Exploring English Writing Motivation and Anxiety Among Undergraduate Students in a Public University

Abstract

Writing is a core academic competency at the tertiary level, yet many undergraduates experience anxiety during writing, particularly in second‑language (L2) contexts where idea generation, organisation, and language control converge under evaluation pressures. At the same time, motivational beliefs such as self‑efficacy and task value are expected to support engagement and persistence in academic writing. However, prior work reports mixed findings on how writing anxiety relates to these motivational beliefs, leaving a conceptual gap in L2 writing research. This study addresses that gap by examining the interplay between writing anxiety and writing motivation among undergraduates in a Malaysian public university. This quantitative survey involved 132 undergraduates and used a 31‑item Likert‑scale instrument organised into two sections: Writing Motivation (self‑efficacy; task value) and Writing Anxiety (cognitive, somatic, avoidance). Reliability for subscales ranged from good to excellent. Descriptive results showed that anxiety was most salient in evaluative and time‑pressured situations, whereas students reported generally high self‑efficacy and task value. Correlation analyses indicated no significant relationships between writing anxiety and self‑efficacy, and between writing anxiety and task value, and inferential tests showed no significant differences in anxiety or self‑efficacy across education background or disciplinary clusters. The overall findings suggest that writing anxiety coexists with strong motivational beliefs and operates as a situational rather than trait‑like inhibitor in this context. Pedagogically, the study implies the need to reduce evaluation salience and time pressure through assessment design and pacing, while sustaining students’ existing competence beliefs and perceived value for writing. Conceptually, the results support a differentiated view in which motivation and anxiety proceed in parallel processes, inviting longitudinal and mixed‑methods to test conditional pathways that may mediate their interplay.