Perceptions of Writing Anxiety and Self-Efficacy Among Spanish Heritage Language Learners

HLLs’ levels of anxiety could affect the level of self-efficacy they possess in their ability to effectively complete writing tasks. Research on anxiety and self-efficacy in language learning environments has found that writing self-efficacy is informed by writing anxiety (Woodrow, 2011). Bandura (1997) defined self-efficacy as involving “people’s judgments of their capabilities to organize and execute courses of action required to attain designated types of performances” (p. 391). Self-efficacy is related to one’s beliefs in his or her ability to succeed in a task. Essentially, self-efficacy is related to what an individual believes he or she can or cannot do well (Skinner, 2014).

Writing may be perceived as more complex in comparison with other language skills because learners may need to expend more effort in completing these types of tasks. For example, Kormos (2012) found that L2 learners may be able to produce 100 spoken words per minute but they may need to spend approximately 30 min to write 100 words. Moreover, written grammatical forms are more formalized in comparison with speaking and students may need scaffolded support for these tasks (Burning, Dempsey, Kauffman, McKim, & Zumbrunn, 2013). Consequently, HLLs may perceive writing skills as being more difficult to acquire. These views may influence their perceived abilities to successfully complete writing tasks and possess lower levels of writing self-efficacy.

Bandura (1997) further contended that individuals with higher levels of self-efficacy may perform better on a given task in comparison to individuals with lower self-efficacy. An individual’s level of self-efficacy may be a better predictor of success than past accomplishments, skills, and knowledge (Mills, Pajares, & Herron, 2007). HLLs who possess lower levels of language self-efficacy may experience feelings of uncertainty about proficiently acquiring their parents’ native language. Likewise, because HLLs may enter Spanish language classrooms with varying levels of proficiency, particularly literacy skills, they may experience lower levels of self-efficacy toward required writing assignments. This research investigated HLLs’ perceptions of their Spanish writing abilities and the difficulties they may experience during different types of writing activities. Because this was an exploratory study, no specific hypotheses were associated with the following research questions:

Twenty-five Hispanic undergraduate HLLs who enrolled in a large, public university in the southeast United States and completed a university-level Spanish HL course participated in this study. This particular university offered only one Spanish heritage course. Therefore, all Spanish HLLs are enrolled in one course regardless of their Spanish proficiency.

A minority (n = 6) of students had only one parent who was a native Spanish speaker while the majority (n = 19) had two native Spanish speaking parents. Although students had varying levels of formal Spanish educational experiences, the majority (n = 18) had only 2 years of high school foreign language coursework. Students’ prior high school Spanish language experiences were diverse because of geographic (e.g., curriculum requirements) and instructional differences. In addition, participants were mostly female (n = 22) and represented an array of Hispanic ethnic backgrounds: Colombian (n = 2), Cuban (n = 6), Dominican (n = 2), Honduran (n = 2), Mexican (n = 5), Peruvian (n = 3), Puerto Rican (n = 3), and Venezuelan (n = 2). All participants were born in the United States and had predominantly informal Spanish language learning experiences within their home and community settings.

A qualitative approach was used to investigate our research questions. The HLLs were interviewed using a semistructured interview protocol. This approach provided a standard set of interview questions for the researcher and allowed participants to expound on other topics and experiences. On average, each interview lasted approximately 45 min. During the interview sessions, HLLs answered questions related to their current and past Spanish language learning experiences and how these experiences have impacted their Spanish language abilities. These students also described their Spanish writing proficiency levels and the difficulties that they experience with this specific language skill. Their responses were based on self-perceptions of their Spanish writing abilities and their prior and current performances in their Spanish classes (i.e., high school Spanish courses and university Spanish heritage course). Although the interview questions were focused mostly on formal Spanish coursework, participants were also encouraged to discuss their use of Spanish writing in informal contexts too.

