Improving foreign language writing anxiety and writing performance through Facebook: Evidence from Ecuadorian undergraduate students

Abstract

Foreign language anxiety refers to the negative feelings that students experience when dealing with a writing assignment. This study aims to find whether the social networking site Facebook can re- duce foreign language writing anxiety, thus improving students' assignments quality. The present research uses a mixed methods design to triangulate the data gathered. The quantitative section of the study uses the Second Language Writing Anxiety Inventory to identify writing anxiety levels and the most common type of anxiety experienced by learners. The participants in this study were 29 undergraduate students of the last level of English at a polytechnic university in Guayaquil, Ec- uador. The Second Language Writing Anxiety Inventory was administered at the beginning and the end of the intervention to measure the differences. Results suggest that students could lower their anxiety levels. The qualitative section of the investigation relies on a semi-structured interview to get students' opinions on Facebook. It serves to support the results from the quantitative stage of the inquiry. This study is relevant as it shows current data reported from Latin America, which is very scarce. Thus, it bridges a gap in the literature. The study identifies several implications in the ad- ministrative area as well as in the practical domain.