Thesis writing anxiety among Indonesian pre-service teachers of English: A survey study

Abstract

For decades, language anxiety has been a popular research topic in the field of language learning and studies suggested that learners' second/foreign (L2) writing anxiety, one of the anxiety constructs, negatively affected learners' L2 writing achievement. This study aimed to investigate the thesis writing anxiety of Indonesian pre-service English teachers working on their theses in the final semesters of their study. The participants of this study were 105 pre-service teacher participants from ten universities across six different provinces in Indonesia. The study employed an online survey as the method of data collection. It found that generally, the participants had a moderate level of thesis writing anxiety. The detailed findings were further elaborated under four categories: “Difficulty
in Grammar and Writing Anxiety”, “Negative Feelings when Writing a Thesis in
English”, “Positive Feelings when Writing a Thesis in English”, and “Degree of Influence of Advisors and Peers to Writing Anxiety”. Based on the findings, possible contributions, implications, and limitations are suggested alongside suggested directions for future studies.

Full text

Englisia: Journal of Language, Education, and Humanities
November 2023.
Vol.11
, No.1, 148-162
Thesis writing anxiety among Indonesian pre-service
teachers of English: A survey study
Grisel Englin Kawengian, Adaninggar Septi Subekti
*
Universitas Kristen Duta Wacana, Indonesia
Manuscript received July 2, 2023, revised August 20, 2023, accepted August 25, 2023,
and published online November
7
, 2023.
Recommended APA Citation
Kawengian, G. E., & Subekti, A. S. (2023). Thesis writing anxiety among Indonesian pre-
service teachers of English: A survey study. Englisia: Journal of Language, Education,
and Humanities, 11(1), 148-162. https://doi.org/10.22373/ej.v11i1.18940
ABSTRACT
For decades, language anxiety has been a popular research topic in the field of language
learning and studies suggested that learners' second/foreign (L2) writing anxiety, one of
the anxiety constructs, negatively affected learners' L2 writing achievement. This study
aimed to investigate the thesis writing anxiety of Indonesian pre-service English teachers
working on their theses in the final semesters of their study. The participants of this study
were 105 pre-service teacher participants from ten universities across six different
provinces in Indonesia. The study employed an online survey as the method of data
collection. It found that generally, the participants had a moderate level of thesis writing
anxiety. The detailed findings were further elaborated under four categories: “Difficulty
in Grammar and Writing Anxiety”, “Negative Feelings when Writing a Thesis in
English”, “Positive Feelings when Writing a Thesis in English”, and “Degree of Influence
of Advisors and Peers to Writing Anxiety”. Based on the findings, possible contributions,
implications, and limitations are suggested alongside suggested directions for future
studies.
Keywords: Anxiety; Pre-service English teachers; Second/foreign language (L2); Thesis
writing; Writing anxiety
*
Corresponding Author:
Adaninggar Septi Subekti
Universitas Kristen Duta Wacana
Jl. dr. Wahidin Sudirohusodo No.5-25, Gondokusuman, Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta 55224, Indonesia
Email: adaninggar@staff.ukdw.ac.id

