Acculturation and English Writing Anxiety among Indigenous Students of Kerala

Acculturation and English Writing Anxiety among Indigenous Students of Kerala | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Acculturation and English Writing Anxiety among Indigenous Students of Kerala Reshma Das M., Binu Zachariah This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-5387019/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted 8 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract The impact of acculturation with reference to English language writing anxiety among the indigenous students of Kerala is a less discussed topic in tribal education and language studies. This paper analyses the English language classroom anxiety and writing anxiety using the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) and the Second Language Writing Anxiety Inventory (SLWAI) respectively, among indigenous students in Kerala and the impact of these on their English language writing performance. The paper is an attempt to evaluate the above-mentioned scenario in the light of the acculturation these students have to undergo. This study helps to evaluate the condition of the students based on the fourth goal of the United Nations Sustainable Development [ 1 ]. Data from 188 indigenous students from five tribal residential schools in Wayanad, Kerala have been collected and analyzed using Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS) to prove the assumptions of the study. The three variables of the study are Second Language Writing Anxiety (SLWAI), Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety (FLCAS) and Writing Performance (WPS). SLWAI and FLCAS are considered as a result of acculturation. According to Pearson Correlation, the correlation shows that the correlation between the SLWAI and FLCAS is r(188) = 0.677, FLCAS and WPS is -0.376, and SLWAI and WPS is -0.345. All are significant at the level of 0.01. The regression result shows that SLWAI and FLCAS predict WPS for 15.6%. Independent sample t-tests between Malayalam-speaking and community language-speaking students on the SLWAI, FLCAS and WPS are − 4.651**, -3.803** and 10.100**, respectively. The paper puts forward recommendations that can not only improve the condition of these students but also ensure an inclusive learning environment. Acculturation English Language Anxiety Indigenous Students ESL Learners School Dropout Figures Figure 1 Figure 2 Introduction India and Multilingualism India is a multilingual country where over 10,000 mother tongues (MTs) were recognised in the 1991 Census Survey of India. These are classified into 3372 MTs. These languages are divided into MT and other MT categories. 570 MTs are from the Indo-Aryan family of languages and 153 are Dravidian languages. Most of the remaining languages come from the Austric family and the Tibeto-Burman languages. All these MTs are further classified into almost 400 languages [12]. The last few cannot fit into any of these language families [15]. Even though there are many languages on record, several of them are endangered, especially languages used by members belonging to indigenous communities [12]. Only 14 languages were recognised as the major languages of India in the “8th Schedule” of the Indian Constitution. Later, eight more languages were included and the present Constitution recognises 22 languages as the major or scheduled languages of India [16]. Indigenous languages are considered as minority languages. The local language, which is used by the vast majority of the population of an area, is different from the language used by the indigenous tribes. Most of these minority languages do not have a script and are written in the regional language or the major language. The major languages are used in the common and official spaces for communication. So the people who use minority languages often switch to the major language for ease of communication, which at times leads to, “discrimination, social and political neglect and deprivation” [12]. The Scheduled Tribes of Kerala The indigenous peoples in India are a minority population, consisting of only 8.9 per cent of this multilingual country's total population [17] with diverse beliefs and cultures. The culture and beliefs of the indigenous population also differ from state to state and community to community. Kerala, the southernmost state in India covers 1.18 per cent of the total area and 3.43 per cent of the total population of India [18]. Malayalam is the MT and the official language of Kerala with several regional dialects. The representation of scheduled tribes in the total population of the state is only 1.28 per cent. 35.94 per cent of this, which is the highest percentage of the indigenous population, is in the hill district of Wayanad [19]. Kerala has 36 indigenous communities, five of which are recognised as Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTG) [20]. Each community has a unique dialect, a mixture of the local language spoken by the majority population and the languages spoken in the neighbouring states. Most of them are bilingual or multilingual at the community level [12]. For example, Kattunayakan, a PVTG community with the largest indigenous population in Kerala, speaks a language that is a mixture of all Dravidian languages i.e., Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam. Similarly, the Kurumba community, another PVTG, speaks a mixture of Malayalam and Tamil. All these indigenous communities are geographically isolated from the majority population. “Most of the tribal communities of the state inhabit the Western Ghats in proximity to the forest ecosystem. One of the characteristics of tribal communities is that their habitations have strong ethnic boundaries based on kinship.” [20]. According to the report, there are 4762 indigenous settlements in Kerala, out of which 1225 settlements have only footpath connectivity from the mainland and 366 settlements have no connectivity at all. The indigenous people here prefer to stay in their settlements and live within the community rather than mingle with others. The participants of this study are from the Paniya, Adiya, Irular, Kattunayakan and Kurumba indigenous communities. The Paniya community is found in the Western Ghats in the north Kerala region, mainly in the districts of Wayanad, Kannur, Kozhikode and Malappuram. The term Paniya means labourer, and years ago, people belonging to this community used to work in the agricultural fields of landlords. The dialect they speak, which is known as Paniyabhasha, is a mixture of Malayalam, Tamil and Tulu [21]. The Adiya community was one of the indigenous slave sects in Kerala before the enforcement of the Bonded Labour (Abolition) Act. They are mostly seen in the Wayanad and Kannur districts. Their language is a mixture of Malayalam and Kannada. Dance and music are an integral part of these people [22]. The Irular community members mostly reside in the Attappady region of Palakkad district. The term Irul means darkness. One story narrates that years ago, the Irular’s ancestors escaped from a flood by clinging on to a branch of the Irul tree (Burmese Ironwood), and at the end of the flood, they got down and settled there, and that's how they got the name Irular [22]. People belonging to the Kattunayakan community reside in Wayanad. The name is derived from the words Kattu, meaning forest, and Nayakan, meaning leader; together the phrase means the leader of the forest [22]. The Kurumba are the earliest tribal inhabitants of Palakkad district. They are the smallest and most primitive among the three tribal groups of Attappady. Their language is known as Kurumba Bhasha [22] . In addition to the Paniya, Adiya and Kattunayakan communities, the Kurichiya community and the Kuruma community are the other communities mostly settled in Wayanad [23]. Kurichiyan is one of the important tribal communities as they are the most developed among tribal communities. Even though a part of this community lives in Wayanad, the majority of the community is in Kozhikode and Kannur districts. They are famous for their bravery, loyalty and martial tradition; they were part of the Kerala Varma Pazhassi Raja’s army, which fought against the British force. The Raja gave them the title Kurian, which means reliable, and from that the term Kurichiyan was derived. Their mother tongue is Malayalam, the regional language of Kerala. The Kuruma community has two sects – Mullu Kuruma and Urali Kuruma. They believe they are the descendants of the great poet Valmiki, who wrote the epic Ramayana. Their traditional occupation is hunting. Aranadans, Cholanaikkans, Eravallans, Mala Pulayas, Irulas, Kadars, Kannikars, Karimpalans, Koragars, Mala Arayan, Mala Kuravan, Malai Pandaram, Mala Panickar, Mala Vedan, Mala Vettuvan, Malayan, Mannans, Mavilans, Muthuvan, Palliyar, Thachanaden, Ulladan, Veeta Kuruman and Wayanad Kadar are the other communities identified as indigenous groups in Kerala. These communities are settled in different districts like Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Kottayam, Thrissur, Pathanamthitta, Palakkad, Idukki, Malappuram, Kozhikode, Wayanad, Kannur and Kasargod. Some of these communities are immigrant communities from the neighbouring state of Tamil Nadu[24]. Education and The Scheduled Tribes The literacy rate of scheduled tribe members in Kerala is 74.44 per cent, which is lower than the state average of 93.91 per cent. Meanwhile, the Wayanad district, which has the highest indigenous population consisting of nine different indigenous communities, has the highest rate of illiteracy [20,7]; Newslaundry, 2021, 00:50) [7]. According to government figures, in Kerala, 95 per cent of the indigenous students who get admission to Class I at the primary level, drop out before reaching the secondary level. The government itself describes this as ‘dropout syndrome’ (Truecopythink, 2023, 02:56) [11]. This dropout syndrome can be due to several reasons like lack of knowledge on the importance of education, lack of adequate parental income, transportation, and so on. According to the Report on the Socio Economic Status of Tribes [20], the major reason for school dropout is failure. Repeated failures at different levels of schooling create a fear of failure, which eventually leads to students dropping out of school. People belonging to indigenous communities are geographically and culturally different from those who are part of the mainstream population. As a result, members of indigenous tribes are often discriminated as belonging to a lower social strata of the society. Most of the current learners from indigenous communities are first-generation learners. In a case study conducted by Jobin Joy and M. Srihari [6] focusing on school dropouts from the indigenous communities of Wayanad, it is reported that caste-related issues and negative attitudes towards schooling are some of the reasons for the dropouts. Instead of addressing these real issues, school authorities, sometimes focus on the success rate in the final examinations. At times, they arrange scribes for the students who might fail the final exams by producing certificates that claim that these children are mentally challenged (Truecopythink, 2023, 17:02) [11]. Lack of training and lack of attention shown to the students also add up to the reasons. Another problem these students face is poor transportation due to the hilly terrain and lack of accessible roads. Many families also struggle due to financial difficulties. Therefore, they encourage their children to work rather than attend school as it would help them financially. Various factors like cultural differences, language barriers, disparities in social status, societal discrimination against indigenous people, low literacy rates, inability to keep up with societal changes, etc. contribute to the self-isolation of indigenous communities. Non-indigenous students and sometimes even school authorities may subject indigenous students to humiliation and discrimination. In the documentary, It’s Not Dropout Syndrome [11], a student named Hari from the Paniya community shared his experience: “When I was in the 10th class, one of my classmates, a girl, used caste-based name-calling against me and body-shamed me. No action was taken, even when I raised a complaint. That was my situation” Similarly, another student, Jaya Sandhya, described her experiences of discrimination: “When we wear jeans, they ask whether we even have such clothes. When we speak Malayalam, they are surprised and ask, ‘Oh, you people know Malayalam?’” These experiences greatly impact the self-esteem and confidence of indigenous students, leading them to isolate themselves and choosing not to engage with the outside society. Due to this self-isolation and lack of education, they are unaware of the reservation schemes and other supporting programs and opportunities that are available. Considering the remoteness of habitations, lack of travelling facilities, insufficient infrastructure facilities, illiteracy of parents and segregated population, the Central Ministry of India initiated a scheme that encouraged the state governments to open Ashram Schools and Ekalavya Model Residential Schools exclusively for students belonging to indigenous communities. The first Ashram school was established in 1939 [5] and now there are 566 model residential schools in India for indigenous students. Twenty of them are in Kerala, out of which five tribal residential schools are located in the district of Wayanad [5]. The students here are provided free and compulsory education, hostels, food, books and uniforms. Even though this scheme aimed to uplift the communities, the people were not happy with this compulsory residential education system. They strongly believed that education was not needed for them to survive in the forest. Outside their settlements, they had to face discrimination and were looked down upon by the mainstream society. As a result, we often find that indigenous students are reluctant to join even those schools exclusively meant for them. Even those who join refuse to return to school after vacation. Teachers usually go to indigenous settlements and persuade the students to return to their classrooms. Sometimes, students run away from the schools and