Psychology of Writing: Role of AT in L2 Writing

The role of psychological factors in learning a second language is no secret. The relationship between the variables such as ambiguity tolerance which means continued efforts despite uncertainty has been measured with vocabulary competence level in previous research. The present study investigated relationship of ambiguity tolerance, particularly with writing block and measures of writing quality in second language. For this purpose, 120 randomly selected participants at advanced level of English proficiency in two universities located in Tehran, responded to ambiguity tolerance questionnaire be completed tolerance for ambiguity. The scores obtained were then related to their scores on Writing block questionnaire and the mean score of writing quality. The latter was obtained through scoring three academic essays written by each student based on a well-known scale of writing quality by Nation which produced a significant and positive relationship to ambiguity tolerance. Writing blocks had a negative significant relationship to ambiguity tolerance.