Correlation between Writing Anxiety and Writing Ability in Report Text Writing among Eleventh-Grade EFL Students

Abstract

Writing anxiety is often regarded as an affective barrier that can influence how well EFL students perform in writing tasks, particularly in report text, a genre that demands formal structure, factual accuracy, and objective language. This study investigated the correlation between writing anxiety and writing ability in report text among Grade XI students at a public senior high school in Mojokerto Regency, Indonesia. A quantitative correlational design was applied to 108 students selected through convenience sampling from a population of 432 Grade XI students. Data were collected using an adapted Second Language Writing Anxiety Inventory (SLWAI) and a report text writing test scored with a five-aspect analytical rubric, both validated through expert judgment, pilot testing, item validity analysis, and reliability testing. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, a linearity test, and Pearson Product-Moment correlation were used to analyze the correlation of the data. Findings showed that students' writing anxiety was in the moderate category (M = 66.13, SD = 12.32) and was dominated by cognitive anxiety, while their writing ability was in the good category (M = 67.38, SD = 8.90), with grammar as the weakest-scored aspect. A statistically significant negative correlation was found between writing anxiety and writing ability (r = -0.280, p = 0.003), although the relationship was weak, explaining only 7.84% of the variance. These results suggest that lowering evaluative pressure during writing instruction may help improve students' writing outcomes.