never return. Indigenous Learners and the Indian Classrooms Indian classrooms are multilingual where the Three Language Formula (TLF) is followed [25]. This formula put forward the idea of teaching the students in their mother tongue followed by the regional language or Hindi and English [26]. However, concerning indigenous students, there was a lack of clarity regarding using their mother tongue or the regional language as the medium of instruction. Schools started imposing the majority language over the minority learners like indigenous students. Later, even though the TLF brought modifications to teaching the indigenous students in their mother tongue instead of imposing the majority language, these were not implemented [26]. At present in India, teachers still use the regional language as the medium of instruction. Even though English medium schools have a higher status in Indian society, here, teachers use both English and the regional language in classrooms. Still, the students who are linguistic minorities are forced to get accustomed to the major language. The same thing happens in tribal schools as well. If the regional language is Malayalam, the teacher engages the class in Malayalam even though this is a second language for half of the class. Teachers who work in the tribal schools are not from the indigenous communities and are not familiar with the indigenous community languages as they are recruited through government-level written exams and interviews. Acculturation starts from the school onwards for indigenous students. A small majority of the indigenous students in these schools come from a better financial background as their families might have migrated to urban areas long ago. So, the mother tongue of those students is Malayalam and not the community language. This draws a line between these students and the other half of the indigenous students from indigenous settlements, who are financially backward, and who use the community language as their mother tongue. At the same time, the syllabus these schools follow (SCERT Syllabus) is the same followed by the general schools. The teaching strategy, exam procedures and academic expectations of these students are set alongside the students from the mainstream society which eventually leads to stress and anxiety for these minority students. Acculturation Acculturation is a “phenomena which results when groups of individuals having different cultures come into continuous first-hand contact, with subsequent changes in the original cultural patterns of either or both groups” [27]. This happens in both short and long-term international migration, and cross-cultural interactions within the nation [28]. Acculturation can be studied through two major theoretical perspectives [29]. The first perspective, dimensionality, refers to unidimensional and bi-dimensional models. According to the unidimensional model, people either adopt the host culture or maintain the original culture; whereas in the bi-dimensional model, they maintain the original culture while practicing the host culture. The second perspective of acculturation is domain-specific which refers to the public domain and private domain. This implies that people prefer to practice the host culture in the public domain while they prefer the original culture to be practised in the private domain [29]. Family and cultural groups become major spaces where acculturation occurs. The outcome of acculturation [29] can be an internal adjustment, which is psychological, and an external adjustment, which is behavioural. These adjustments can be either adaptive or maladaptive. The cultural exchange that happens in educational institutions shapes the psychological and behavioural aspects of young learners. School acculturation or school adjustment is mostly experienced by the minority youth. The minority youth can be both immigrant youth as well as youth from the minority communities within the nation. The indigenous communities and indigenous students discussed in this study are examples of cross-cultural acculturation within the national boundaries. Among several acculturation theories and models, Berry’s acculturation model gained wide acceptance compared to others. “As a result of immigration, many societies become culturally plural. That is, people of many cultural backgrounds come to live together in a diverse society. In many cases, they form cultural groups that are not equal in power (numerical, economic, or political)”[14]. In his model, Berry draws on how minorities adjust to the mainstream culture. According to him, the minority population or the immigrants choose a strategy while being accultured. Assimilation, Separation, Integration and Marginalization [14] are the four acculturation strategies and these strategies are chosen based on the overall attitude of either the mainstream society or the minority group towards immigration, cross-culturalism or inclusiveness. Fig.1 represents the acculturation model of Berry. Assimilation occurs when the minority group chooses to embrace and practice the host culture and reject their original culture. Integration strategy happens when the minority group practices both cultures. They remain true to their original culture while adopting the host culture as well. These two strategies are possible in an inclusive society where the mainstream population accepts immigrants and encourages cross-culturalism. Separation strategy happens when the minority group has little interest in the host culture and continues practising their original culture. Minority groups adopt separation and marginalization strategies when the mainstream society becomes rigid and discriminative based on race, caste or politics. According to Berry’s framework of acculturation research, which is shown in Fig. 2, there are two levels of variables – Group level or sociocultural phenomena and Individual level or psychological phenomena [14]. The framework addresses the moderating factors before and during acculturation for both group and individual levels. According to Berry’s framework, the interaction between sociocultural and psychological phenomena brings out the results of acculturation. Acculturation, as mentioned earlier, happens not only among immigrants but also within national boundaries. An example of such a case is the study conducted by Sahoo and Pradhan [9] on the resettlement of indigenous peoples in India. This study reports the impact on indigenous communities after being displaced from wildlife sanctuaries and resettled in the mainland. It says that their socio-economic conditions did not improve much due to the loss of the established livelihood system these communities had in the forest. As a group of people who couldn’t speak the local language, they struggled to obtain even menial manual labour jobs and faced difficulty in understanding the awareness created by the local healthcare workers in the colony. The changes they experienced not only affected them culturally or financially but psychologically as well. A study conducted on acculturation stress and mental health by Baeza-Rivera et al. [30] reports literature from North America, Europe, Latin America and Chile, that acculturation stress has been linked with mental health symptomatology. It also reports studies on the impact of acculturation stress on people leading to psychosomatic problems, depression, anxiety and general psychiatric disorders. Another study was conducted on Asian-American subgroups in 2023, which revealed significant heterogeneity among the subgroups in association with the acculturation level and cardiovascular risk factors [31]. Acculturation equally affects academic performance. Suarez-Orozco in 1995 did a comparison between first-generation Mexican immigrants, second-generation Mexican immigrants and white students and the study revealed that there is a strong association between acculturation and academic performance; less acculturation leads to a more positive academic attitude [32]. English Language Anxiety “Anxiety is the subjective feeling of tension, apprehension, nervousness, and worry associated with arousal of the automatic nervous system” [33]. In the learning scenario, these feelings act as a mental block for the learner which prevents them from acquiring the language easily [33]. Students who have an apprehension about a subject will continue to avoid every situation which involves it. Students who develop a fear of a language will always feel uneasy in the classroom and find it difficult to learn the language. Several linguistic factors can cause language anxiety among ESL learners. These include mother tongue languages that have syntactic and phonological structures different from English, cultural factors like fear of cultural misunderstanding or not being able to communicate in the target language, social factors like peer pressure or fear of negative evaluation, personality traits like an introverted learner not being able to perform in a communicative language task, etc. These can affect the language acquisition process, as well as the confidence and self-esteem of learners. Sometimes these can have long-term consequences like poor academic performance, avoidance behaviour in using the target language in real life or even dropping out of language courses [34]. Methodology As mentioned earlier, the district of Wayanad has the highest indigenous population in the state of Kerala. In this district, there are five tribal residential schools [35] which accommodate only students from indigenous communities. All these five schools were selected for the study. These five schools were Model Residential School Kalpetta, Ekalavya Model Residential School Pookode, Asram Model Residential School Mananthavady, Dr Ambedkar Memorial School Mananthavady and Sri Rajeev Gandhi Memorial Ashram School Noolpuzha. The reason for selecting only tribal schools was to get more number of indigenous students for the study. As these were all residential schools, it was easy for the researcher to meet the students without their regular school schedule being affected. All the secondary school students studying in Class10 were met in person with special permission from the Tribal Development Department of Kerala, the Integrated Tribal Development Project Officer and the Assistant Director of Education, Wayanad. With the permission of the government officials, school principals and school superintendents, the researcher met the students from June 2023 onwards. Timings other than class hours were allotted to meet the students for collecting data and this happened inside the school campus itself. The total number of Class 10 students from the five schools was 219. During the data collection period, some students dropped out of school and some of them couldn’t meet the researcher due to other academic activities like science festival, arts festival and sports meet. Therefore, excluding these students, the final data set consisted of 188 students. All the 188 students were from different indigenous communities. Among them, 93 were Malayalam-speaking students and 95 were community languages speaking students. These 95 students can be mentioned as first-generation learners. Both groups have learners from PVTGs and non-PVTGs. From here onwards, the students who speak Malayalam (93 students) will be mentioned as Group A and the students who speak community language (95 students) will be mentioned as Group B. The Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) developed by Horwitz et al. [33] is an effective tool to measure classroom anxiety in language learners. The Writing Apprehension Test (WAT), developed by Daly and Miller in 1975, was the widely used scale for checking English writing anxiety. However, the scale was developed mainly for native students. Later, the Second Language Writing Anxiety Inventory (SLWAI) was developed by Ys Cheng [36] which focused on second-language learners of English. The data was collected using both FLCAS and SLWAI. FLCAS is a 33-item scale with nine reverse-scoring items and SLWAI is a 22-item scale with seven reverse-scoring items. SLWAI has three subscales – somatic anxiety, cognitive anxiety and avoidance behaviour. A writing proficiency test (WPS) was also conducted using the prescribed English textbook. Data was collected by distributing the printouts of the questionnaires. Students were given 45 minutes to complete each questionnaire. Their doubts regarding filling up the form were cleared one by one. Languages spoken by the students, Malayalam and the community languages, are the independent variables and SLWAI, FLCAS and WPS are the dependent variables. Correlation, regression and independent sample t-tests were done using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Data Analysis and Interpretation Table 1 Correlation Variable SLWAI FLCAS WPS SLWAI Pearson Correlation 1 N 188 FLCAS Pearson Correlation .677** 1 N 188 188 WPS Pearson Correlation -.345** -.376** 1 N 188 188 188 **.Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed) Pearson Correlation has been done to check the relationship between the three variables. According to Table 1, the Pearson correlation between SLWAI and FLCAS is r(188) = 0.677, p <0.01. The r value indicates that there is a statistically significant positive correlation between SLWAI and FLCAS, which indicates that when writing anxiety increases, language classroom anxiety also increases and vice versa. The correlation between FLCAS and WPS is r(188) = -.376, p< 0.01, which shows a statistically significant negative correlation between the variables. This means that when classroom anxiety increases, writing performance decreases. The correlation between SLWAI and WPS is r(188) = -.345, p < 0.01. The r value indicates a negative correlation between SLWAI and WPS, which means that when writing anxiety increases, writing performance decreases. So when the English writing anxiety and English classroom anxiety decrease, the writing performance improves. The result shows that there is a strong correlation between the anxiety scores and the writing scores of these students. Table 2 Regression Predictor Variables Std. Beta Value t Model Summary SLWAI -0.168 -1.826 R = .395 a R 2 = .156 Adjusted R 2 = .147 FLCAS -0.262 -2.856 F Value = 17.145 p = .000 Predictors: (Constant), SLWAI, FLCAS Table 2, the Regression table, shows how much each independent variable predicts writing performance. The standardised beta value for SLWAI is -0.168 and for FLCAS is -0.262. The t-values are -1.826 and -2.856 for SLWAI and FLCAS respectively. The R 2 value is 0.156, meaning that 15.6% of the variance in the outcome variable, which is WPS, is explained by the predictors, which are SLWAI and FLCAS. These results explain that there is a significant relation between the independent variables SLWAI and FLCAS, and the dependent variable WPS, and both the independent variables predict the dependent variable for 15.6%. The correlation and regression tests confirm that the students have English writing anxiety and classroom anxiety and these affect their writing performance as well. The Independent sample t-test result which shows the comparison between Group A (Malayalam-speaking students) and Group B (community language-speaking students) is shown in Table 3. Table 3 Independent Sample t-test Variable Mother Tongue N Mean SD t p SLWAI Malayalam(Group A) 93 70.83 9.959 -4.651** 0.000 Community Language(Group B) 95 77.77 10.489 FLCAS Malayalam(Group A) 93 107.62 14.236 -3.803** 0.000 Community Language(Group B) 95 117.01 19.188 WPS Malayalam(Group A) 93 7.84 4.277 10.100** 0.000 Community Language(Group B) 95 2.24 3.264 **.Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level The test results, as shown in Table 3, found significant differences in the study variables across Groups A and B. The t-value of SLWAI, which is -4.651**, shows a significant difference between the two groups. The SLWAI mean score of Group B is higher than that of Group A. This means that students who speak the community language have a higher level of English language writing anxiety compared to students who speak Malayalam. The t-value of FLCAS is -3.803** which shows a significant difference and the mean score of Group B is higher than that of Group A. This indicates that students who speak the community language have higher levels of English language classroom anxiety compared to Malayalam-speaking students. The t-value of WPS is 10.100** which shows a significant difference and the mean score of the variable is high in Group A when compared to Group B. This means that the students who speak the Malayalam language have scored better marks in writing tests compared to the students who speak the community language. The t-test results imply that the students who are acculturated, that is the community language-speaking students, have higher levels of English language writing anxiety, English language classroom anxiety and lower scores in English writing performance when compared to the students who speak Malayalam. Findings and Discussions The findings of this study show that the indigenous students of the five tribal residential schools have high levels of English language writing anxiety and classroom anxiety. The correlation results show that there is a significant positive correlation between writing anxiety and classroom anxiety, which results in a significant negative correlation between the two anxieties and the writing performance scores of the students. The negative correlation between anxiety and writing scores confirms the findings [33, 36]. As Anupama Chakrabarti and Madhumala [3] state in their study, anxiety makes a learner feel insecure and nervous, and this can aggravate the difficulty in using the language. Aida [37] reports that language anxiety can affect performance in examinations. Rodriguez [38] also reports a negative correlation between anxiety and language achievement. When comparing the performance of the two groups, group A (Malayalam-speaking students) performed better than group B (community language-speaking students). As mentioned earlier, the language used in these schools for the medium of instruction is the major or regional language, which is Malayalam. The major advantage for group A is that they get to learn in their mother tongue, which makes them less anxious compared to students in group B. Students in group B are forced to accommodate the major language, which is not their mother tongue, and this induces anxiety. As a result, students in group A performed better than students in group B. The disconnection between the students' culture and the target language elevates anxiety and this ends up with the learners struggling to express themselves. The need to speak in a foreign language to others is also a reason for anxiety[39] It has also been observed and reported that three students from one of the tribal schools dropped out (ran away) from the school. As Hajiyeva [34] points out, language anxiety affects the learner’s self-esteem and can even result in avoidance behaviour and dropping out of the course. All these can be associated with acculturation. According to Berry’s model of acculturation, the moderating factors of acculturation in this case are education and language. Education is not considered important or necessary by many of the parents from these indigenous communities, who are illiterate and are unhappy about the compulsory education system. This results in less interest being shown by their children to pursue their education in schools. They also refuse to come back to the school after vacation. Even if they come back, there is a tendency to run away from the school and return to their settlements. As the medium of instruction and language used for communication is not their mother tongue, community language-speaking students find schooling extremely difficult. This contributes to their language anxiety and poor performance. By applying Berry’s acculturation strategies to this result, it is evident that the separation/segregation strategy is predominant in these students. This results in dropping out of school, higher levels of anxiety and poor academic performance. Avoidance and underperformance lead to academic failures and this causes many indigenous learners to drop out and abandon language learning [40] Agnihothri and Khanna have quoted Fairclough saying that a language education focused on training language skills without a critical component is failing in its responsibility to the learners [4]. As Malini and Rajkumar [41] say students are more likely to take risks and engage in language learning without the fear of judgement when they feel supported and comfortable. The issues discussed here stem from the linguistic differences found in the education system and students. Without clearing this barrier, positive reinforcement of language education will be difficult. Conclusion and Recommendations The medium of instruction in schools plays a crucial role in the process of learning. The learning experience of the students belonging to indigenous communities studied in this paper is an example. As Chakraborty and Sengupta [3] pointed out, most of the Indian ESL learners have language anxiety. This becomes more severe for indigenous students from vulnerable groups due to their unique cultural and socio-economic challenges and who are more discriminated against. The language barrier created by the medium of instruction further heightens their anxiety. The prime reason for the poor performance of indigenous students in the English language is acculturation. The medium of instruction and the negative attitude towards education are the moderating factors which lead to English language classroom anxiety as well as writing anxiety. Necessary measures should be taken to tackle this problem either by appointing teachers who are familiar with the community language or by giving training to the teachers according to the special needs of the students. Developing a new syllabus for indigenous students that focuses on their learning requirements should be considered. As these students will have to compete with the mainstream population students later, it would be ideal to have a separate new syllabus that is beneficial to them. The authorities should also ensure that this new syllabus is not inferior to the general syllabus. Teachers should be aware of the psychological needs of the students. They should be aware of the anxiety levels and identify students with special needs and should be trained in handling them. Special training regarding proven teaching strategies should be given. Apart from the syllabus and teaching strategies, acculturation is another problem. The reluctance to return to school comes from fear, anxiety, and parental and peer attitudes towards education. Awareness programs for the parents along with the students should be done. The attitude of the teachers and other officials towards these students should change. If the authorities can address the concerns of each learner individually and act accordingly, these students will get a better learning environment. Changes in both the syllabus and the attitude of the authorities towards the students will help in reducing the school dropout rate, and ensure quality education for learners from indigenous communities. One of the challenges of this study was getting permission for data collection. As indigenous communities are considered vulnerable, tribal welfare department officials are very particular that problematic or sensitive questions that might offend/hurt Indigenous culture and beliefs are not asked. Permission was granted after thorough scrutiny of the questionnaires. The chosen five schools are situated in different parts of the Wayanad district. Most of the district is covered in thick forest and the routes to the schools are through eco-sensitive zones. This made reaching some schools difficult as wild animals often cross the roads. Though this study was limited to the indigenous students in Kerala, it opened up avenues to conduct similar studies related to indigenous learners from other parts of the country. This study recommends further research on how to make indigenous students less acculturated in classroom settings through interventions and teacher training. Understanding the teacher-learner relationship and a self-evaluation of both teachers’ and learners’ attitudes towards each other would help to further understand the acculturation-related problems of indigenous learners. Declarations Data availability As this particular study is part of the researcher ’ s doctoral work, the datasets generated and/or analysed during the current study are not publicly available as the doctoral thesis is yet to be submitted. They may be made available from the corresponding author or the first author upon reasonable request after the doctoral thesis is submitted. Ethics declaration The Departmental Ethics Committee approved this research based on the government-level permission received from the Government of the State of Kerala, India, to conduct a study among tribal school students of Wayanad district in Kerala. As all the children were students of residential schools, informed consent was obtained from the school principals, superintendents and teachers. Funding : None Conflicts of Interest/Competing Interests : All authors read and approved the final manuscript. Data Availability : Not Applicable Code availability : Not applicable Authors’ Contribution : Material preparation, data collection and analysis were done by Reshma Das M. The final draft of the manuscript was written by Reshma Das M. Prof. Binu Zachariah commented on the previous versions of the manuscript and edited the final draft. References United Nations. (2024). Goal 4 | Ensure Inclusive and Equitable Quality Education and Promote Lifelong Learning Opportunities for All. United Nations. https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal4 FOSS United. (n.d.). People ’ s l inguistic survey of India . Bhasha Research. https://bhasharesearch.org/plsi Chakrabarti, A., &Sengupta, M. (2012). Second Language Learning Anxiety and Its Effect on Achievement in the Language. Language in India , 12(8), 50–78. http://www.languageinindia.com/aug2012/anupamaslachievementfinal.pdf Agnihotri, R. K., & Khanna, A. L. (1995). English Language Teaching in India (pp. 12–30). SAGE Publications Pvt. Limited. Integrated Rural Technology Centre. (2020). Role of model residential schools in the educational attainment of indigenous students: An analysis of performance of indigenous residential schools in Kerala. In Government of Kerala . Kerala State Planning Board. https://spb.kerala.gov.in/sites/default/files/inline-files/RolMRSEducationalTribalStud.pdf Joy, J., & Srihari, M. (2014). A Case Study on the School Dropout Scheduled Tribal Students of Wayanad District, Kerala. Res. J. Educational Sci. International Science Congress Association , 2 (3), 1–6. http://www.isca.in/EDU_SCI/Archive/v2/i3/1.ISCA-RJEduS-2014-004.pdf Newslaundry. (2021, March 31). Adivasis in Wayanad: “ We are counted as votes not human beings” | #KeralaElection . YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCkYSEo30KQ&t=1s Panda, M., &GajananaBehera. (2023). Tribal Education – Current Scenario with Future Prospects. Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) , 24 , 34–34-. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8242407 Sahoo, M., & Pradhan, J. (2021). Adaptation and acculturation: Resettling Displaced Tribal Communities from Wildlife Sanctuaries in India. Migration Letters , 18 (3), 237–259. https://doi.org/10.33182/ml.v18i3.877 Scheduled Tribes Development Department. (2013). Scheduled tribes of Kerala: Report on the s ocio economic state . Government of Kerala. https://stdd.kerala.gov.in/sites/default/files/inline-files/surveyd_2008.pdf Truecopythink. (2023, September 30). It ’ s not Dropout Syndrome | Tribal Education | Documentary | Ali Hyder . YouTube.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-08J04y0Yg Mohanty, Ajit K. 2009. Multilingual education for indigenous children: Escaping the vicious cycle of language disadvantage in India. In Clare Stark (ed.), Globalization and languages - Building on our rich heritage. Paris: UNESCO, Pp. 132-146 Merriam-Webster. (2018). Definition of ACCULTURATION. Merriam-Webster.com. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/acculturation Berry, J. W. (1997). Immigration, Acculturation, and Adaptation. Applied Psychology , 46 (1), 5–34. