Research title:

The Causes of Teaching Writing Apprehension through University Teachers’ Perspective

OR

2) Investigation of University Teachers’ Teaching Writing Apprehension

Research questions:

1) What are the causes of apprehension among university teachers when teaching English

writing?

2) What are strategies teachers use to cope with their teaching writing apprehension?

Introductory session

Thank you very much for meeting me for this interview. You are selected because you

have been identified as someone who has difficulties and apprehension about teaching English

writing. I am a ……………………………………………..……...

Because your information is important and I want to make sure to capture everything you

say, I would like to audio tape our conversation today. I will also be taking written notes during

the interview. All of your responses will be confidential and only pseudonym will be used when

quoting from the transcripts. And they will be destroyed after they are transcribed.

To meet our human subject’s requirement at the university, you must sign this Informed

consent form. Essentially, this documents states that: (1) all information will be held

confidential, (2) our participation is voluntary and you may stop at any time if you feel

uncomfortable, (3) we do not intend to inflict any harm.

I have planned this interview to last about………minutes. During this, I have several

questions to cover. If time begins to run short, it may be necessary to interrupt you in order to

push a head and complete this line of questioning. Do you have any questions?
Interview questions

Grand tour questions:

(1) How do you like teaching in the university?

(2) What makes you decide to be an English teacher?

(3) How long have you been teaching English writing?

(4) Please describe experiences and/or incidents that you were surprised at related to your

teaching at the university.

Main Questions:

1. What are the causes of apprehension among university teachers when teaching English

writing?

1) How do you feel when you teach writing?

2) Why do you feel like this?

3) Did you ever feel anxious when teaching writing? If yes, in what way, pleases

explain?

4) What made you feel anxious?

5) Which causes or factors could affect your anxiety most?

2. What are strategies teachers use to cope with their teaching writing apprehension?

1) What did you do when you feel anxious?

2) How did you cope with?

3) Are there any strategies you use to cope with your anxiety? If yes, what they are?

4) Which strategy did you often use?

Follow up questions:

1) A part from teaching writing, what other situations make you feel apprehensive?

2) Is there anything would you like to add up?

3) Would you teach writing continuously?
 1 = strongly disagree; 2 = disagree; 3 = no strong feelings either way;
4 = agree; 5 = strongly agree)
Questionnaire Items Degree of Agreement
Adapted from Second Language Writing Apprehension Test 5 4 3 2 1
(Daly and Miller 1975)

1. While teaching writing, I’m not nervous at all. (R)

2. I feel my heart pounding when I teach writing.
3. While teach writing, I feel worried and uneasy.
4. I often choose to write down my thoughts in English. (R)
5. While teach writing, I often worry that I would use expressions
and sentence patterns improperly.
6. I usually do my best to avoid being selected to teach writing.
7. My mind often goes blank when I start to work on teaching
writing.
8. I don’t worry that my teaching is a lot worse than others’. (R)
9. I tremble or perspire when I teach writing in front of the
classrooms.
10. If my teaching writing is to be evaluated, I would worry about
getting very poor scores.
11. When I teach writing, my ideas and words usually flow
smoothly. (R)
12. I often feel panic when I teach writing.
13. While teaching writing, I often worry that the ways I express and
organize my ideas do not conform to the norm of English writing.
14. I’m afraid that the other teachers would deride my teaching if
they see it.
15. I freeze up when being asked by unexpected questions of other
genre of writing.
16. When I teach writing, my mind is usually very clear. (R)
17. I don’t worry at all about what other people would think of my
teaching. (R)
18. I usually feel my whole body rigid and tense when I teach
writing.
19. I’m afraid of my teaching being chosen as a sample for
discussion in the department.
20. I usually feel comfortable when teaching. (R)
21. I’m not afraid at all that my teaching would be rated as very
poor. (R)
22. Whenever possible, I would choose to teach writing. (R)
 1 = strongly disagree; 2 = disagree; 3 = no strong feelings either way;
4 = agree; 5 = strongly agree)
Degree of
Questionnaire Items Agreement
Adapted from Second Language Writing Apprehension Test 5 4 3 2 1
(Daly and Miller 1975)

1. I’m not good at teaching writing in English.

2. I don’t think I teach writing as well as most other people do.
3. When I am about to teach writing, I know I’m going to do poorly.
4. It’s easy for me to teach writing. (R)
5. I expect to do poorly in teaching writing classes even before I
enter them.
6. I have a terrible time preparing my teaching in an English writing
course.
7. Students seem to enjoy what I teach. (R)
8. I never seem to be able to teach writing clearly.
9. Teaching writing in English is a lot of fun. (R)
10. I like seeing my students write their works on paper in English.
(R)
11. I enjoy teaching writing. (R)
12. I look forward to teaching writing next semesters. (R)
13. I like to teach writing more than o my ideas down in English.
(R)
14. Expressing ideas through writing in English seems to be a waste
of time.
15. I have no fear of my teaching being evaluated students. (R)
16. I don’t like my teaching to be evaluated.
17. I am afraid of teaching writing when I know it will be evaluated.
18. I have no fear of my teaching being evaluated by supervisors.
(R)
19. Discussing my teaching writing with others is an enjoyable
experience. (R)

.
Ayumi Takahashi. (2010). Foreign Language Writing Apprehension: Its Relationships with
Motivation, Self-perceived Target Language Ability, and Actual Language Ability.
Niigata University Academic Repository.
Yasser Al-Shboul. (2015). The Causes of Writing Apprehension through Students’
Perspective. Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 6(3), 535-544.
Grace Hui Chin Lin. (2009). An Exploration into Foreign Language Writing Anxiety from
Taiwanese University Students’ Perspectives. NCUE Fourth Annual Conference
on Language, Teaching, Literature, Linguistics, Translations and Interpretation,
307-318.
Yuh-show Cheng. (2004). EFL Students’ Writing Anxiety: Sources and Implications.
English Teaching & Learning, 29(2), 41-62.
Claypool, S. H. (1980). Teacher writing apprehension: Does it affect writing assignments
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