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1. Introduction
For the last four decades, language anxiety has been a popular research topic. It is
evidenced by numerous studies conducted on the sub-constructs of language anxiety such
as listening anxiety (Chriswiyati & Subekti, 2022; Tayşi, 2019; Tsai, 2013; X. Zhang,
2013), reading anxiety (Cetinkaya, 2011; Estrada-Madronero, 2019; Limeranto &
Subekti, 2021b, 2021a; Saito et al., 1999), speaking anxiety (Horwitz, 2001; Horwitz et
al., 1986; Subekti, 2018a, 2018b), and writing anxiety (Sabti et al., 2019; Yayli & Genc,
2019; Younas et al., 2014; H. Zhang, 2011).
Specific to writing anxiety, writing anxiety is defined as a recurring feeling of not
being ready to write or not being good enough to write (Jawas, 2019). Studies suggested
that it negatively affects learners’ writing achievement (Harahap & Syarif, 2022; Sabti et
al., 2019; H. Zhang, 2011). Learners with low writing anxiety have a greater chance of
succeeding in L2 writing, whereas learners with high writing anxiety have a higher
probability of performing worse in L2 writing (Hartono & Maharani, 2020). Learners
with a high level of writing anxiety are more likely to feel demotivated in writing, have
unfavourable attitudes about writing tasks, create low-quality papers, have wrong
impressions about their writing, and avoid circumstances where writing is necessary (Ho,
2016).
Studies investigating L2 writing anxiety are not new and several studies have been
conducted in several different contexts, for example in Turkiye (Kara, 2013), Iran (Jebreil
et al., 2015), Iraq (Sabti et al., 2019), and Taiwan (Ho, 2016), suggesting its popularity in
the field of L2 learning. In Indonesia, L2 writing anxiety had been investigated in several
studies as well (Aunurrahman, 2019; Dwihandini et al., 2013; Harahap & Syarif, 2022;
Hartono & Maharani, 2020; Jawas, 2019). These numerous studies probably suggested
the important role of writing anxiety in influencing the success of learners’ L2 writing.
Furthermore, L2 writing may even be more anxiety-provoking in the cases of high-
stake writing tasks such as thesis writing in English. Thesis writing is the writing of
research reports that follow specific research formats and organisations, and in Indonesia,
it is largely a compulsory subject that learners must complete to graduate from college
(Diasti & Mbato, 2020; Puspita, 2019). Situmorang (2018) mentioned that many
millennial college learners in Indonesia believe that the undergraduate thesis is
challenging. In line with that, Diasti and Mbato (2020) also mentioned that whilst some
learners could finish writing their thesis on time, others took a long time, suggesting thesis
writing becomes learners' final and biggest challenge of graduating from college.
Conducted in the field of guidance and counselling, a study by Situmorang (2018)
reported that learners' low writing skills and low interest in research were the causes of
apprehension towards theses. This is likely due to writing a thesis understandably being
more complex than any other type of writing (Dwihandini et al., 2013), let alone in
learners’ L2.
That being said, it is important to conduct a study specifically investigating the
thesis writing anxiety of learners working on their theses in English Language Education

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Departments. A plethora of studies about L2 writing anxiety in Indonesia as well as
various other contexts has been overwhelmed with studies investigating anxiety in
descriptive writing, paragraph writing, and short essay writing (Aunurrahman, 2019;
Hartono & Maharani, 2020; Ho, 2016; Jawas, 2019; Kara, 2013; Masriani et al., 2018;
Sabti et al., 2019). Fewer studies have been conducted about the anxiety of writing theses
in English (Dwihandini et al., 2013; Harahap & Syarif, 2022). A study by Dwihandini et
al. (2013) involved 50 Indonesian pre-service English teachers taking theses at a private
university. They identified several factors affecting their participants' writing anxiety,
psychological factors such as a lack of confidence in deciding research topic, and
linguistic factors such as being afraid of making grammar mistakes. Furthermore,
Harahap and Syarif (2022) involved 20 learners at a private university in their study about
anxiety in writing the introduction section of thesis proposals. Albeit the contributions of
these studies in the Indonesian context, a study larger in scope, for example involving
learners from several different universities in Indonesia, may be necessary. Such a study
may provide an overview as well as an 'eagle-eyed' view of thesis writing anxiety which
is fairly under-researched despite the probability that writing a thesis in L2 is more
challenging than usual L2 writing in typical L2 classes, thus probably more anxiety-
provoking for learners.
With this rationale in mind, the present study, through an online survey, intends to
investigate the thesis writing anxiety of Indonesian pre-service English teachers working
on their theses in the final years of their study.
2. Literature review
2.1. Possible effects of L2 writing anxiety
Scholars have reiterated that language anxiety had debilitating effects on language
learning (Horwitz et al., 1986; Jebreil et al., 2015; Limeranto & Subekti, 2021b; Subekti,
2018b; Tayşi, 2019). In the case of writing anxiety, despite being less popular than other
L2 anxiety constructs, studies in this field were available in several L2 learning contexts,
for example, in Cyprus (Güneyli, 2016), Turkey (Kara, 2013), Iran (Jebreil et al., 2015),
Iraq (Sabti et al., 2019), China (Liu & Ni, 2015), Taiwan (Ho, 2016), Malaysia (Rahim
& Hayas, 2014), and Indonesia (Aunurrahman, 2019; Dwihandini et al., 2013; Wahyuni
& Umam, 2017), among others. Many of these studies suggested the debilitating effects
of writing anxiety towards writing achievement (Harahap & Syarif, 2022; Jebreil et al.,
2015; Sabti et al., 2019).
The following is the overview of several studies about writing anxiety outside
Indonesia. In Malaysia, a study by Rahim and Hayas (2014) involved a class of 30
learners at the university level and reported that their writing anxiety affected their choice
of doing writing tasks in English, to the point of avoiding writing because they did not
want to be negatively evaluated by peers and teachers. Furthermore, a survey study
involving 218 Taiwanese English as Foreign Language (EFL) graduate learners by Ho
(2016) reported that learners at master and doctoral levels equally experienced writing