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1464-0597.1997.tb01087.x Ministry of Education. (n.d.). Indian Languages. Ministry of Education; Government of India. Retrieved January 9, 2025, from https://www.education.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/upload_document/languagebr.pdf The Constitution of India. (2022). https://cdnbbsr.s3waas.gov.in/s380537a945c7aaa788ccfcdf1b99b5d8f/uploads/2023/05/2023050195.pdf Government of India. (2011). Census tables | Government of India . Censusindia.gov.in. https://censusindia.gov.in/census.website/data/census-tables Government of Kerala. (2009). Kerala at a Glance. Kerala.gov.in. http://old.forest.kerala.gov.in/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=43&Itemid=273 Damu, C. C. (2018). A Study on the Literacy Rate of Major Scheduled Tribe Communities in Wayanad, Kerala. In JETIR. https://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1803412.pdf Government of Kerala. (2013). Scheduled tribes of Kerala: Report on the socio economic state. Scheduled Tribes Development Department. https://stdd.kerala.gov.in/sites/default/files/inline-files/surveyd_2008.pdf Krishnan, V. (2018). Paniya People of Wayanad: A Brief Ethnography | Sahapedia. Sahapedia. http://www.sahapedia.org/paniya-people-wayanad-brief-ethnography Welcome to Kerala window. (2024). Keralawindow.net. http://keralawindow.net/tribals.html World Viewers. (2016). Tribes in Wayanad. Wayanad.com. https://www.wayanad.com/pages/tribes-in-wayanad Web. (2023, November 21). Indigenous Communities of Kerala – Kerala Forest Department. Kerala.gov.in. https://forest.kerala.gov.in/en/Indigenous-communities-of-kerala/ Anderson, J., & Lightfoot, A. (2018). Translingual practices in English classrooms in India: current perceptions and future possibilities. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism , 24(8), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2018.1548558 Mohanty, A. K. (2010). Languages, inequality and marginalization: implications of the double divide in Indian multilingualism. International Journal of the Sociology of Language , 2010(205). https://doi.org/10.1515/ijsl.2010.042 Redfield, R., Linton, R., & Herskovits, M. J. (1936). Memorandum for the Study of Acculturation. American Anthropologist , 38 (1), 149–152. https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.1936.38.1.02a00330 Ward, C., & Szabó, Á. (2019). Affect, Behavior, Cognition, and Development: Adding to the Alphabet of Acculturation. The Handbook of Culture and Psychology (2nd ed., pp. 640–692). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190679743.003.0020 Van de Vijver, F. J. R., Berry, J. W., & Celenk, O. (2016). Assessment of Acculturation. The Cambridge Handbook of Acculturation Psychology , 93–112. https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9781316219218.007 Baeza-Rivera, M. J., Salazar-Fernández, C., Manríquez-Robles, D., Salinas-Oñate, N., & Smith-Castro, V. (2022). Acculturative Stress, Perceived Social Support, and Mental Health: The Mediating Effect of Negative Emotions Associated with Discrimination. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health , 19 (24), 16522. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192416522 Li, Y., Zhu, A., Le, A., Singh, J., Palaniappan, L. P., Srinivasan, M., Shah, N. S., Wong, S. S., Tali Elfassy, Valero-Elizondo, J., & Yang, E. (2023). Association of Acculturation with Cardiovascular Risk Factors in Asian-American Subgroups. American Journal of Preventive Cardiology , 13 , 100437–100437. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajpc.2022.100437 Peréa, F. (2008). Language, Acculturation, and Academic Performance among Children of Immigrant Families: A Review of the Literature . WCW Publication. https://www.wcwonline.org/vmfiles/429.pdf Horwitz, E. K., Horwitz, M. B., & Cope, J. (1986). Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety. The Modern Language Journal , 70 (2), 125–132. https://doi.org/10.2307/327317 Hajiyeva, B. (2024). Language Anxiety in ESL Learners: Causes, Effects, and Mitigation Strategies. EuroGlobal Journal of Linguistics and Language Education , 1(1), 119–133. https://doi.org/10.69760/pn9wgv05 Ministry of Tribal Affairs. (2020, November 20). List of Eklavya Model Residential Schools in India . https://tribal.nic.in/downloads/EMRS/List%20of%20EMRS%20-%20Website.pdf Cheng, Ys. (2004). A Measure of Second Language Writing Anxiety: Scale Development and Preliminary Validation. Journal of Second Language Writing , 13 (4), 313–335. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jslw.2004.07.001 Yukie, A. (1994). Examination of Horwitz, Horwitz, and Cope’s construct of foreign language anxiety: The case of students of japanese. The Modern Language Journal, 78(2), 155–168. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4781.1994.tb02026.x Rodriguez, M. (1995). Foreign language classroom anxiety and students’ success in EFL classes. Revista Venezolana de Linguistica Aplicada , 1 (1), 23-32. MacIntyre, P. D., & C, G. R. (1994). The Subtle Effects of Language Anxiety on Cognitive Processing in the Second Language. Language Learning, 44(2), 283–305. https://www.academia.edu/5307255/ Khattak, Z. I., Jamshed, T., Ahmad, A., & Baig, M. N. (2011). An Investigation into the Causes of English Language Learning Anxiety in Students at AWKUM. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 15(2), 1600–1604. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.03.337 Malini, K., & Rajkumar, R. (2018). Understanding the Factors which cause the Language Anxiety among the Secondary School level Teachers in Language Classroom and Suggesting the Ways of Mitigation. www.academia.edu. https://www.academia.edu/39007808/ Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted Editorial decision: Revision requested 11 Jun, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 10 Jun, 2025 Reviews received at journal 10 Jun, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 10 Jun, 2025 Editor assigned by journal 24 Apr, 2025 Reviewers invited by journal 15 Apr, 2025 Submission checks completed at journal 12 Apr, 2025 First submitted to journal 05 Apr, 2025 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-5387019","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":443104938,"identity":"c304fb28-85d1-417c-8753-1d8b4d1265ab","order_by":0,"name":"Reshma Das M.","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Pondicherry University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Reshma","middleName":"Das","lastName":"M.","suffix":""},{"id":443104939,"identity":"777ca86a-e6a5-47f1-9016-20eb799f6451","order_by":1,"name":"Binu Zachariah","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA6klEQVRIie3PuwrCMBSA4QNCu0S7HkH0FVoKVlHwVRKEuugqjoqQqb6Lm7pVDjgFZ0UHuzj5AAoKXsALgq1uDvkhkAQ+cgKg0/1hdgogdTpi/npADsBu1zyBQLpbdX8gcCO+6F7JV4N5ZnqG2TE1RuZguojkOgcmbSAafyblfsZHR1FrEszrJSG3DJhvg1AxgxErIjeoNVw0iygkXf7SBBAygYQGNewHsXbJJNuTPn8STHil3GduBVTVmQTKLfE5MQO3dhhHPEs5K+hgwTMDZ7lvU82y6lF0iCHPCe8b47LCL8AL0el0Ot17ZwpAS2075rmPAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC","orcid":"","institution":"Pondicherry University","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Binu","middleName":"","lastName":"Zachariah","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2024-11-04 10:08:20","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-5387019/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-5387019/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":80718434,"identity":"c8c3bacd-f045-4b2c-ae22-19305e9b8a46","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-04-16 10:24:50","extension":"png","order_by":1,"title":"Figure 1","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":165737,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eModel of Acculturation Strategies\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAdapted from Immigration, Acculturation, and Adaptation by John W. Berry. Berry, J. W. (1997). \u003cem\u003eApplied Psychology\u003c/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003e46\u003c/em\u003e(1), 5–34.\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"1.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-5387019/v1/ef840df2b3d5a544a44bfa27.png"},{"id":80719505,"identity":"a2072acd-7f65-44f5-b365-49b2844a3e76","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-04-16 10:40:50","extension":"png","order_by":2,"title":"Figure 2","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":296515,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eA Framework for Acculturation Research\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAdapted from Immigration, Acculturation, and Adaptation by John W. Berry. Berry, J. W. (1997). \u003cem\u003eApplied Psychology\u003c/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003e46\u003c/em\u003e(1), 5–34.\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"2.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-5387019/v1/92a9a8b9fbfd76fde383fd29.png"},{"id":80719521,"identity":"74704cf7-7fb3-4d66-8db9-51ad5ce3012a","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-04-16 10:40:55","extension":"pdf","order_by":0,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":1262311,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"manuscript.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-5387019/v1/35c58b03-125e-4f7e-b271-d93e92c578fd.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"Acculturation and English Writing Anxiety among Indigenous Students of Kerala","fulltext":[{"header":"Introduction","content":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIndia and Multilingualism\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIndia is a multilingual country where over 10,000 mother tongues (MTs) were recognised in the 1991 Census Survey of India. These are classified into 3372 MTs. These languages are divided into MT and other MT categories. 570 MTs are from the Indo-Aryan family of languages and 153 are Dravidian languages. Most of the remaining languages come from the Austric family and the Tibeto-Burman languages. All these MTs are further classified into almost 400 languages [12]. The last few cannot fit into any of these language families [15]. Even though there are many languages on record, several of them are endangered, especially languages used by members belonging to indigenous communities [12]. Only 14 languages were recognised as the major languages of India in the \u0026ldquo;8th Schedule\u0026rdquo; of the Indian Constitution. Later, eight more languages were included and the present Constitution recognises 22 languages as the major or scheduled languages of India [16]. Indigenous languages are considered as minority languages. The local language, which is used by the vast majority of the population of an area, is different from the language used by the indigenous tribes. Most of these minority languages do not have a script and are written in the regional language or the major language. The major languages are used in the common and official spaces for communication. So the people who use minority languages often switch to the major language for ease of communication, which at times leads to, \u0026ldquo;discrimination, social and political neglect and deprivation\u0026rdquo; [12]. \u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Scheduled Tribes of Kerala \u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe indigenous peoples in India are a minority population, consisting of only 8.9 per cent of this multilingual country\u0026apos;s total population [17] with diverse beliefs and cultures. The culture and beliefs of the indigenous population also differ from state to state and community to community. Kerala, the southernmost state in India covers 1.18 per cent of the total area and 3.43 per cent of the total population of India [18]. Malayalam is the MT and the official language of Kerala with several regional dialects. The representation of scheduled tribes in the total population of the state is only 1.28 per cent. 35.94 per cent of this, which is the highest percentage of the indigenous population, is in the hill district of Wayanad [19]. Kerala has 36 indigenous communities, five of which are recognised as Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTG) [20]. Each community has a unique dialect, a mixture of the local language spoken by the majority population and the languages spoken in the neighbouring states. Most of them are bilingual or multilingual at the community level [12]. For example, Kattunayakan, a PVTG community with the largest indigenous population in Kerala, speaks a language that is a mixture of all Dravidian languages i.e., Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam. Similarly, the Kurumba community, another PVTG, speaks a mixture of Malayalam and Tamil. All these indigenous communities are geographically isolated from the majority population. \u0026ldquo;Most of the tribal communities of the state inhabit the Western Ghats in proximity to the forest ecosystem. One of the characteristics of tribal communities is that their habitations have strong ethnic boundaries based on kinship.\u0026rdquo; [20]. According to the report, there are 4762 indigenous settlements in Kerala, out of which 1225 settlements have only footpath connectivity from the mainland and 366 settlements have no connectivity at all. The indigenous people here prefer to stay in their settlements and live within the community rather than mingle with others.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe participants of this study are from the Paniya, Adiya, Irular, Kattunayakan and Kurumba indigenous communities. The Paniya community is found in the Western Ghats in the north Kerala region, mainly in the districts of Wayanad, Kannur, Kozhikode and Malappuram. The term Paniya means labourer, and years ago, people belonging to this community used to work in the agricultural fields of landlords. The dialect they speak, which is known as Paniyabhasha, is a mixture of Malayalam, Tamil and Tulu [21]. The Adiya community was one of the indigenous slave sects in Kerala before the enforcement of the Bonded Labour (Abolition) Act. They are mostly seen in the Wayanad and Kannur districts. Their language is a mixture of Malayalam and Kannada. Dance and music are an integral part of these people [22]. The Irular community members mostly reside in the Attappady region of Palakkad district. The term Irul means darkness. One story narrates that years ago, the Irular\u0026rsquo;s ancestors escaped from a flood by clinging on to a branch of the Irul tree (Burmese Ironwood), and at the end of the flood, they got down and settled there, and that\u0026apos;s how they got the name Irular [22]. People belonging to the Kattunayakan community reside in Wayanad. The name is derived from the words \u003cem\u003eKattu,\u003c/em\u003e meaning forest, and \u003cem\u003eNayakan,\u003c/em\u003e meaning leader; together the phrase means the leader of the forest [22]. The Kurumba are the earliest tribal inhabitants of Palakkad district. They are the smallest and most primitive among the three tribal groups of Attappady. Their language is known as \u003cem\u003eKurumba Bhasha \u003c/em\u003e[22]\u003cem\u003e.