The purpose of grounded theory is to construct a theoretical framework based on participants’ descriptions of the phenomenon being studied. Creswell (2005) suggested that the primary procedure for data collection in grounded theory is to examine interview-data for themes (categories) that portray a general explanation of the findings. To find common themes among participants’ responses, a line-by-line analysis of data (open coding) was conducted by three different researchers resulting in a .92 inter-rater reliability score. In the second phase of coding (axial coding), categories that were created during the open coding process were related to all other categories (see Table 1). The last phase of coding (selective coding) consisted of constructing a narrative that interconnects findings and theoretical ideas.

All participants (n = 25) attributed their lower levels of Spanish writing skills to their minimal or no formal schooling in the target language. Few HLLs (n = 4) had received formal Spanish language learning experiences in elementary and middle school programs; whereas, the majority (n = 16) only had completed 2 years of foreign language Spanish study in high school. Nearly half of the HLLs (n = 11) did not perceive their high school foreign language studies as being conducive to obtaining higher levels of Spanish proficiency. These participants expressed that their high school Spanish curriculum often covered basic, speech-focused skills that they had already learned in their home and community settings. The introductory-level of high school foreign language instruction was the typical formal education experience for HLLs; subsequently, they did not receive sufficiently scaffolded instruction to develop advanced Spanish language skills. Furthermore, five participants did not complete any formal Spanish language courses before enrolling in the college-level HL class.

The majority (n = 21) of HLLs stated that the required written assignments in their university-level HL class was difficult because they had no informal scaffolding or minimal formal Spanish educational experiences. A participant explained it as frustrating, “it is frustrating, for example, I know lots of my friends will get a 100 on the exam. I do not say they study more, I know most of their parents are good at teaching them accents or other stuff versus me, but my reading and writing skills are not at that fluency level. I try hard, but, it is still frustrating.”

All participants (n = 25) stated that they were more comfortable and proficient with English because they had minimal formal educational experiences with learning Spanish and their prevalent use of English. Participants (n = 25) communicated that they had more complex vocabularies, critical thinking skills, content knowledge, and/or language skills (i.e., speaking, listening, reading, and writing) in the English language due to their educational experiences and persistent use. For example, a HLL stated, “I feel like I tend to speak English and feel comfortable and express myself easily when I speak English.” When questioned further about why she feels English is more dominant than Spanish she stated, “ . . . the critical thinking skills are in English because of school.” Participants also believed that their limited formal Spanish educational experiences and the dominance of English allowed them to maintain common language errors like transfer errors when switching back and forth between the English and Spanish languages. Participants described language transfer errors occurring in adjective placements (n = 5; for example, placing the adjective before the noun in Spanish instead of after the noun), spelling errors (n = 6; for example, writing tion instead of ción in Spanish, forgetting to write “h” when spelling words in Spanish that contain this letter), and creating words or producing false cognates in Spanish out of English words (n = 12). The HLLs shared examples of learning Spanish linguistic conventions in their HL course: “I am learning the rule for accents now; I didn’t know that there was a rule,” “I did not know how to spell words before this Spanish [heritage language] class,” and “I spell words incorrectly sometimes because I do not pronounce the words correctly.” The HLLs believe that exposure to formal Spanish language education and more extensive use of Spanish (i.e., beyond informal communications) would have provided corrections to these types of errors. Another theme related to English dominance was the limited use of Spanish while enrolled in the HL course at the University. A majority (n = 15) described difficulties with thinking and learning in Spanish while immersed in English dominant setting prior to and after their class.

The majority (n = 21) described their Spanish vocabulary as limited to things around their homes or topics associated with their schoolwork. A few (n = 4) mentioned a vocabulary based on other subjects such as religion. All HLLs (n = 25) conveyed that their Spanish vocabulary was more limited than English and had been developed primarily by informal conversations with family and friends. Some participants (n = 5) explained that their self-efficacy for writing in Spanish was so low that it affected their word choices. For example, participants stated, “I definitely use the simpler ones [verb tenses] I can handle these but once it gets into complex sentences, I stick to shorter sentences obviously” and “it’s not that I don’t know how to use conjugations, but I don’t know that I am using them [correctly].” They believed their vocabulary affected their writing (e.g., use simple sentences, word choice).

