Gender Differences and the Influence of Writing Anxiety Factors on Iraqi Postgraduate’s Attitudes

Abstract

This study aimed to examine the levels of the three factors of writing anxiety (somatic, avoidance behavior, and cognitive) and to identify which factor causes more writing anxiety to Iraqi English as a foreign language (EFL) students. Quantitative approach was used in this research on 100 Iraqi postgraduate students at the National University of Malaysia (Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia). The sample included 50 male students and 50 female students aged between 20 and 40 years old. One instrument was used for data collection; the Second Language Writing Anxiety Inventory developed by Cheng (2004). The results of the study revealed that Iraqi EFL students are influenced by all the three aforementioned factors, but the somatic and cognitive anxiety factors have less impact on Iraqi students compared to the avoidance behavior anxiety factor which had higher impact. Furthermore, the results demonstrated a significant difference between male and female students regarding writing anxiety, in which female students’ experienced greater amount of anxiety than male students. This indicates that the effect of anxiety on the attitudes of female students occurred more greatly than male students. The avoidance behavior factor was the most influence on female participants compared to the other two factors, namely, somatic and cognitive which had less influence. This indicates that Iraqi EFL students have a tendency to avoid the situations that require writing. This study recommends that Iraqi EFL students need to enhance their self-confidence to decrease their anxiety generally and avoidance behavior anxiety in particular.