\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn addition to the Paniya, Adiya and Kattunayakan communities, the Kurichiya community and the Kuruma community are the other communities mostly settled in Wayanad [23]. Kurichiyan is one of the important tribal communities as they are the most developed among tribal communities. Even though a part of this community lives in Wayanad, the majority of the community is in Kozhikode and Kannur districts. They are famous for their bravery, loyalty and martial tradition; they were part of the Kerala Varma Pazhassi Raja\u0026rsquo;s army, which fought against the British force. The Raja gave them the title \u003cem\u003eKurian,\u003c/em\u003e which means reliable, and from that the term Kurichiyan was derived. Their mother tongue is Malayalam, the regional language of Kerala. The Kuruma community has two sects \u0026ndash; Mullu Kuruma and Urali Kuruma. They believe they are the descendants of the great poet Valmiki, who wrote the epic Ramayana. Their traditional occupation is hunting. Aranadans, Cholanaikkans, Eravallans, Mala Pulayas, Irulas, Kadars, Kannikars, Karimpalans, Koragars, Mala Arayan, Mala Kuravan, Malai Pandaram, Mala Panickar, Mala Vedan, Mala Vettuvan, Malayan, Mannans, Mavilans, Muthuvan, Palliyar, Thachanaden, Ulladan, Veeta Kuruman and Wayanad Kadar are the other communities identified as indigenous groups in Kerala. These communities are settled in different districts like Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Kottayam, Thrissur, Pathanamthitta, Palakkad, Idukki, Malappuram, Kozhikode, Wayanad, Kannur and Kasargod. Some of these communities are immigrant communities from the neighbouring state of Tamil Nadu[24]. \u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEducation and The Scheduled Tribes\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe literacy rate of scheduled tribe members in Kerala is 74.44 per cent, which is lower than the state average of 93.91 per cent. Meanwhile, the Wayanad district, which has the highest indigenous population consisting of nine different indigenous communities, has the highest rate of illiteracy [20,7]; Newslaundry, 2021, 00:50) [7]. According to government figures, in Kerala, 95 per cent of the indigenous students who get admission to Class I at the primary level, drop out before reaching the secondary level. The government itself describes this as \u0026lsquo;dropout syndrome\u0026rsquo; (Truecopythink, 2023, 02:56) [11]. This dropout syndrome can be due to several reasons like lack of knowledge on the importance of education, lack of adequate parental income, transportation, and so on. According to the Report on the Socio Economic Status of Tribes [20], the major reason for school dropout is failure. Repeated failures at different levels of schooling create a fear of failure, which eventually leads to students dropping out of school. People belonging to indigenous communities are geographically and culturally different from those who are part of the mainstream population. As a result, members of indigenous tribes are often discriminated as belonging to a lower social strata of the society. Most of the current learners from indigenous communities are first-generation learners. In a case study conducted by Jobin Joy and M. Srihari [6] focusing on school dropouts from the indigenous communities of Wayanad, it is reported that caste-related issues and negative attitudes towards schooling are some of the reasons for the dropouts. Instead of addressing these real issues, school authorities, sometimes focus on the success rate in the final examinations. At times, they arrange scribes for the students who might fail the final exams by producing certificates that claim that these children are mentally challenged (Truecopythink, 2023, 17:02) [11]. Lack of training and lack of attention shown to the students also add up to the reasons.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnother problem these students face is poor transportation due to the hilly terrain and lack of accessible roads. Many families also struggle due to financial difficulties. Therefore, they encourage their children to work rather than attend school as it would help them financially. Various factors like cultural differences, language barriers, disparities in social status, societal discrimination against indigenous people, low literacy rates, inability to keep up with societal changes, etc. contribute to the self-isolation of indigenous communities. Non-indigenous students and sometimes even school authorities may subject indigenous students to humiliation and discrimination. In the documentary, \u003cem\u003eIt\u0026rsquo;s Not Dropout Syndrome \u003c/em\u003e[11], a student named Hari from the Paniya community shared his experience: \u0026ldquo;When I was in the 10th class, one of my classmates, a girl, used caste-based name-calling against me and body-shamed me. No action was taken, even when I raised a complaint. That was my situation\u0026rdquo; Similarly, another student, Jaya Sandhya, described her experiences of discrimination: \u0026ldquo;When we wear jeans, they ask whether we even have such clothes. When we speak Malayalam, they are surprised and ask, \u0026lsquo;Oh, you people know Malayalam?\u0026rsquo;\u0026rdquo; These experiences greatly impact the self-esteem and confidence of indigenous students, leading them to isolate themselves and choosing not to engage with the outside society. Due to this self-isolation and lack of education, they are unaware of the reservation schemes and other supporting programs and opportunities that are available.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eConsidering the remoteness of habitations, lack of travelling facilities, insufficient infrastructure facilities, illiteracy of parents and segregated population, the Central Ministry of India initiated a scheme that encouraged the state governments to open Ashram Schools and Ekalavya Model Residential Schools exclusively for students belonging to indigenous communities. The first Ashram school was established in 1939 [5] and now there are 566 model residential schools in India for indigenous students. Twenty of them are in Kerala, out of which five tribal residential schools are located in the district of Wayanad [5]. The students here are provided free and compulsory education, hostels, food, books and uniforms. Even though this scheme aimed to uplift the communities, the people were not happy with this compulsory residential education system. They strongly believed that education was not needed for them to survive in the forest. Outside their settlements, they had to face discrimination and were looked down upon by the mainstream society. As a result, we often find that indigenous students are reluctant to join even those schools exclusively meant for them. Even those who join refuse to return to school after vacation. Teachers usually go to indigenous settlements and persuade the students to return to their classrooms. Sometimes, students run away from the schools and never return. \u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIndigenous Learners and the Indian Classrooms \u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIndian classrooms are multilingual where the Three Language Formula (TLF) is followed [25]. This formula put forward the idea of teaching the students in their mother tongue followed by the regional language or Hindi and English [26]. However, concerning indigenous students, there was a lack of clarity regarding using their mother tongue or the regional language as the medium of instruction. Schools started imposing the majority language over the minority learners like indigenous students. Later, even though the TLF brought modifications to teaching the indigenous students in their mother tongue instead of imposing the majority language, these were not implemented [26]. At present in India, teachers still use the regional language as the medium of instruction. Even though English medium schools have a higher status in Indian society, here, teachers use both English and the regional language in classrooms. Still, the students who are linguistic minorities are forced to get accustomed to the major language. The same thing happens in tribal schools as well. If the regional language is Malayalam, the teacher engages the class in Malayalam even though this is a second language for half of the class. Teachers who work in the tribal schools are not from the indigenous communities and are not familiar with the indigenous community languages as they are recruited through government-level written exams and interviews. Acculturation starts from the school onwards for indigenous students. A small majority of the indigenous students in these schools come from a better financial background as their families might have migrated to urban areas long ago. So, the mother tongue of those students is Malayalam and not the community language. This draws a line between these students and the other half of the indigenous students from indigenous settlements, who are financially backward, and who use the community language as their mother tongue. At the same time, the syllabus these schools follow (SCERT Syllabus) is the same followed by the general schools. The teaching strategy, exam procedures and academic expectations of these students are set alongside the students from the mainstream society which eventually leads to stress and anxiety for these minority students. \u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAcculturation\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAcculturation is a \u0026ldquo;phenomena which results when groups of individuals having different cultures come into continuous first-hand contact, with subsequent changes in the original cultural patterns of either or both groups\u0026rdquo; [27]. This happens in both short and long-term international migration, and cross-cultural interactions within the nation [28]. Acculturation can be studied through two major theoretical perspectives [29]. The first perspective, dimensionality, refers to unidimensional and bi-dimensional models. According to the unidimensional model, people either adopt the host culture or maintain the original culture; whereas in the bi-dimensional model, they maintain the original culture while practicing the host culture. The second perspective of acculturation is domain-specific which refers to the public domain and private domain. This implies that people prefer to practice the host culture in the public domain while they prefer the original culture to be practised in the private domain [29]. \u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFamily and cultural groups become major spaces where acculturation occurs. The outcome of acculturation [29] can be an internal adjustment, which is psychological, and an external adjustment, which is behavioural. These adjustments can be either adaptive or maladaptive. The cultural exchange that happens in educational institutions shapes the psychological and behavioural aspects of young learners. School acculturation or school adjustment is mostly experienced by the minority youth. The minority youth can be both immigrant youth as well as youth from the minority communities within the nation. The indigenous communities and indigenous students discussed in this study are examples of cross-cultural acculturation within the national boundaries. Among several acculturation theories and models, Berry\u0026rsquo;s acculturation model gained wide acceptance compared to others. \u0026ldquo;As a result of immigration, many societies become culturally plural. That is, people of many cultural backgrounds come to live together in a diverse society. In many cases, they form cultural groups that are not equal in power (numerical, economic, or political)\u0026rdquo;[14]. In his model, Berry draws on how minorities adjust to the mainstream culture. According to him, the minority population or the immigrants choose a strategy while being accultured. Assimilation, Separation, Integration and Marginalization [14] are the four acculturation strategies and these strategies are chosen based on the overall attitude of either the mainstream society or the minority group towards immigration, cross-culturalism or inclusiveness. Fig.1 represents the acculturation model of Berry. Assimilation occurs when the minority group chooses to embrace and practice the host culture and reject their original culture. Integration strategy happens when the minority group practices both cultures. They remain true to their original culture while adopting the host culture as well. These two strategies are possible in an inclusive society where the mainstream population accepts immigrants and encourages cross-culturalism. Separation strategy happens when the minority group has little interest in the host culture and continues practising their original culture. Minority groups adopt separation and marginalization strategies when the mainstream society becomes rigid and discriminative based on race, caste or politics.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAccording to Berry\u0026rsquo;s framework of acculturation research, which is shown in Fig. 2, there are two levels of variables \u0026ndash; Group level or sociocultural phenomena and Individual level or psychological phenomena [14]. The framework addresses the moderating factors before and during acculturation for both group and individual levels. According to Berry\u0026rsquo;s framework, the interaction between sociocultural and psychological phenomena brings out the results of acculturation.