Generally, HLLs (n = 25) described their Spanish writing skill level as being lower than English and the majority (n = 15) self-classified their Spanish proficiency as low with a few (n=6) as intermediate. An example of limited Spanish proficiency was difficulties using Spanish conjugations and/or understanding the conjugations that they were using. Along with minimal formal Spanish education, participants attributed their low levels of Spanish writing proficiency with their predominant use of informal Spanish (e.g., colloquial) and minimal instances of writing in Spanish outside of their high school or HL classes (n = 18). One participant shared, “I don’t know how to write in Spanish, I mean I can sound out a word but that’s why I am taking this class, because I don’t know how to write in Spanish.”

In addition to perceptions of low Spanish writing abilities and limited formal learning, HLLs (n = 19) associated their Spanish writing difficulties with forgetfulness of Spanish words (e.g., vocabulary, infrequent use). Vocabulary inconsistency was a common example given for feeling anxious about writing tasks. Participants conveyed that moving away from home to complete a degree provided fewer opportunities to communicate in Spanish (n = 21). One participant expressed, “it makes me so mad when I can’t remember a word in Spanish and I have to call my mom and ask her and I am like ugh I know that word it is like the simplest word.” The HLLs communicated about Spanish writing anxiety in the context of being self-aware of inadequate skills and especially in the presence of those they perceived to be more skilled. The writing anxiety theme had three contexts: being away from home, at home with more knowledgeable adults, and writing and speaking in HL class around more skillful peers. Participants often described comparing themselves to others (n = 18) in relation to their levels of Spanish proficiency. Several participants explained, “I know that when I speak, they [other students] notice that I am not on their level,” and “for the most part, I am at the social level [Spanish skills]. You have one or two students that know technical words and proper Spanish. Then, you have one student who has a hard time speaking.” These examples demonstrate their feelings of unease associated with communicating in Spanish.

When participants were asked if their writing difficulties made them feel anxious, one participant explained, “sometimes I notice myself like stuttering and taking a little bit longer to say things especially in writing because it causes more anxiety than reading aloud,” and “reading is fun, but I get anxious when writing.” Several participants also associated their writing anxieties with their lack of writing strategies in Spanish (n = 11). For example, a HLL communicated that “in English I use outlines, but I don’t use them in Spanish, I just don’t have the vocabulary.” All participants (n = 25) expressed struggles with Spanish writing and nearly half of the HLLs (n = 11) mentioned a lack of strategy use with Spanish writing compared with English; whereas, the remaining participants (n = 14) did not mention any strategies with writing. It seemed that learning strategies for Spanish writing in the HL course would have decreased anxiety and supported writing skills in general.

Researchers have conducted studies focused on HLLs throughout the last several decades, but only recently has more focus been placed on the unique academic needs of this subgroup of students. In fact, Montrul (2011) stated that

it is only recently that heritage speakers have been noticed and valued by other fields with a longstanding interest in the nature of human language use and native speaker competence: formal linguistics, child language acquisition, adult L2 acquisition, bilingual acquisition, psycholinguistics, and neurolinguistics. (p. 1)

Because HLLs are generally exposed to Spanish within their homes and possibly community settings, these individuals may become semifluent speakers with greatly varying levels of language skills. Although HLLs’ receptive abilities (listening skills) typically distinguish them as advanced when compared with traditional foreign language learners (Lynch, 2008), skills in Spanish writing has not been advanced based on use of the language in HLLs’ homes (Elola & Mikulski, 2013).

