AN EXPLORATION INTO GRADE 9 STUDENTS’ WRITING ANXIETY IN ENGLISH CLASS: THE CASE OF HIRNA SECONDARY SCHOOL, WEST HARARGHE

Abstract

The main objective of this study was to explore into grade 9 students’ writing anxiety in English class with reference to Hirna secondary school. The subjects of the study were one hundred eighty (i.e. 25% of the total population of 720) from ten section of students. In each section there are 72 students. From these sections by using simple random sampling the researcher took 180 students from all sections and three grade nine English language teacher by using purposive sampling as their numbers are a few. In order to identify the factors that cause writing anxiety in the grade 9 students, the participants perception towards writing, the impact of anxiety and the strategies that the teachers use as the student over come writing anxiety, two kinds of data collection instruments were used; namely, questionnaire and interview. Questionnaires are the modified form of Second Language Writing Anxiety Inventory (SLWAI), which was developed by Cheng (2004) in order to explore the cause of writing anxiety. To investigate the teachers’ perspectives of writing anxiety in English class, interviews with three English language teachers were conducted. The teacher’ answers to the interview questions corresponded with the students’ responses to the questionnaire items. The data collected using these instruments were analyzed by making use of different statistical analysis methods and quantitative description, percentage, and description of some qualitative data. The finding indicated that the large majority of the subjects of the study were found language difficulties, limited knowledge of vocabulary, personal perception, insufficient writing technique, time pressure and fear of evaluation and making mistakes.