Factors contributing to students’ apprehension towards writing english compositions (A Case Study at Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Sultan Mansor, Kuala Terengganu) / Zakiah Abd Wahab

This research is designed to investigate the level of writing apprehension (WA) among the selected students in Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Sultan Mansor (SMKSM), Kuala Terengganu and to identify the possible critical factors that contribute to the students’ writing apprehension. It also attempts to provide some suggestions on how to overcome the students’ apprehension towards writing English compositions. A total of 40 form five, identified as low English proficiency level students and 10 English teachers from the same school responded to prepared sets of questionnaires which comprised of a Likert 5 point scale ranging from ‘Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree’ and the Daly-Miller Writing Apprehension Test (WAT). All the data collected were analysed using the Daly- Miller WAT formula, frequency count technique and percentages. Then, quantitative and qualitative analyses were made.
The study revealed a surprising finding whereby only a small number of students possessed low or high writing apprehension, while majority of the students experienced average writing apprehension. This finding has contradicted the previous researches that showed generally low English proficiency level students will experience high writing apprehension and vice versa. However, a point to note here is that according to Daly- Miller (1975a), average apprehensive student writers do experience “excessive apprehension” when carrying out certain writing tasks or in writing with different purposes for different types of audience. This study revealed that students’ attitude, belief, lack of self-confidence and motivation, low English proficiency level, limited vocabulary, lack of interest in reading English materials and low socio-economic status are some of the major factors that contribute to the students’ writing apprehension. The students highlighted that to a certain extent, teacher’s factors also play a significant role in leading to their apprehensiveness towards writing. The findings also depict the teachers’ teaching strategies and their suggestions on how to handle or at least minimize the students’ level of writing apprehension while conducting writing activities in the classroom. Finally, in conclusion, it is hoped that some other pedagogical and psychological strategies in the recommendation section will assist the various stakeholders to help reduce the students’ apprehension towards writing English comnositions.