Psychology and EFL Writing

This study focuses on 1) exploring the writing attitudes, apprehension, and self-efficacy beliefs of Saudi learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) and 2) understanding the relationship between these components and writing competence in English. The subjects were 145 Saudi female undergraduates of English in three higher education institutions. The instruments used in the study comprised two questionnaires and two essays. Relevant statistical tests were performed. The findings revealed that participants possessed positive attitudes towards writing in English, were moderately apprehensive regarding writing in English, and moderately rated their perceived ability (self-efficacy beliefs) to write in English. The results also showed that none of the three psychological variables correlated with or predicted the writing competence of the subjects.