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anxiety. Those in their later stage of doctoral study, however, were more confident in
writing research papers in English than their junior counterparts. This suggested that a
degree of familiarity with L2 writing could be an important determinant of writing
anxiety. A quantitative study involving 100 Iraqi learners from an English department by
Sabti et al (2019) reported, among others, that writing anxiety played a considerable role
in student behaviours. The study also found that writing self-efficacy significantly and
negatively correlated with anxiety, suggesting that the lower learners perceived their
writing capabilities, the higher their writing anxiety tended to be. Furthermore, a large-
scale survey study involving 1174 freshman learners in China by Liu and Ni (2015)
reported, among others, learners’ writing anxiety significantly negatively affected their
performance on the English writing test. Similar findings were later reported by several
subsequent studies employing different methods and being smaller in scale (Fakeye &
Ohia, 2016; Güneyli, 2016). Involving 721 secondary school learners in Cyprus, Güneyli
(2016) reported that when learners experienced writing anxiety, they tended to be afraid,
delay their writing, and lose motivation.
The following is the overview of several studies about writing anxiety in Indonesia.
Some studies produced similar findings to studies outside Indonesia on the negative
effects of writing anxiety on writing achievement (Harahap & Syarif, 2022; Masriani et
al., 2018; Syarifudin, 2020). A small-scale quantitative study involving 27 college
learners also reported that writing anxiety and metacognitive strategies were significantly,
moderately, and negatively correlated (Aglina et al., 2020), suggesting that the more
learners were aware of their thinking process, the lower their anxiety tended to be. Outside
the EFL context, Situmorang (2018) conducted a study about thesis writing anxiety
among learners from a counselling department and found that many thesis takers
procrastinated, avoided their advisors, and did non-productive things because they were
anxious about the thesis writing process, possibly suggesting that thesis writing is
anxiety-provoking even in learners' first language, let alone in their L2. Harahap and
Syarif (2022) in their mixed-methods study investigating learners' anxiety in writing the
introduction section of their thesis proposal reported that learners were not confident,
nervous, and anxious. Some participants mentioned that writing the backgrounds of their
studies was very hard. This finding gave some kind of support that thesis writing is a
whole new level compared to writing tasks assigned in typical L2 classes and thus L2
learners working on their theses may be more susceptible to writing anxiety than L2
learners in their regular writing or integrated L2 classes. Moreover, studies suggested that
many learners did not complete their theses on time because they were not motivated to
write them (Diasti & Mbato, 2020), and this lack of motivation may be one of the effects
of writing anxiety (Ho, 2016).
2.1. Possible sources of L2 writing anxiety
Learners' degree of familiarity with L2 writing activities seems to affect learners'
writing anxiety. In Turkey, involving 150 Turkish university learners, Kara (2013)

