Neurolinguistic Perspectives on Academic Writing Anxiety: Cognitive and Affective Constraints in Multilingual Students
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47012/jjmll.18.2.6Keywords:
academic writing anxiety, cognitive load, multilingual students, neurolinguistics, working memoryAbstract
Academic writing anxiety poses significant challenges for multilingual students, affecting cognitive processing, language retrieval, and working memory. While previous research has examined writing anxiety from linguistic and pedagogical perspectives, its neurolinguistic basis remains underexplored. This study investigates the relationship between writing anxiety and neurolinguistic processing, focusing on its effects on writing quality and potential intervention strategies. Using a mixed-methods approach, the investigation involved 120 multilingual students from three Indonesian cities. Quantitative data were collected via the Second Language Writing Anxiety Inventory (SLWAI), while Think-Aloud Protocols (TAP) and in-depth interviews provided qualitative insights. Results show a strong negative correlation between anxiety and writing quality (r = -0.769, p < 0.001). High-anxiety students exhibited more lexical retrieval pauses and structural difficulties. Effective interventions, including process-based writing and self-regulated learning, reduced anxiety and improved writing quality. Future research should incorporate neuroimaging techniques to strengthen these findings.
Highlights:
- Academic writing anxiety was strongly associated with lower writing quality among multilingual students.
- The study examined 120 undergraduate and graduate students writing consistently in a second or third language across three Indonesian cities.
- Students with high writing anxiety achieved markedly lower writing-quality scores than those with moderate or low anxiety.
- Language-processing difficulties were reported more frequently by participants in Semarang and Surabaya than by those in Bandung.
- The findings connect academic writing anxiety with cognitive, affective, and neurolinguistic dimensions of multilingual writing.
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