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAcculturation, as mentioned earlier, happens not only among immigrants but also within national boundaries. An example of such a case is the study conducted by Sahoo and Pradhan [9] on the resettlement of indigenous peoples in India. This study reports the impact on indigenous communities after being displaced from wildlife sanctuaries and resettled in the mainland. It says that their socio-economic conditions did not improve much due to the loss of the established livelihood system these communities had in the forest. As a group of people who couldn\u0026rsquo;t speak the local language, they struggled to obtain even menial manual labour jobs and faced difficulty in understanding the awareness created by the local healthcare workers in the colony. The changes they experienced not only affected them culturally or financially but psychologically as well. A study conducted on acculturation stress and mental health by Baeza-Rivera et al. [30] reports literature from North America, Europe, Latin America and Chile, that acculturation stress has been linked with mental health symptomatology. It also reports studies on the impact of acculturation stress on people leading to psychosomatic problems, depression, anxiety and general psychiatric disorders.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnother study was conducted on Asian-American subgroups in 2023, which revealed significant heterogeneity among the subgroups in association with the acculturation level and cardiovascular risk factors [31]. Acculturation equally affects academic performance. Suarez-Orozco in 1995 did a comparison between first-generation Mexican immigrants, second-generation Mexican immigrants and white students and the study revealed that there is a strong association between acculturation and academic performance; less acculturation leads to a more positive academic attitude [32].\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEnglish Language Anxiety\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u0026ldquo;Anxiety is the subjective feeling of tension, apprehension, nervousness, and worry associated with arousal of the automatic nervous system\u0026rdquo; [33]. In the learning scenario, these feelings act as a mental block for the learner which prevents them from acquiring the language easily [33]. Students who have an apprehension about a subject will continue to avoid every situation which involves it. Students who develop a fear of a language will always feel uneasy in the classroom and find it difficult to learn the language. Several linguistic factors can cause language anxiety among ESL learners. These include mother tongue languages that have syntactic and phonological structures different from English, cultural factors like fear of cultural misunderstanding or not being able to communicate in the target language, social factors like peer pressure or fear of negative evaluation, personality traits like an introverted learner not being able to perform in a communicative language task, etc. These can affect the language acquisition process, as well as the confidence and self-esteem of learners. Sometimes these can have long-term consequences like poor academic performance, avoidance behaviour in using the target language in real life or even dropping out of language courses [34].\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"Methodology","content":"\u003cp\u003eAs mentioned earlier, the district of Wayanad has the highest indigenous population in the state of Kerala. In this district, there are five tribal residential schools [35] which accommodate only students from indigenous communities. All these five schools were selected for the study. These five schools were Model Residential School Kalpetta, Ekalavya Model Residential School Pookode, Asram Model Residential School Mananthavady, Dr Ambedkar Memorial School Mananthavady and Sri Rajeev Gandhi Memorial Ashram School Noolpuzha. The reason for selecting only tribal schools was to get more number of indigenous students for the study. As these were all residential schools, it was easy for the researcher to meet the students without their regular school schedule being affected.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAll the secondary school students studying in Class10 were met in person with special permission from the Tribal Development Department of Kerala, the Integrated Tribal Development Project Officer and the Assistant Director of Education, Wayanad. With the permission of the government officials, school principals and school superintendents, the researcher met the students from June 2023 onwards. Timings other than class hours were allotted to meet the students for collecting data and this happened inside the school campus itself. The total number of Class 10 students from the five schools was 219. During the data collection period, some students dropped out of school and some of them couldn\u0026rsquo;t meet the researcher due to other academic activities like science festival, arts festival and sports meet. Therefore, excluding these students, the final data set consisted of 188 students. All the 188 students were from different indigenous communities. Among them, 93 were Malayalam-speaking students and 95 were community languages speaking students. These 95 students can be mentioned as first-generation learners. Both groups have learners from PVTGs and non-PVTGs. From here onwards, the students who speak Malayalam (93 students) will be mentioned as Group A and the students who speak community language (95 students) will be mentioned as Group B.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) developed by Horwitz et al. [33] is an effective tool to measure classroom anxiety in language learners. The Writing Apprehension Test (WAT), developed by Daly and Miller in 1975, was the widely used scale for checking English writing anxiety. However, the scale was developed mainly for native students. Later, the Second Language Writing Anxiety Inventory (SLWAI) was developed by Ys Cheng [36] which focused on second-language learners of English. The data was collected using both FLCAS and SLWAI. FLCAS is a 33-item scale with nine reverse-scoring items and SLWAI is a 22-item scale with seven reverse-scoring items. SLWAI has three subscales \u0026ndash; somatic anxiety, cognitive anxiety and avoidance behaviour. A writing proficiency test (WPS) was also conducted using the prescribed English textbook. Data was collected by distributing the printouts of the questionnaires. Students were given 45 minutes to complete each questionnaire. Their doubts regarding filling up the form were cleared one by one. Languages spoken by the students, Malayalam and the community languages, are the independent variables and SLWAI, FLCAS and WPS are the dependent variables. Correlation, regression and independent sample t-tests were done using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eData Analysis and Interpretation\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTable 1\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ctable border=\"1\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" width=\"653\"\u003e\n \u003ctbody\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd colspan=\"5\" valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 653px;\"\u003e\n \u003ch4\u003e\u003cem\u003eCorrelation\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/h4\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 117px;\"\u003e\n \u003ch4\u003eVariable\u003c/h4\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 157px;\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 127px;\"\u003e\n \u003ch4\u003eSLWAI\u003c/h4\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 127px;\"\u003e\n \u003ch4\u003eFLCAS\u003c/h4\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 125px;\"\u003e\n \u003ch4\u003eWPS\u003c/h4\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd rowspan=\"2\" valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 117px;\"\u003e\n \u003ch4\u003eSLWAI\u003c/h4\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 157px;\"\u003e\n \u003ch4\u003ePearson Correlation\u003c/h4\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 127px;\"\u003e\n \u003ch4\u003e1\u003c/h4\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 127px;\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 125px;\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 157px;\"\u003e\n \u003ch4\u003eN\u003c/h4\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 127px;\"\u003e\n \u003ch4\u003e188\u003c/h4\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 127px;\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 125px;\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd rowspan=\"2\" valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 117px;\"\u003e\n \u003ch4\u003eFLCAS\u003c/h4\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 157px;\"\u003e\n \u003ch4\u003ePearson Correlation\u003c/h4\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 127px;\"\u003e\n \u003ch4\u003e.677**\u003c/h4\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 127px;\"\u003e\n \u003ch4\u003e1\u003c/h4\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 125px;\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 157px;\"\u003e\n \u003ch4\u003eN\u003c/h4\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 127px;\"\u003e\n \u003ch4\u003e188\u003c/h4\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 127px;\"\u003e\n \u003ch4\u003e188\u003c/h4\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 125px;\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd rowspan=\"2\" valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 117px;\"\u003e\n \u003ch4\u003eWPS\u003c/h4\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 157px;\"\u003e\n \u003ch4\u003ePearson Correlation\u003c/h4\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 127px;\"\u003e\n \u003ch4\u003e-.345**\u003c/h4\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 127px;\"\u003e\n \u003ch4\u003e-.376**\u003c/h4\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 125px;\"\u003e\n \u003ch4\u003e1\u003c/h4\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 157px;\"\u003e\n \u003ch4\u003eN\u003c/h4\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 127px;\"\u003e\n \u003ch4\u003e188\u003c/h4\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 127px;\"\u003e\n \u003ch4\u003e188\u003c/h4\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 125px;\"\u003e\n \u003ch4\u003e188\u003c/h4\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003c/tbody\u003e\n\u003c/table\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e**.Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed)\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePearson Correlation has been done to check the relationship between the three variables. According to Table 1, the Pearson correlation between SLWAI and FLCAS is r(188) = 0.677, \u003cem\u003ep\u003c/em\u003e\u0026lt;0.01. The r value indicates that there is a statistically significant positive correlation between SLWAI and FLCAS, which indicates that when writing anxiety increases, language classroom anxiety also increases and vice versa. The correlation between FLCAS and WPS is r(188) = -.376, p\u0026lt; 0.01, which shows a statistically significant negative correlation between the variables. This means that when classroom anxiety increases, writing performance decreases. The correlation between SLWAI and WPS is r(188) = -.345, p \u0026lt; 0.01. The r value indicates a negative correlation between SLWAI and WPS, which means that when writing anxiety increases, writing performance decreases. So when the English writing anxiety and English classroom anxiety decrease, the writing performance improves. The result shows that there is a strong correlation between the anxiety scores and the writing scores of these students.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTable 2\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ctable border=\"1\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" width=\"653\"\u003e\n \u003ctbody\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd colspan=\"4\" valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 653px;\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eRegression\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd height=\"22\" style=\"width: 0px;\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 180px;\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003ePredictor Variables\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 125px;\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eStd. Beta Value\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 117px;\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003et\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 231px;\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eModel Summary\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd height=\"26\" style=\"width: 0px;\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd rowspan=\"3\" valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 180px;\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eSLWAI\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd rowspan=\"3\" valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 125px;\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e-0.168\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd rowspan=\"3\" valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 117px;\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e-1.826\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 231px;\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eR = .395\u003csup\u003ea\u003c/sup\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd height=\"25\" style=\"width: 0px;\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 231px;\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eR\u003csup\u003e2\u003c/sup\u003e = .156\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd height=\"25\" style=\"width: 