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reported that several factors contributed to writing anxiety, such as unfamiliarity with
writing activities, not having writing habits and a perceived lack of necessary strategies
in organising ideas in written forms. Turkish participants in a study by Yayli and Genc
(2019) also reported selecting suitable topics and finding supporting ideas were
particularly anxiety-provoking for them. This finding may conform to the finding of an
earlier study in the Omani context by Al-Mekhlafi and Nagaratnam (2011). Involving 90
English teachers, the study reported these teachers’ beliefs that learners were often unable
to apply their grammar knowledge to their writing, suggesting learners’ lack of familiarity
with L2 writing. In Indonesia, Salikin (2019) reported that expressing ideas in written
English was challenging and it made learners anxious about writing. The study mentioned
that writing anxiety could most likely be attributed to the combination of two interrelated
factors: lack of linguistic abilities and lack of practice, where linguistics problems occur
because learners did not have sufficient L2 writing practices.
Other sources of writing anxiety are learners’ peers and teachers. A study by
Quvanch and Na (2022) involved 133 Afghan learners of English. The study found that
the participants experienced a moderate level of writing anxiety. It also found that fear of
teachers’ negative evaluations, along with linguistic problems pressure to perform well,
and time pressure, made them anxious. Earlier studies in various contexts such as Jordan,
and Taiwan, also reported that negative evaluations from teachers made learners anxious
in L2 writing (Rabadi & Rabadi, 2020; Tsao et al., 2017). At times, learners were also
hesitant to show their work to their peers (El Shimi, 2017). That was because they had
problems with word choices and they thought their vocabulary was not sufficient to
produce understandable English writing. A study by Jawas (2019) involved 80 Indonesian
English major learners. It found that even though peers did not make learners anxious as
much as their teachers did, a competitive atmosphere among learners could make learners
anxious about possible negative evaluations from their peers.
Furthermore, an earlier study in Indonesia by Dwihandini et al. (2013), despite not
specifically exploring writing anxiety, focused its investigation on factors affecting
learners' difficulty in writing theses in English. These factors seem to overlap with sources
of writing anxiety in general such as linguistic problems and unfamiliarity with L2
writing. What perhaps has not been widely discussed in the general writing anxiety
literature is the psychological factor related to learners' little or zero prior experience in
conducting research for their theses and reporting the research studies in good academic
writing. This may be one of the reasons why writing anxiety is probably more prevalent
in the thesis writing context than in L2 writing activities in typical L2 classrooms,
suggesting the merits of investigating L2 learners' thesis writing anxiety.
3. Method
3.1. Research design
The present study adopted a survey design. It provides a plan for a numeric or
quantitative description of trends, opinions, or attitudes (Creswell, 2014). In this study,

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the survey was conducted by distributing an online questionnaire. For this purpose, the
study adapted ten questionnaire items from the original Second Language Writing
Anxiety Inventory (SLWAI) questionnaire developed by Cheng (2004) consisting of a
total of 27 statement items. Only items deemed relevant to the context of thesis writing
were included in this study. Of these ten items, six were positive statements and four were
negative statements. An example of a positive statement is "Whilst writing my thesis in
English, I feel worried and uneasy.” An example of a negative statement is "I usually feel
comfortable and at ease when writing my thesis in English.” For each statement, four
possible responses were available, “Strongly Agree”, “Agree”, “Disagree”, and “Strongly
Disagree”. To facilitate more thorough analyses of findings, in this report, the ten items
are divided into four categories: “Difficulty in Grammar and Writing Anxiety” (items 2
and 5), “Negative Feelings when Writing a Thesis in English” (items 1 and 6), “Positive
Feelings when Writing a Thesis in English” (items 4, 8, and 9), and “Degree of Influence
of Advisors and Peers to Writing Anxiety”(items 3, 7, and 10).
As a whole, the questionnaire set in this study consists of the following parts:
consent form, demographic questionnaire, and the main questionnaire consisting of ten
items. These questionnaire items were then translated into Indonesian and back-translated
into English to ensure the accuracy of the Indonesian translation. Before being distributed,
the questionnaire set was piloted to ten Indonesian pre-service English teachers in the
final year of their study. Based on their feedback, revisions were made to ensure that all
the items were clear and unambiguous (Gray, 2014) as well as easy to complete.
3.2. Research participants, data collection, and ethical consideration
The target participants of the present study were Indonesian pre-service English
teachers taking undergraduate theses. The online survey through distributing the Google
Form questionnaire was conducted from 1 February 2023 to 19 March 2023 via various
social media platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, and WhatsApp. This study could
involve as many as 105 Indonesian English pre-service teachers taking theses. These
participants came from ten universities in six different provinces in Indonesia:
Yogyakarta, Jakarta, East Java, Bali, South Sulawesi, and North Sulawesi. Of these 105
participants, 76 were female (72.4%) and 29 were male (27.6%). They were in their eighth
semester (80 participants), tenth semester (20 participants), twelfth semester (one
participant), and fourteenth semester (four participants).
This study respects research ethics. Participation in this study was voluntary
without any coercion, thus this study adhering to the principle of autonomy (Israel & Hay,
2006). This was achieved also through the use of a questionnaire consent form at the
beginning of the Google Form questionnaire. The form detailed, among others, the aims
of the study, the researchers’ identities, as well as what the participants were required to
do shall they decide to participate in this study (Gray, 2014; Jefford & Moore, 2008).
With the consent form, the participants were entitled to guaranteed confidentiality,
anonymity, and privacy, as well as avoidance of harm, betrayal, or fraud (Govil, 2013).