Although HLLs may have some advantages over traditional monolingual foreign language learners in the United States (e.g., native-like pronunciation, more advanced listening skills), they may experience difficulties in their HL classrooms. Montrul, Foote, and Perpiñán (2008) explained that HLLs receive inconsistent input in their HL; therefore, full linguistic ability in the HL may not be developed. In fact, Spanish HLLs may even perform lower than traditional foreign language learners in writing tasks in addition to possessing low self-efficacy for Spanish writing. HLLs who fail to become proficient in all aspects of their HL may experience lower levels of self-efficacy and higher levels of anxiety when required to communicate in their HL. Researchers have found that students’ levels of language anxiety may affect their language acquisition processes (Rotenberg, 2002) and that students who are highly anxious may experience difficultly performing in academic situations (Mills et al., 2007; Owens, Stevenson, Hadwin, & Norgate, 2014). These findings help to demonstrate that students’ high levels of anxiety may negatively influence their levels of self-efficacy, which may in turn affect their classroom performance. As HLLs may place more emphasis on developing native-like proficiencies in comparison to their monolingual peers, they may experience higher levels of anxiety and lower levels of self-efficacy toward learning specific language skills.

Although participants in this research discussed their desire to become more proficient in their HL, the majority discussed developing only speaking and listening skills. This was due to using verbal modes of communication most often with their families. Nevertheless, participants stated that they wished they had the opportunity to attend K-12 bilingual educational programs. They shared that these types of programs could have helped them to achieve native-like proficiency in the Spanish language. In addition, they expressed that acquiring native-like proficiency in Spanish is necessary for gaining desired employment opportunities, connecting with extended family members who reside outside of the United States, and in communicating with a larger population of Spanish speakers who live in the United States. Although attitudes toward bilingual education have changed in the United States over time (Diaz-Rico & Weed, 2010; Shin, 2018) only a limited number of bilingual programs are currently available. According to the Center for Applied Linguistics (2011), there are only a total of 402 two-way bilingual immersion programs offered throughout the entire U.S. Programs such as these could result in students obtaining higher levels of school achievement (Marian, Shook, & Schroeder, 2013; Thomas & Collier, 2002) as well as greater proficiency in multiple languages (Gatti & O’Neill, 2017).

Current federal educational reforms place more emphasis on HLs acquiring English skills to meet state mandated standards. This push toward monolingual education has hindered HLLs’ abilities to become proficient in all aspects of their native languages. The incorporation of more bilingual educational programs could provide opportunities for children from monolingual homes to develop proficiency in a L2 too. Unfortunately, not providing these opportunities to HLLs can have detrimental effects on their HL abilities (Magaña, 2015). As was found in the present study and in a study by Hasson (2006), students who attend monolingual schools become English proficient but reach lower levels of Spanish proficiency.

One limitation of this study is that most participants were raised in communities that included a high percentage of Spanish speakers (n = 19). Therefore, these participants may have experienced more exposure to Spanish in their home and community settings than students who grew up in communities with a low percentage of Spanish speakers. Shin (2018) found that one’s community influenced language proficiency. If the individual is submersed in an environment in which they use their HL, then s/he may be more likely to have higher levels of HL proficiency. Nonetheless, these individuals may not have acquired higher levels of literacy skills and may be similar to HLLs who grew up in communities where fewer Spanish speakers reside. Furthermore, the location of the study was an English-dominate university. HLLs may have a different experience with gaining multiple Spanish language proficiencies in an environment of Spanish language dominance or a more bilingual environment.

To develop a better understanding of HLLs writing skills, researchers could collect HLLs’ writing samples and compare their perceptions of their writing abilities to the number of errors that they produce. Carduner (2007) stated that many errors produced in language classrooms are a result of performance-based errors (e.g., errors due to conceptual demands of writing) and competence-based errors (i.e., errors that result due to a students’ current interlanguage). Carduner (2007) further stated in comparison to performance-based errors, competence-based errors are more difficult to detect as learners may be unaware they have used the incorrect form because they lack native-like proficiency. Developing an understanding of the types of errors HLLs produce could provide researchers a better understanding of the differences that exist between HLLs’ perceived abilities and actual abilities. In addition, Bowles and Montrul (2014) asserted that most HLLs enrolled in language classes are female. Further exploration of why more female HLLs enroll in Spanish university coursework and their motivational reasons for further studying their HL could be pursued. Research on gender differences need not oversimplify the individual differences present within the Latinx community (Corona et al., 2017). For example, studies that investigate the differences that exist between HLLs’ perceived abilities and actual abilities would be more informative with robust sample sizes of HLL participants who identify as male or female.