).
Both questionnaires and face-to-face semi-structured interviews have their own
advantages in supporting the researcher in answering the research questions. They also
require two different analysis strategies. The former requires quantitative analysis

strategies while the latter will be analyzed through qualitative ones. Consequently,
combining these two methods will offer the researcher the best support in answering
the research questions.
3.2. Participants
3.2.1. Participants in questionnaires
As the purpose of this research is to investigate writing apprehension
among first-year fast-track students in FELTE, ULIS, VNU, 42 students are
selected as the research participants to take part in responding to questionnaires.
Studying the same syllabus for writing class, those students are from two different
classes in the fast-track program. They are members of class E1 and E2 majoring
in English Language Teaching.
The students at these two classes passed the entrance examination to ULIS,
VNU in July, 2013 and then passed the placement test at the beginning of the
freshman year to be qualified as a fast-track student. They are currently in the
second semester of the freshman academic year at this college, and are supposed to
be at higher level than other mainstream students in FELTE, ULIS, VNU. Most of
these participants’ level of English proficiency is pre-intermediate. According to
the university’s course outline for fast-track program, these first-year fast-track
students are expected to acquire the B2 degree at the end of the second semester of
the first year. Each week, they have a writing class which lasts for around 2 hours
and a half, and have to spend approximately 2 hours each week on writing
homework.
3.2.2. Participants in interviews
With regards to the student-informants who take part in interviews on
causes of writing apprehension, a selection process was carried out. In order to
guarantee the validity and reliability of the samples, this research chose stratified
random sampling, a probability sampling technique. According to Agresti &
Finlay (2008), stratified sampling is widely used when the entire population is
divided into different subgroups or strata, then the final subjects are randomly
selected proportionally from different strata. In the context of this research, the

whole population, or 42 students who participated in questionnaires, were then
divided into three groups according to their levels of writing apprehension: high,
moderate or low level of writing anxiety. Then 5 interview participants, or around
10% of the population, were selected ramdonly and proportionally from these
three different groups. Hence, each group would have at least 1, and at most 3
interview-informants.
With regards to informants participating in the interviews on the possible
solutions to help students reduce ESL writing apprehension, the two teachers who
are teaching English writing to first-year fast-track students were invited to share
their perspectives as well as offer possible suggestions.
3.3. Data collection
3.3.1. Data collection instruments
3.3.1.1 Questionnaires
Justification for the use of questionnaires
Questionnaires are “any written instruments that present respondents with a
series of questions or statements to which they are to react either by writing out
their answers or selecting from among existing answers” (Brown, 2001, p.6)
Over the past two decades, the questionnaire has emerged as one of the
most widely used data-elicitation tools in second language research (Oxford and
Burry-Stock, 1995) ‘Student-completed, summative rating scales’ (survey
methods) have proven to be one of the most popular methods for second language
researchers (Oxford and Burry-Stock 1995; Bedell and Oxford 1996).
Questionnaires have helped to generate a broad picture of strategy use across
different learner populations and to establish relationships between various learner
factors and learners’ strategy use (Oxford and Crookall 1989; Oxford and Burry-
Stock 1995; Cohen 1998; McDonough 1999; Hsiao and Oxford 2002).
Oxford and Burry-Stock (1995) are confident that such a methodological
approach can be cost-effective and allow both researchers and participants to gain
a rapid understanding of the participants’ opinions. These valuable features of
questionnaires match the aim of the researcher in finding out the causes for the

procrastination in third year students at the fast-track program at ULIS, VNU as
well as eliciting possible solutions to help students with this problem. For that
reason, questionnaires were employed into the study.
Questionnaire design
In this study, two questionnaires will be used to answer the research
questions: Writing Apprehension Test (WAT) and Writing Strategy Questionnaire.
Questionnaire 1: Writing apprehension test (WAT)
For this study, the researcher used Daly and Mille’s Writing Apprehension Test
(WAT) which was adapted by Gungle and Taylor (1989) to assess students’s
apprehension about writing. This is a 26-item questionnaire that features 13 items with
positive polarity and 13 with negative polarity. Scoring is done on a 5-point Likert
scale, which included the variables (1) strongly agree, (2) agree, (3) Uncertain, (4)
disagree, (5) strongly disagree. This inventory was specifically designed to measure
self-reported writing apprehension. To date, the WAT is the instrument most widely
used to measure anxiety related to second-language writing. Internal consistency of the
WAT is high (.94) as is test-retest reliability (.92). This test was originally developed
with reference to first-language learners, particularly English native speakers, and
therefore may not address the essential aspects of foreign-language writing anxiety.