0px;\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd rowspan=\"2\" valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 231px;\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eAdjusted R\u003csup\u003e2\u003c/sup\u003e = .147\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd height=\"21\" style=\"width: 0px;\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd rowspan=\"3\" valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 180px;\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eFLCAS\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd rowspan=\"3\" valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 125px;\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e-0.262\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd rowspan=\"3\" valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 117px;\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e-2.856\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd height=\"18\" style=\"width: 0px;\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 231px;\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eF Value = 17.145\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd height=\"20\" style=\"width: 0px;\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 231px;\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003ep\u003c/em\u003e = .000\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd height=\"21\" style=\"width: 0px;\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003c/tbody\u003e\n\u003c/table\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePredictors: (Constant), SLWAI, FLCAS\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTable 2, the Regression table, shows how much each independent variable predicts writing performance. The standardised beta value for SLWAI is -0.168 and for FLCAS is -0.262. The t-values are -1.826 and -2.856 for SLWAI and FLCAS respectively. The R\u003csup\u003e2\u0026nbsp;\u003c/sup\u003evalue is 0.156, meaning that 15.6% of the variance in the outcome variable, which is WPS, is explained by the predictors, which are SLWAI and FLCAS. These results explain that there is a significant relation between the independent variables SLWAI and FLCAS, and the dependent variable WPS, and both the independent variables predict the dependent variable for 15.6%. The correlation and regression tests confirm that the students have English writing anxiety and classroom anxiety and these affect their writing performance as well.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Independent sample t-test result which shows the comparison between Group A (Malayalam-speaking students) and Group B (community language-speaking students) is shown in Table 3.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTable 3\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ctable border=\"1\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" width=\"653\"\u003e\n \u003ctbody\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd colspan=\"7\" valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 653px;\"\u003e\n \u003ch4\u003e\u003cem\u003eIndependent Sample t-test\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/h4\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 93px;\"\u003e\n \u003ch4\u003eVariable\u003c/h4\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 230px;\"\u003e\n \u003ch4\u003eMother Tongue\u003c/h4\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 41px;\"\u003e\n \u003ch4\u003eN\u003c/h4\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 73px;\"\u003e\n \u003ch4\u003eMean\u003c/h4\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 74px;\"\u003e\n \u003ch4\u003eSD\u003c/h4\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 75px;\"\u003e\n \u003ch4\u003et\u003c/h4\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 66px;\"\u003e\n \u003ch4\u003e\u003cem\u003ep\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/h4\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd rowspan=\"2\" valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 93px;\"\u003e\n \u003ch4\u003eSLWAI\u003c/h4\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 230px;\"\u003e\n \u003ch4\u003eMalayalam(Group A)\u003c/h4\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 41px;\"\u003e\n \u003ch4\u003e93\u003c/h4\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 73px;\"\u003e\n \u003ch4\u003e70.83\u003c/h4\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 74px;\"\u003e\n \u003ch4\u003e9.959\u003c/h4\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd rowspan=\"2\" valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 75px;\"\u003e\n \u003ch4\u003e-4.651**\u003c/h4\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd rowspan=\"2\" valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 66px;\"\u003e\n \u003ch4\u003e0.000\u003c/h4\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 230px;\"\u003e\n \u003ch4\u003eCommunity Language(Group B)\u003c/h4\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 41px;\"\u003e\n \u003ch4\u003e95\u003c/h4\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 73px;\"\u003e\n \u003ch4\u003e77.77\u003c/h4\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 74px;\"\u003e\n \u003ch4\u003e10.489\u003c/h4\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd rowspan=\"2\" valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 93px;\"\u003e\n \u003ch4\u003eFLCAS\u003c/h4\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 230px;\"\u003e\n \u003ch4\u003eMalayalam(Group A)\u003c/h4\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 41px;\"\u003e\n \u003ch4\u003e93\u003c/h4\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 73px;\"\u003e\n \u003ch4\u003e107.62\u003c/h4\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 74px;\"\u003e\n \u003ch4\u003e14.236\u003c/h4\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd rowspan=\"2\" valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 75px;\"\u003e\n \u003ch4\u003e-3.803**\u003c/h4\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd rowspan=\"2\" valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 66px;\"\u003e\n \u003ch4\u003e0.000\u003c/h4\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 230px;\"\u003e\n \u003ch4\u003eCommunity Language(Group B)\u003c/h4\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 41px;\"\u003e\n \u003ch4\u003e95\u003c/h4\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 73px;\"\u003e\n \u003ch4\u003e117.01\u003c/h4\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 74px;\"\u003e\n \u003ch4\u003e19.188\u003c/h4\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd rowspan=\"2\" valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 93px;\"\u003e\n \u003ch4\u003eWPS\u003c/h4\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 230px;\"\u003e\n \u003ch4\u003eMalayalam(Group A)\u003c/h4\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 41px;\"\u003e\n \u003ch4\u003e93\u003c/h4\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 73px;\"\u003e\n \u003ch4\u003e7.84\u003c/h4\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 74px;\"\u003e\n \u003ch4\u003e4.277\u003c/h4\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd rowspan=\"2\" valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 75px;\"\u003e\n \u003ch4\u003e10.100**\u003c/h4\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd rowspan=\"2\" valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 66px;\"\u003e\n \u003ch4\u003e0.000\u003c/h4\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 230px;\"\u003e\n \u003ch4\u003eCommunity Language(Group B)\u003c/h4\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 41px;\"\u003e\n \u003ch4\u003e95\u003c/h4\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 73px;\"\u003e\n \u003ch4\u003e2.24\u003c/h4\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" style=\"width: 74px;\"\u003e\n \u003ch4\u003e3.264\u003c/h4\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003c/tbody\u003e\n\u003c/table\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e**.Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe test results, as shown in Table 3, found significant differences in the study variables across Groups A and B. The t-value of SLWAI, which is -4.651**, shows a significant difference between the two groups. The SLWAI mean score of Group B is higher than that of Group A. This means that students who speak the community language have a higher level of English language writing anxiety compared to students who speak Malayalam. The t-value of FLCAS is -3.803** which shows a significant difference and the mean score of Group B is higher than that of Group A. This indicates that students who speak the community language have higher levels of English language classroom anxiety compared to Malayalam-speaking students. The t-value of WPS is 10.100** which shows a significant difference and the mean score of the variable is high in Group A when compared to Group B. This means that the students who speak the Malayalam language have scored better marks in writing tests compared to the students who speak the community language. The t-test results imply that the students who are acculturated, that is the community language-speaking students, have higher levels of English language writing anxiety, English language classroom anxiety and lower scores in English writing performance when compared to the students who speak Malayalam.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"Findings and Discussions","content":"\u003cp\u003eThe findings of this study show that the indigenous students of the five tribal residential schools have high levels of English language writing anxiety and classroom anxiety. The correlation results show that there is a significant positive correlation between writing anxiety and classroom anxiety, which results in a significant negative correlation between the two anxieties and the writing performance scores of the students. The negative correlation between anxiety and writing scores confirms the findings [33, 36]. As Anupama Chakrabarti and Madhumala [3] state in their study, anxiety makes a learner feel insecure and nervous, and this can aggravate the difficulty in using the language. \u0026nbsp;Aida [37] reports that language anxiety can affect performance in examinations.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRodriguez [38] also reports a negative correlation between anxiety and language achievement.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen comparing the performance of the two groups, group A (Malayalam-speaking students) performed better than group B (community language-speaking students). As mentioned earlier, the language used in these schools for the medium of instruction is the major or regional language, which is Malayalam. The major advantage for group A is that they get to learn in their mother tongue, which makes them less anxious compared to students in group B. Students in group B are forced to accommodate the major language, which is not their mother tongue, and this induces anxiety. As a result, students in group A performed better than students in group B. The disconnection between the students\u0026apos; culture and the target language elevates anxiety and this ends up with the learners struggling to express themselves. The need to speak in a foreign language to others is also a reason for anxiety[39]\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt has also been observed and reported that three students from one of the tribal schools dropped out (ran away) from the school. As Hajiyeva [34] points out, language anxiety affects the learner\u0026rsquo;s self-esteem and can even result in avoidance behaviour and dropping out of the course. All these can be associated with acculturation. According to Berry\u0026rsquo;s model of acculturation, the moderating factors of acculturation in this case are education and language. Education is not considered important or necessary by many of the parents from these indigenous communities, who are illiterate and are unhappy about the compulsory education system. This results in less interest being shown by their children to pursue their education in schools. They also refuse to come back to the school after vacation. Even if they come back, there is a tendency to run away from the school and return to their settlements. As the medium of instruction and language used for communication is not their mother tongue, community language-speaking students find schooling extremely difficult. This contributes to their language anxiety and poor performance. By applying Berry\u0026rsquo;s acculturation strategies to this result, it is evident that the separation/segregation strategy is predominant in these students. This results in dropping out of school, higher levels of anxiety and poor academic performance. Avoidance and underperformance lead to academic failures and this causes many indigenous learners to drop out and abandon language learning [40] Agnihothri and Khanna have quoted Fairclough saying that a language education focused on training language skills without a critical component is failing in its responsibility to the learners [4]. As Malini and Rajkumar [41] say students are more likely to take risks and engage in language learning without the fear of judgement when they feel supported and comfortable. The issues discussed here stem from the linguistic differences found in the education system and students. Without clearing this barrier, positive reinforcement of language education will be difficult.