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3.3. Data analysis
The questionnaire data was downloaded in the form of an Excel file and they were
recorded numerically in SPSS 25 for analysis. As for the ten items on thesis writing
anxiety, the four possible responses were given scores as follows. For the six positive
statements, "Strongly Agree" was recorded as 5 points, "Agree" as 4, "Disagree" as 2
points, and "Strongly Disagree" as 1 point. For the four negative statements where
"Strongly Agree" indicates low anxiety, the responses were reverse-scored. To find the
participants' thesis writing anxiety, these data were analysed using descriptive statistics
and they were reported in the forms of means, standard deviations, and percentages.
4. Findings and discussion
This study intends to know the level of thesis writing anxiety of Indonesian pre-
service English teachers taking theses in their respective universities through an online
survey. Regarding this, the ten questionnaire items produced a Cronbach’s alpha of .79
and a McDonald’s omega of .80, both indicating reliability.
From the total of ten items with a 10-50 possible range of points, the average mean
score of the participants' anxiety was 32.13, indicating an average mean score of 3.21 for
each item. This finding suggested that the participants generally had a moderate level of
thesis writing anxiety. In contrast to this study, a study in Iran by Jebreil et al. (2015)
involving 45 learners from an English Department found that the participants experienced
high levels of writing anxiety. Interestingly, a study involving 41 participants from an
English language department in Indonesia by Masriani et al. (2018) reported a moderate
level of writing anxiety in a general L2 writing context, similar to the finding of the
present study. The similarity could be interesting to discuss as these two studies involved
participants with fairly similar characteristics. However, to state that Indonesian pre-
service English teachers had moderate writing anxiety regardless of L2 writing contexts
they were facing may not be very persuasive and more studies need to be conducted in
this regard.
As briefly explained in Methods, to provide more detailed analyses of the findings
in each of the ten items, the study categorised the items into four categories: “Difficulty
in Grammar and Writing Anxiety”, “Negative Feelings when Writing a Thesis in
English”, “Positive Feelings when Writing a Thesis in English”, and “Degree of
Influence of Advisors and Peers to Writing Anxiety”. The findings in the first category,
comprising of item numbers 2 and 5, can be observed in Table 1.

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Table 1
Difficulty in grammar and writing anxiety.
Item
No.
Statement
Mean
Score
Std
Dev.
Strongly
Agree
Agree
Disagree
Strongly
Disgree
2.
Whilst writing my thesis
in English, I often worry
that I would use
expressions and sentence
patterns improperly.
4.01
.87
24.8%
63.8%
10.5%
1.0%
5.
Whilst writing my thesis
in English, I often worry
that the ways I express
and organize my ideas
do not conform to the
norm of English writing.
3.83
.98
20.0%
61.9%
17.1%
1.0%
As seen in Table 1, item numbers 2 and 5 produced the highest mean scores among
all the ten items, at 4.01 and 3.83, respectively. Of 105 participants, 93 participants
(88.6%) often felt worried that they would use expressions and sentence patterns
improperly, and 86 participants (81.9%) also felt worried that the way they organised
their ideas deviated from the norms of English writing. The findings conformed to the
findings of several previous studies suggesting that the language aspect became one of
the biggest spectres causing writing anxiety (Al-Mekhlafi & Nagaratnam, 2011;
Dwihandini et al., 2013; Yayli & Genc, 2019). A study by Yayli and Genc (2019) in
Turkey found that the primary source of L2 writing anxiety is perceived poor grammar
knowledge. In Oman, a study involving L2 teachers of English by Al-Mekhlafi and
Nagaratnam (2011) reported the participants' beliefs that learners often found it
challenging to master English grammar rules. Whilst they seemed to understand the
rules, they could not apply them in real writing contexts. Specific to thesis writing, a
study in Indonesia by Dwihandini et al. (2013) also reported that one of the linguistic
factors that delayed learners’ completing their theses was a lack of language accuracy in
the writing. The findings of the present study and that of Dwihandini et al. (2013)
suggested that grammatical difficulty seemed to be the highest source of learners’
writing anxiety. It may especially be the case because the language used in theses is very
likely more complex than that in typical shorter essays.
Table 2 provides the details of the findings in the second category, “Negative
Feelings when Writing a Thesis in English", comprising items 1 and 6.

