Problems in Paragraph Level

18 researchers such as MacIntyre 1995, Horwitz et al. 1986 and MacIntyre and Gardner 1989 and 1991 claimed that language courses are very anxiety- provoking as cited in Daud, 2005. “Anxiety is a state of apprehension, a vague fear tha t is only indirectly associated with an object” Hilgard, Atkinson, Atkinson, 1971. It means that anxiety is kind of public feeling of ambiguous fear, which indirectly related with something consider as an object. The success of learning will affect st udent’s anxiety because it is related to the student’s optimism. It was revealed that overall, academic achievement was the best predictor followed by foreign language anxiety Daud, 2005. The success of learning will lead the students to be more confident and motivated so that they experience less anxiety. Other researcher, for example, Levine reports that students who come from monolingual background tend to feel more anxious than students who come from bi- or multilingual backgrounds Levine, 2003 as cited in Daud, 2005. It is because students who come from bilingual or multilingual background get more new knowledge from some languages. However, students who know only one language tend to feel more anxious because their knowledge of other languages is limited.

b. The Types of Anxiety

According to Huberty 2004, anxiety is categorized into three types; Cognitive, Behavioral, and Physical. Cognitive anxiety means the anxious feeling associated with intellectual activity. The examples of cognitive anxiety according 19 to Huberty 2004 are concentration difficulties, memory problem, worry, irritability, fear of losing control, fear of failure, and difficulties in problem solving. Behavioral anxiety related to social anxious feeling. Behavior anxiety exists from the behavior to interact with others. Behavioral anxiety can be seen by shyness, withdrawal, frequently asking question, rapid speech, excessive talking, habit behaviors such as hair pulling or twirling, and impulsiveness Huberty,2004. While the anxious feeling related to substantial factors called physical anxiety. Physical anxiety can be seen by eyes because it is relevant to physical activity. The examples of physical anxiety are trembling or shaking, increased heart rate, excessive perspiration, shortness of breath, dizziness, chest pain or discomfort, flushing of the skin, nausea and muscle tension. The type of anxiety which is related to this study is cognitive type. It is because writing is considered as thinking and intellectual activity.

3. Writing Anxiety