L2 writing anxiety, working memory, and task complexity in L2 written performance

Abstract

Building on the Attentional Control Theory proposed by Eysenck et al. (2007), this study aims to investigate the potential effect of L2 writing anxiety on the syntactic complexity of English learners' written texts by accounting for working memory as a potential mediator, while also examining the impact of L2 writing anxiety on learner texts’ syntactic complexity under high and low cognitive demands, and testing whether syntactic complexity is reduced in written texts produced under high cognitive demand. The participants were 126 learners of English as a Foreign Language, divided into low and high-writing anxiety groups while their reading anxiety, working memory capacity, and previous writing scores were kept equal. Each participant completed two integrated L2 writing tasks with varying cognitive loads. Empirical findings of this study show that high L2 writing anxiety may play a suppressive role on learners' working memory, thereby resulting in reduced syntactic complexity in written texts produced. Furthermore, consistent with previous research, this study documents the negative impact of L2 writing anxiety and highlights the influence of high cognitive load tasks on L2 learners' syntactic complexity in text production.