THE CYCLE OF SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY IN ACADEMIC WRITING

Fear of writing can be caused my many reasons. Some reasons come from the learners, some from the teachers and some from the surrounding environment. A learner with negative feelings towards writing may present this fear into having writing anxiety when it comes to classrooms activities. This fear can become a never-ending cycle of fear towards writing. This pilot study is done on 108 respondents to find. Out the influence of perceived difficulties, reasons for writing and writing anxiety on ESL academic writing. The instrument used is a 56-items survey with 5 likert scales. Findings of the study displayed an interesting self-prophecy towards writing. The results of the study revealed that many learners’ perception of writing difficulty started in semester one of their study. This fear can be aggravated by a non-supporting learning environment by the writing teachers. Next, cognitive anxiety such as low self-esteem added on to the negative feeling on writing. This negative feeling can be rooted from the learners past experience (somatic anxiety) on the learning of writing. Finally, learners may end up showing avoidance bahaviour such towards learning writing. They would only write essays in English if they were not given any choice