The relationship between the writing anxiety and writing feedback literacy of Turkish pre-service EFL teachers

Compared to receptive skills, productive skills may cause anxiety among English language [EFL] learners because writing and/or speaking English as a foreign language can be challenging for EFL learners, including Turkish pre-service EFL teachers, due to reasons such as fear of making mistakes, not having a good level of grammar and vocabulary. Another source of writing anxiety is that EFL learners cannot understand the feedback given by their instructors and cannot make the necessary changes according to this feedback, so they cannot improve their written products. This suggests that understanding feedback literacy is important for EFL learners to help them overcome their writing anxiety because feedback literacy is the ability to understand the feedback given and make changes based on the feedback to improve the quality of a piece of writing. This study was conducted with Turkish pre-service EFL teachers at Ufuk University in Ankara. The study has three main aims. Firstly, it aims to determine the anxiety levels of Turkish pre-service EFL teachers in their writing activities. Secondly, it focuses on how well Turkish pre-service EFL teachers understand the feedback given to these writing exercises (feedback literacy). Finally, it investigates whether there is a relationship between Turkish pre-service EFL teachers' writing anxiety and their feedback literacy. In this study, explanatory sequential research design, one of the mixed research methods, was used. Data were collected using two scales and a semi-structured interview. The scales contain closed-ended items to obtain the data about the participants' experiences with writing anxiety and feedback literacy. Semi-structured interviews were also conducted to obtain a deeper understanding, clarify information that appeared unclear in the scales, and improve the content of the data. Quantitative data, which is the statistical analysis of the scale, was analyzed using the SPSS program for Mac, and qualitative data obtained from semi-structured interviews were analyzed using the content analysis method. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the quantitative data regarding the first and second research questions. The participants' answers to the interview questions were coded and categorized under different themes. The quantitative findings revealed that the Turkish pre-service EFL teachers exhibited a high level of writing anxiety and a medium level of cognitive anxiety, somatic anxiety, and avoidance behavior. Regarding writing feedback literacy, the participants demonstrated above average levels of proficiency on the L2 SWFLS and its sub-scales appreciating feedback, acknowledging different feedback sources, making judgments, managing affect, and taking action. The Pearson correlation coefficient revealed a strong negative correlation between writing anxiety and writing feedback literacy of Turkish pre-service EFL teachers. Semi-structured interviews provided further insights into participants' experiences, with some expressing ease in comprehending feedback due to prior training, while others reported difficulties, attributing their challenges to lack of clarity in feedback. The study's findings provide some implications for theory and practice in ELT, highlighting the significant writing anxiety levels among Turkish pre-service EFL teachers, necessitating interventions to alleviate anxiety and enhance writing skills. Additionally, the high level of writing feedback literacy of the participants indicates opportunities for developing strategies to utilize feedback effectively, potentially aiding in reducing their anxiety levels. Finally, ELT curriculum designers and textbook authors can leverage the insights from the correlation between writing anxiety and feedback literacy to create interventions that enhance writing performance and reduce anxiety in EFL learners. Keywords: Turkish Pre-service EFL Teachers, Writing Skills, Writing Anxiety, Writing Feedback, Feedback Literacy.