Understanding L2 Academic Writing Trajectories: Writing Self-Efficacy, Motivation, Attitudes, and Achievement Emotions

Despite a burgeoning body of literature on individual differences (IDs) affecting foreign language (L2) writing processes in English academic writing (EAW) contexts, longitudinal patterns and the potential interrelationship of different individual variables remain underresearched. Addressing this gap, this exploratory study pursues a two-fold aim: first, identifying the longitudinal patterns of several ID factors—L2 writing anxiety, self-efficacy, motivation, enjoyment, attitudes, and achievement emotions—over the course of a semester; and second, investigating whether these constructs are interrelated. Pre-and-post surveys were administered to conveniently sampled English-major university students enrolled in a first-year EAW course that followed a process genre approach. Descriptive and inferential analyses revealed significant variations in these constructs and foregrounded their interconnected nature. Students significantly improved their L2 writing quality, self-efficacy, motivation, enjoyment, and attitudes whereas they decreased their anxiety. They also experienced a gamut of achievement emotions: before the course, anxiety, boredom, and hopelessness predominated, whereas afterward pride and enjoyment were more prominent, accompanied by reduced negative emotions. Findings further highlighted the coexistence of positive and negative achievement emotions. Overall, this study offers valuable insights into how these variables interact to shape L2 writing trajectories, thereby informing endeavors to enhance EAW in higher education and guiding future research agendas.