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Table 2
Negative feelings when writing a thesis in English.
Item
No.
Statement
Mean
Score
Std.
Dev.
Strongly
Agree
Agree
Disagree
Strongly
Disagree
1.
While writing my
thesis in English, I
felt worried and
uneasy.
3.43
1.13
11.4%
56.2%
28.6%
3.8%
6.
I feel unmotivated
when writing my
thesis in English.
2.42
1.06
5.7%
17.1%
67.6%
9.5%
From Table 2, it can be seen that 71 participants (67.6%) felt worried and uneasy
whilst writing their thesis in English; however, interestingly only 24 participants (22.8%)
agreed to item number 6 on unmotivation when writing a thesis in English, with the rest
comprising of 81 participants (87.2%) expressing their disagreement to the statement.
These two seemingly conflicting findings may suggest that whilst the learner participants
may have negative feelings about writing their theses, the majority of them considered
themselves 'motivated' in completing them. A previous study in Turkey by Güneyli
(2016) found that fear, procrastination, and loss of motivation were negative feelings that
learners felt when experiencing writing anxiety. In the present study, however, different
from typical L2 writing anxiety, thesis writing anxiety whilst may bring various negative
feelings associated with thesis writing did not seem to translate into ‘unmotivation’. This
could be attributed to the paramount role of completing a thesis for learners’ graduation.
Albeit being a minority, 24 participants reported their unmotivation in writing theses.
This may be slightly similar to a finding of a study by Diasti and Mbato (2020) suggesting
that some learners did not complete their theses on time because they were not motivated
to write them.
The findings in the third category, “Positive Feelings when Writing a Thesis in
English”, comprising item numbers 4, 8, and 9, can be observed in Table 3.
Table 3
Positive feelings when writing a thesis in English.
Item
No.
Statement
Mean
Score
Std.
Dev.
Strongly
Agree
Agree
Disagree
Strongly
Disagree
4.
When I write my
thesis in English,
my ideas and
words usually
flow smoothly.
3.10
1.12
3.8%
51.4%
40.0%
4.8%
8.
When I write my
thesis in English,
my mind is usually
very clear.
3.19
1.08
1.9%
59.0%
34.3%
4.8%

