Effects of achievement emotions on L2 writing performance in argumentative tasks with different complexity levels

Drawing on the Cognition Hypothesis and the control-value theory, the present study explored the effects of achievement emotions (L2 writing enjoyment, anxiety and boredom) on L2 writing performance in argumentative writing tasks with different complexity levels. One hundred and sixteen English-major undergraduate students were randomly assigned into two different groups to complete a simple (n = 59) or a complex argumentative writing task (n = 57), and an online questionnaire that measured their L2 writing enjoyment, anxiety and boredom. Participants’ L2 writing performance was measured in holistic scores by iWrite, an automated writing evaluation system. Standard regression analyses showed that (1) in the complex task, L2 writing anxiety was the only significant predictor of L2 writing performance; (2) in the simple task, no significant relationship was present between achievement emotions and L2 writing performance; (3) Moderation analyses revealed that increasing task complexity enhanced the effect of anxiety on L2 writing performance. These findings lend partial support to the Cognition Hypothesis and the control-value theory, and offer pedagogical implications for task-based writing instructions.