Writing ability is essential in second language (L2) learners’ educational and professional life.
However, experiencing writing apprehension can inhibit the L2 learners’ confidence (Daly, 1975). The
objective of this study was to investigate the writing apprehension levels of ESL pre-university learners
in writing argumentative composition. 320 pre-university learners from a local institution participated
in the study. Two instruments were employed in the study. The first was the Second Language Writing
Anxiety Inventory (SLWAI) and the other one was the Analytic Scale of Argumentative Writing
(ASAW). The findings revealed a moderate level of writing apprehension among the pre-university
learners in argumentative writing. Among the three Second Language Writing Apprehension (SLWA)
dimensions, avoidance behaviour obtained the highest mean score. As writing is one of the important
components tested in Malaysian University English Test (MUET), the findings of the present study
may become a platform for instructors to develop a better understanding about SLWA. Hence, it may
throw light on what educators can do to help these L2 learners cope with or eliminate writing
apprehension as it hampers the writing quality.
Upon hearing the phrase Some cats meow, a listener might pragmatically infer that 'Some but not all cats meow'. This is known as a scalar implicature and it often arises when a speaker produces a weak linguistic expression instead of a stronger one. Several L2 studies claim that pragmatic inferences are generated by default and their comprehension presents no challenges to L2 learners. However, the evidence obtained from these studies largely stems from offline-based tasks that provide limited information about how scalar implicatures are processed. This study investigated scalar implicature processing among L2 speakers of English and the degree to which differences in L2 proficiency and Theory of Mind abilities would modulate pragmatic responding. The experiment used an online sentence verification paradigm that required participants to judge, among multiple control items, the veracity of under-informative sentences, such as Some cats are mammals, and to respond as quickly as possible. A true response to this item is indicative of a logical some and perhaps all reading and a false response to a pragmatic some but not all reading. Our results showed evidence that scalar inferences are not generated by default. The answer linked to the pragmatic reading some but not all took significantly longer to make relative to the answer that relies on the logical interpretation some and perhaps all. This processing slowdown was also significantly larger among participants with lower English proficiency. Further exploratory analyses of participants' Theory of Mind, as measured by the Social Skill subscale in the Autism Spectrum Quotient, revealed that socially inclined participants are more likely than the socially disinclined to derive a scalar inference. These results together provide new empirical insights into how L2 learners process scalar implicatures and thus implications for processing theories in experimental pragmatics and second language acquisition.