Distinguish L2 Writing Tension from Anxiety

Abstract

Current research on second language (L2) anxiety solely deals with the vague fears. Those research results do not
reflect L2 learners’ real concerns or furthermore help them to reduce the “tension” rather than anxiety. The researcher
considers the need to distinguish L2 writing tension from L2 writing anxiety. Furthermore, this study attempts to
infuse the pragmatic aspect by adding two categories of questions related to actual situations and classroom activities
to the Foreign Language Writing Anxiety Questionnaire (Tsai, 2012). The results of the Bivarited correlation tests
show both the inter-category and intra-category reach the significant level at .05 or better. Thus, the New Foreign
Language Writing Anxiety Questionnaire (NFLWAQ, Appendix 1) is formed. Notably, the L2 writing tension in this
study is significantly higher than the foreign language writing anxiety in the overall group as well as every individual
group at the significant level of .05 or better. The results indicate that the participants worry about real situations and
classroom activities more than the vague fears from nowhere. The peer review activity is recognized as the least
pressure source that L2 writing teachers might want to practice it from time to time to reduce students’ tension.