Ecological Classrooms as Pedagogical Intervention: Impact on English Writing Anxiety and Writing Achievement in Chinese Senior High Schools*

Abstract

In most English writing classrooms in China, the less than ecological learning environments often contribute to Chinese senior high school students’ moderate to high levels of English writing anxiety and hinder their progress in English writing achievement. To address this issue, this study constructed an ecological classroom for English writing instruction based on the nested ecosystems model (Bronfenbrenner, 1979, 1993) and the concept of affordances (van Lier, 2004). A 14-week pedagogical intervention was conducted in a senior high school in China with an experimental class following the ecological classroom instruction and a control class receiving the traditional classroom instruction. Results showed that participation in ecological classroom significantly reduced their writing anxiety and increased their writing achievement. A negative correlation was also found between these two variables in the experimental class. These findings demonstrated the effectiveness of ecological classroom for alleviating writing anxiety and improving writing achievement, and offer insights for the potential of ecological classrooms to create emotionally supportive and pedagogically dynamic environments that foster both affective well-being and English writing development.