From Diagnosis to Prognosis: What Instructors Know about Their Students’ Writing Apprehension

Abstract

Different students enter institutions of higher learning with varying degrees of writing apprehension. The apprehension ranges from anxiety from writing tasks to avoiding courses that involve a lot of writing. For many universities, the writing centers or academic writing courses are meant to equip students to be able to deal with the high writing demands in the academic environment. But how well do instructors know their students’ writing apprehension and what does this knowledge mean to instructors? The present study seeks to examine the significance of instructor’s knowledge of students’ writing apprehension in the teaching and learning exchange. Again, the study investigates the strategies lecturers adopt in minimizing students’ writing apprehension. Using the survey design, this study purposively samples 20 academic writing instructors from both public and private universities in Ghana for an exploration into their awareness of and how they eliminate or reduce students’ writing apprehension and how it affects their instruction. Data were collected through a mix of open-ended and closed-ended questionnaire administered to participants to evaluate their Writing Apprehension Awareness or Knowledge (WAAK), Writing Apprehension Detection Strategies (WADS), and Writing Apprehension Reduction Strategies (WARS). Using a three-point scale, these categories were evaluated as limited, moderate or adequate. Results of the study showed that respondents generally rated limited in all three categories, demonstrating the lack of attention given to writing apprehension. The study revealed large class sizes, instructors’ work overload, and the organization of writing courses as some of the immediate causes of writing apprehension. Findings of this study have implications for course design, writing pedagogy and structural consideration for institutions of higher education.

Keywords: writing apprehension, Writing Apprehension Awareness, Writing Apprehension Detection Strategies, and Writing Apprehension Reduction Strategies