EXPLORING THE LEVELS AND CAUSES OF WRITING ATTITUDE AND ANXIETY AMONG INDONESIAN EFL STUDENTS

Abstract

This research discussed to explore the levels and causes of writing attitude and writing anxiety in the 8th semester students at Universitas Muhammadiyah Sumatera Utara by using the theory of Ismail for writing attitude, and Cheng and Younas, et al for writing anxiety. This research aimed at exploring types of writing attitudes as well as the types, levels and variables that contribute to EFL students' writing anxiety, which could obstruct the learning process to master writing skills. To see the relationship that occured between writing attitudes and writing anxiety on the learning process of EFL students. This research used quantitative research, with a total 60 students, by using Sugiono’s theory, the researcher applied random sampling to take 32 samples. The data collection instrument taken by the researcher was a questionnaire with 31 questions about writing attitude and writing anxiety. SPSS 22 was used to analyze the data in this research, which included descriptive statistics and the Pearson Product Moment Correlation Test. There was positive writing attitude type experienced by students based on the data studied. Somatic anxiety type with a medium level of anxiety and linguistic difficulties was the most common causal factor experienced by students. The results of calculating the correlation coefficient between Writing Anxiety and Writing Attitude were 0.484 which indicated that there was a significant relationship between Writing anxiety and writing attitude, with a correlation value 0.593, it meant that the correlation between the effects was in the Coefficient Interval range 0.400-0.600 with Fair Correlation level.