Writing Anxiety Definition of Terms

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CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

This following chapter presents the review of related literature which is used to answer the research questions. This chapter consists of two sections; the theoretical description and the theoretical framework. In theoretical description, the researcher provides some theories about writing, anxiety, writing anxiety, the students in Paragraph Writing class which are considered as EFL English as Foreign Language students, and freewriting. While the second section is theoretical framework which consists of the summary of the major relevant theories to help the researcher conducts the study to solve the research problems.

A. Theoretical Description

This study discusses the use of five-minute freewriting to reduce EFL students ’ writing anxiety in Paragraph Writing class. This chapter provides the theories which are related to the study matter. This section describes the theories of writing which includes the nature of writing, types, benefits and some important information of writing. Then, since the first research problem deals with the factors which influence EFL students’ writing anxiety, the researcher provides some theories related to anxiety and writing anxiety. While the second research question was about to what extent five-minute freewriting reduce EFL stu dents’ writing anxiety, the researcher provides some theories related to freewriting, and the EFL students in Paragraph Writing class. 12

1. Writing

In this section, the researcher provides the theories related to writing. There are three aspects of writing which are going to be discussed in the following parts. There are the nature, benefits, and problems of writing.

a. The Nature of Writing

In this part, the researcher would discuss the nature of writing. First of all, writing is an activity which produces a set of words. Since writing is one of four English skills, writing becomes the important part which has to be mastered. However, there are some theories about writing. By focusing on language structure, writing is seen as a product const ructed from the writer’s ability of lexical and grammatical Hyland, 2003. It means that to have a good writing, a writer should have lexical and grammatical understanding. Besides, by focusing on the creative expression, writing is considered as a way of sharing personal meanings and highlighted individual to construct a topic Hyland, 2003. On the other hand, writing is the expression of meaning by developing the power to build or raise a topic. In addition, writing is a focused and communicative activity that responds to other people by replying other texts Hyland, 2003. “Writing lets us communicate w ith others who are removed by distance or time” MacArthur C.A, Graham, S, Fitzgerald, 2006. According to Sokolik in Nunan 2003, writing can be defined by a series of contrasts: 1 Writing is both a physical and a mental activity Sokolik as cited in Nunan states “At the basic level, writing is the physical act of performing words or ideas to standard whether it is symbols inked