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Item
No.
Statement
Mean
Score
Std.
Dev.
Strongly
Agree
Agree
Disagree
Strongly
Disagree
9.
I usually feel
comfortable and at
ease when writing
my thesis in
English.
2.96
1.07
1.0%
48.6%
46.7%
3.8%
As seen in Table 3, this study found that 58 participants (55.1%) reported their ideas
and words usually flew smoothly, 65 participants (61.9%) reported that their mind is
usually very clear, 52 participants (49.6%) reported they felt comfortable and at ease
when writing their theses. From these findings, it can be seen that the participants who
expressed high anxiety and those who expressed low anxiety were quite balanced.
Regarding the findings on learners' low level of anxiety when they wrote theses, previous
studies in this regard may be very limited. Hence, more explorations focusing on the
dynamic of learners' thesis writing anxiety (and the lack thereof) could be necessary. As
for the rest of the participants indicating their negative feelings, several studies have
suggested that L2 learners often find difficulties in expressing what is in their mind in a
well-written sequence of ideas in L2 (Alharbi, 2019; Altınmakas & Bayyurt, 2019; El
Shimi, 2017). For example, in Egypt, a study by El Shimi (2017) involving 51 L2 learners
found that writing anxiety led to their reduced ability to generate and organise ideas.
Furthermore, Table 4 provides details about the findings in the fourth category,
"Degree of Influence of Advisors and Peers to Writing Anxiety ", comprising item
numbers 3, 7 and 10.
Table 4
Degree of influence of advisors and peers on writing anxiety.
Item
No.
Statement
Mean
Score
Std.
Dev.
Strongly
Agree
Agree
Disagree
Strongly
Disagree
3.
If my thesis in
English is to be
evaluated, I
would worry
about getting a
very poor grade.
3.44
1.14
13.3%
53.3%
30.5%
2.9%
7.
I'm afraid that the
other students
would deride my
thesis in English
if they read it.
2.62
1.304\
7.6%
29.5%
42.9%
20.0%
10.
I'm not afraid at
all that my thesis
in English would
be assessed as
very poor by the
thesis advisors.
3.13
1.31
11.4%
45.7%
30.5%
12.4%

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As seen in Table 4, from item numbers 3 and 10 respectively, 70 participants
(66.6%) would worry about getting a very poor grade and 45 (42.9%) participants, a big
number albeit not the majority, felt afraid that their thesis in English would be assessed
as very poor by the thesis advisors. Related to these findings, a study in Jordan by Rabadi
and Rabadi (2020) also reported that fear of negative evaluation from teachers triggered
learners’ writing anxiety. Also, a previous study involving 260 learners from an English
Department by Salikin (2019) found that the participants feared that the lecturers would
poorly assess their written work.
Interestingly, only 39 participants (37.9%) indicated they were afraid that peers
would deride ridicule theses in English if they read them, indicating that the majority of
the participants did not feel afraid of negative judgement from their peers on their theses.
This finding may be slightly different from the findings of studies in Egypt (El Shimi,
2017) and Afghanistan (Quvanch & Na, 2022) suggesting that negative evaluations from
peers and teachers increased learners’ writing anxiety. Learners in the present study
seemed to feel more worried if their theses were being assessed poorly by the thesis
advisors than being negatively evaluated by their peers. The typical nature of a thesis
writing which is highly individual may be at play. Learners possibly cared less about
what peers thought of their work and put their attention on fulfilling the demand of their
thesis advisors.
All in all, this study contributes to the understanding of the thesis writing anxiety
phenomenon among Indonesian pre-service English teachers from an eagle-eyed
perspective, paving the way for further research in the context and becoming a possible
basis on which more explorative follow-up studies could be conducted. It is
acknowledged that the thesis takers were adult learners in the final year of their English
language education studies preparing them to be future teachers, and thus they were
considered able to plan their learning progress. Nonetheless, thesis advisors may also
need to evaluate their practices to best help thesis takers complete their theses.
5. Conclusion
Despite the possible contributions of this study, limitations are acknowledged.
Whilst this study could involve 105 pre-service teacher participants from six different
provinces in Indonesia, the findings of this study and generalisation to a wider context
should be carefully made. Secondly, this study did not delve into the possible aspects of
complexities in thesis writing, such as the research aspects and academic writing aspects,
and merely focused on general statements. Thus, this study may inherently be unable to
more saliently capture learners’ writing anxiety associated with these aspects.
On the reflections of the findings and the possible limitations, directions for
possible future studies are suggested. First, qualitative studies involving thesis takers
employing interviews may investigate the factors that may influence their writing anxiety
and the possible alleviating strategies. Employing secondary document analysis of theses
along with interviewing these learners could potentially offer possible explanations on

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the connection between the writing products and their anxiety. Also, considering that both
learners and thesis advisors are closely involved in the process of thesis completion,
studies could involve advisors to investigate their insights on this issue. Furthermore,
generally, considering that thesis writing anxiety is relatively under-researched compared
to writing anxiety in general, not only in Indonesia but also worldwide, researchers are
encouraged to investigate this field further, especially in the L2 learning context where
writing a thesis is a mandatory requirement for college graduation.
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