WILLINGNESS TO WRITE AMONG EFL UNIVERSITY STUDENTS: A CASE OF A VIRTUAL WRITING COURSE IN INDONESIA

WILLINGNESS TO WRITE AMONG EFL UNIVERSITY STUDENTS: A CASE OF A VIRTUAL WRITING COURSE IN INDONESIA

There is limited understanding regarding the willingness to write (WtW) and experiences of EFL university student-writers, particularly in the context of a developing academic genre. To fill this gap, this current research undertook a comprehensive exploration of university student-writers’WtW across various proficiency levels and explored their academic writing through a convergent mixed-method case study. Fifty-three university student-writers were engaged in the research, participating in the simultaneous completion of an L2 WtW questionnaire and open-ended questions designed to gauge their willingness to write. The findings unveiled noteworthy insights. Concerning the tenets of L2 WtW, cognition emerged as the most prominent factor, whereas the role of technology received the lowest score. Both groups of participants exhibited a willingness to write L2 texts, with levels ranging from approximately 43.75% to 59.5%. Novice student-writers expressed a perception that producing an academic article was more demanding. Concurrently, both groups acknowledged linguistic and writing aspects as the primary constraints, while novice student-writers were more prone to experiencing psychological and affective hindrances. The adoption of cognitive strategies was predominant among advanced student-writers, while their novice counterparts leaned more toward utilizing social strategies. When presented with the prospect of voluntarily composing academic articles in the future, a divergence in responses emerged. Approximately half of the novice student-writers (51.4%) conveyed reluctance to partake in this writing endeavor in the future. Conversely, a substantial majority of advanced student-writers (93.8%) conveyed their willingness to write.