Factors of Writing Anxiety and the Overcoming Strategies among EFL Students in Afghanistan

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the level of writing anxiety, the factors of writing anxiety as well as the overcoming strategies among EFL students in Afghanistan. This small scale study was conducted quantitatively among 15 Afghanistan students from different universities. Findings revealed that majority of the respondents were experiencing low level of anxiety. In analyzing the factors of writing anxiety, it was found that external factors such as teacher’s evaluation, examination, writing assignments, and time constraint have higher influence on students writing anxiety than internal factors. While, findings on the strategies used by the students showed that affective strategies are the most preferable strategy to overcome anxiety compared to metacognitive and cognitive strategy. This study has provided the insight on writing anxiety among EFL students in Afghanistan which would help educators to plan their writing lesson while taking students’ writing anxiety into consideration.