Investigating student’s attitudes and performance in L2 writing: an insight from an EFL tertiary classroom in Indonesia

Abstract

Writing is often considered time-consuming and laborious for many EFL students. Writing as a language skill draws more attention to language acquisition because it demands a productive skill that students must acquire. Mastering exceptional writing skills, on the other hand, takes time. A variety of factors, including affective issues, may have an impact on a student's writing performance. According to cognitive psychologists and linguists, attitude is one aspect that influences performance when learning a foreign language. The success in L2 writing is related to attitudes, apprehension, and self-efficacy toward writing. This study aimed to explore the writing attitudes and performance of second-semester students enrolled in the Paragraph Writing Class at the Study Program of English, Faculty of Cultural Studies, Universitas Brawijaya. The study employed a correlation research design. To collect the required data, this research utilized a writing attitude questionnaire and a writing test that were analyzed by using SPSS. The findings indicate that there is a substantial positive correlation between the students' writing attitude and their writing performance. It is demonstrated by the Pearson correlation value of 0.666>0.05 and the 2-tailed significant value of 0.000. As a result, it is possible to conclude that writing attitude is an excellent predictor of writing performance. The teacher should enhance the attitudes of the students in this study for them to accomplish better. Students would have a more positive attitude if they understand how it affects their learning performance.

Keywords: Students’ Writing Attitude; Students’ Writing Performance; Correlation Study