Halil Erdem COCUK1, Tugba YANPAR YELKEN2, Omer OZER3
1Res. Asst., Mersin University, Faculty of Education, Mersin, Turkey.
2Prof. Dr., Mersin University, Faculty of Education, Mersin, Turkey.
3Inst., Adana Science and Technology University, School of Foreign Languages, Adana, Turkey.
DOI: 10.14689/ejer.2016.63.19
ABSTRACT
Problem Statement: Writing is important in secondary schools because it underpins the performance of students in most examinations. Writing disposition, which specifically deals with the aspects of students’ attitudes toward writing, has also been studied by some researchers.
Purpose of the Study: This study reports on the result of a study on the writing anxiety and writing disposition of Turkish students from different socio-economic status backgrounds studying at public secondary schools. Determining whether there is a significant difference between the secondary school students’ scores from writing anxiety and writing disposition constitutes the research problem of this study.
Method: This descriptive study uses a correlational survey model. The participants included 707 students from grade five through eight, who attended two different tests: the Writing Apprehension Scale and Writing Disposition Scale.
Findings: The results showed that three of the six variables under study (gender, attitude toward Turkish language courses, and grade level) were statistically significant for the Writing Apprehension test. Additionally, four out of six variables analyzed were statistically significant for the Writing Disposition test. A positive linear relationship between writing anxiety and writing disposition levels was found. Apparently, the more students liked Turkish course, the more anxious they became; a significant difference was found for the variable “positive attitude toward Turkish courses” for both scales. The results also showed that female students are more likely to encounter writing anxiety than male students.
Conclusion and Recommendations: The severity of writing anxiety should be dealt with carefully as it can prevent students from becoming competent writers. The link between writing anxiety and writing disposition proposed in this article further explores the advantages and disadvantages of these two aspects of writing. It is recommended that writing anxiety be studied in different contexts because further understanding the reasons for anxiety when students produce qualified writing can be elaborated in this way.
Keywords: Turkish course, secondary school students, writing instruction, writing disposition, writing anxiety.