FOREIGN LANGUAGE WRITING ANXIETY IN RELATION TO STUDENTS' ACHIEVEMENT, (HUBUNGAN KEGELISAHAN MENULIS DALAM BAHASA ASING PADA PRESTASI SISWA)

Abstract

Foreign language writing anxiety is a matter that cannot be avoided by the majority of EFL learners. In case of English Department students of Faculty of Letters, Jember University, they also experience such thing. This research examines the role of three levels of writing anxiety (high, moderate and low) in giving effect on students’ achievement. The participants of this research are three English department students. By applying the questionnaire of Second Language Writing Anxiety Inventory (SLWAI) (Cheng, 2014), the levels of writing anxiety are obtained. Besides using SLWAI, semi-structured interview is also conducted to get more in-depth information from the students who represent high anxiety level, moderate anxiety level and low anxiety level. In accordance with students' achievement, the students’ final scores on writing will be also used as the data. The results of this study show that three levels of anxiety have two sides of effect, negative and positive. The negative effect takes place when the students cannot exploit the anxiety which they have. Even for the students who have very low anxiety level, they also have the potential receiving bad scores if they are unable to employ their anxiety. Employing anxiety means the students can alter anxiety into something useful, since actually anxiety can function as a controller to avoid making error as well as mistake. If the students are success to get the benefit of anxiety, it means anxiety provides positive effect. All in all, anxiety does not always give bad influence, but it also contributes something beneficial for the students when they are learning a language. The two sides of anxiety depend on how the action of students toward it.