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"Conclusion and Recommendations","content":"\u003cp\u003eThe medium of instruction in schools plays a crucial role in the process of learning. The learning experience of the students belonging to indigenous communities studied in this paper is an example. As Chakraborty and Sengupta [3] pointed out, most of the Indian ESL learners have language anxiety. This becomes more severe for indigenous students from vulnerable groups due to their unique cultural and socio-economic challenges and who are more discriminated against. The language barrier created by the medium of instruction further heightens their anxiety. The prime reason for the poor performance of indigenous students in the English language is acculturation. The medium of instruction and the negative attitude towards education are the moderating factors which lead to English language classroom anxiety as well as writing anxiety. Necessary measures should be taken to tackle this problem either by appointing teachers who are familiar with the community language or by giving training to the teachers according to the special needs of the students. Developing a new syllabus for indigenous students that focuses on their learning requirements should be considered. As these students will have to compete with the mainstream population students later, it would be ideal to have a separate new syllabus that is beneficial to them. The authorities should also ensure that this new syllabus is not inferior to the general syllabus. Teachers should be aware of the psychological needs of the students. They should be aware of the anxiety levels and identify students with special needs and should be trained in handling them. Special training regarding proven teaching strategies should be given. Apart from the syllabus and teaching strategies, acculturation is another problem. The reluctance to return to school comes from fear, anxiety, and parental and peer attitudes towards education. Awareness programs for the parents along with the students should be done. The attitude of the teachers and other officials towards these students should change. If the authorities can address the concerns of each learner individually and act accordingly, these students will get a better learning environment. Changes in both the syllabus and the attitude of the authorities towards the students will help in reducing the school dropout rate, and ensure quality education for learners from indigenous communities.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOne of the challenges of this study was getting permission for data collection. As indigenous communities are considered vulnerable, tribal welfare department officials are very particular that problematic or sensitive questions that might offend/hurt Indigenous culture and beliefs are not asked. Permission was granted after thorough scrutiny of the questionnaires. The chosen five schools are situated in different parts of the Wayanad district. Most of the district is covered in thick forest and the routes to the schools are through eco-sensitive zones. This made reaching some schools difficult as wild animals often cross the roads. Though this study was limited to the indigenous students in Kerala, it opened up avenues to conduct similar studies related to indigenous learners from other parts of the country. This study recommends further research on how to make indigenous students less acculturated in classroom settings through interventions and teacher training. Understanding the teacher-learner relationship and a self-evaluation of both teachers\u0026rsquo; and learners\u0026rsquo; attitudes towards each other would help to further understand the acculturation-related problems of indigenous learners.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"Declarations","content":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eData availability\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAs this particular study is part of the researcher\u003cspan dir=\"RTL\"\u003e\u0026rsquo;\u003c/span\u003es doctoral work, the datasets generated and/or analysed during the current study are not publicly available as the doctoral thesis is yet to be submitted. They may be made available from the corresponding author or the first author upon reasonable request after the doctoral thesis is submitted.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEthics declaration\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Departmental Ethics Committee approved this research based on the government-level permission received from the Government of the State of Kerala, India, to conduct a study among tribal school students of Wayanad district in Kerala. As all the children were students of residential schools, informed consent was obtained from the school principals, superintendents and teachers.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFunding \u003c/strong\u003e: None\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eConflicts of Interest/Competing Interests : \u003c/strong\u003eAll authors read and approved the final manuscript.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eData Availability :\u003c/strong\u003e Not Applicable\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCode availability :\u003c/strong\u003e Not applicable\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAuthors\u0026rsquo; Contribution :\u003c/strong\u003e Material preparation, data collection and analysis\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ewere done by Reshma Das M. The final draft of the manuscript was written by Reshma Das M. Prof. Binu Zachariah commented on the previous versions of the manuscript and edited the final draft.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"References","content":"\u003col\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eUnited Nations. (2024). Goal 4 | Ensure Inclusive and Equitable Quality Education and Promote Lifelong Learning Opportunities for All. United Nations. https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal4\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eFOSS United. (n.d.). \u003cem\u003ePeople\u003c/em\u003e\u003cspan dir=\"RTL\"\u003e\u0026rsquo;\u003c/span\u003e\u003cem\u003es l\u003c/em\u003e\u003cem\u003einguistic \u003c/em\u003e\u003cem\u003esurvey of India\u003c/em\u003e. Bhasha Research. https://bhasharesearch.org/plsi\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eChakrabarti, A., \u0026amp;Sengupta, M. (2012). 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(2018). Paniya People of Wayanad: A Brief Ethnography | Sahapedia. Sahapedia. http://www.sahapedia.org/paniya-people-wayanad-brief-ethnography \u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWelcome to Kerala window. (2024). Keralawindow.net. http://keralawindow.net/tribals.html\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWorld Viewers. (2016). Tribes in Wayanad. Wayanad.com. https://www.wayanad.com/pages/tribes-in-wayanad\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWeb. (2023, November 21). Indigenous Communities of Kerala \u0026ndash; Kerala Forest Department. Kerala.gov.in. https://forest.kerala.gov.in/en/Indigenous-communities-of-kerala/\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAnderson, J., \u0026amp; Lightfoot, A. (2018). Translingual practices in English classrooms in India: current perceptions and future possibilities. \u003cem\u003eInternational Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism\u003c/em\u003e, 24(8), 1\u0026ndash;22. https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2018.1548558\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eMohanty, A. K. (2010). 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Assessment of Acculturation. \u003cem\u003eThe Cambridge Handbook of Acculturation Psychology\u003c/em\u003e, 93\u0026ndash;112. https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9781316219218.007\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eBaeza-Rivera, M. J., Salazar-Fern\u0026aacute;ndez, C., Manr\u0026iacute;quez-Robles, D., Salinas-O\u0026ntilde;ate, N., \u0026amp; Smith-Castro, V. (2022). Acculturative Stress, Perceived Social Support, and Mental Health: The Mediating Effect of Negative Emotions Associated with Discrimination. \u003cem\u003eInternational Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health\u003c/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003e19\u003c/em\u003e(24), 16522. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192416522\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eLi, Y., Zhu, A., Le, A., Singh, J., Palaniappan, L. P., Srinivasan, M., Shah, N. S., Wong, S. S., Tali Elfassy, Valero-Elizondo, J., \u0026amp; Yang, E. (2023). 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Language Anxiety in ESL Learners: Causes, Effects, and Mitigation Strategies. \u003cem\u003eEuroGlobal Journal of Linguistics and Language Education\u003c/em\u003e, 1(1), 119\u0026ndash;133. https://doi.org/10.69760/pn9wgv05\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eMinistry of Tribal Affairs. (2020, November 20). \u003cem\u003eList of Eklavya Model Residential Schools in India\u003c/em\u003e. https://tribal.nic.in/downloads/EMRS/List%20of%20EMRS%20-%20Website.pdf\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eCheng, Ys. (2004). A Measure of Second Language Writing Anxiety: Scale Development and Preliminary Validation. \u003cem\u003eJournal of Second Language Writing\u003c/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003e13\u003c/em\u003e(4), 313\u0026ndash;335. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jslw.2004.07.001\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eYukie, A. (1994). Examination of Horwitz, Horwitz, and Cope\u0026rsquo;s construct of foreign language anxiety: The case of students of japanese. The Modern Language Journal, 78(2), 155\u0026ndash;168. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4781.1994.tb02026.x\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eRodriguez, M. (1995). Foreign language classroom anxiety and students\u0026rsquo; success in EFL classes. \u003cem\u003eRevista Venezolana de Linguistica Aplicada\u003c/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003e1\u003c/em\u003e(1), 23-32.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eMacIntyre, P. D., \u0026amp; C, G. R. (1994). The Subtle Effects of Language Anxiety on Cognitive Processing in the Second Language. Language Learning, 44(2), 283\u0026ndash;305. https://www.academia.edu/5307255/\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eKhattak, Z. I., Jamshed, T., Ahmad, A., \u0026amp; Baig, M. N. (2011). An Investigation into the Causes of English Language Learning Anxiety in Students at AWKUM. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 15(2), 1600\u0026ndash;1604. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.03.337\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eMalini, K., \u0026amp; Rajkumar, R. (2018). Understanding the Factors which cause the Language Anxiety among the Secondary School level Teachers in Language Classroom and Suggesting the Ways of Mitigation. www.academia.edu. https://www.academia.edu/39007808/\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ol\u003e"}],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":true,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":false,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":true,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":false,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":false,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"discover-education","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"diedu","sideBox":"Learn more about [Discover Education](https://www.springer.com/journal/44217)","snPcode":"44217","submissionUrl":"https://submission.nature.com/new-submission/44217/3","title":"Discover Education","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"stoa","reportingPortfolio":"Discover Series","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Acculturation, English Language Anxiety, Indigenous Students, ESL Learners, School Dropout","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-5387019/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-5387019/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eThe impact of acculturation with reference to English language writing anxiety among the indigenous students of Kerala is a less discussed topic in tribal education and language studies. This paper analyses the English language classroom anxiety and writing anxiety using the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) and the Second Language Writing Anxiety Inventory (SLWAI) respectively, among indigenous students in Kerala and the impact of these on their English language writing performance. The paper is an attempt to evaluate the above-mentioned scenario in the light of the acculturation these students have to undergo. This study helps to evaluate the condition of the students based on the fourth goal of the United Nations Sustainable Development [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR1\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1\u003c/span\u003e]. Data from 188 indigenous students from five tribal residential schools in Wayanad, Kerala have been collected and analyzed using Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS) to prove the assumptions of the study. The three variables of the study are Second Language Writing Anxiety (SLWAI), Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety (FLCAS) and Writing Performance (WPS). SLWAI and FLCAS are considered as a result of acculturation. According to Pearson Correlation, the correlation shows that the correlation between the SLWAI and FLCAS is r(188)\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.677, FLCAS and WPS is -0.376, and SLWAI and WPS is -0.345. All are significant at the level of 0.01. The regression result shows that SLWAI and FLCAS predict WPS for 15.6%. Independent sample t-tests between Malayalam-speaking and community language-speaking students on the SLWAI, FLCAS and WPS are \u0026minus;\u0026thinsp;4.651**, -3.803** and 10.100**, respectively. The paper puts forward recommendations that can not only improve the condition of these students but also ensure an inclusive learning environment.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Acculturation and English Writing Anxiety among Indigenous Students of Kerala","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2025-04-16 10:24:45","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-5387019/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0},{"type":"decision","content":"Revision requested","date":"2025-06-11T12:11:21+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"155189801098547934359703900846539316046","date":"2025-06-10T17:32:18+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorInvitedReview","content":"","date":"2025-06-10T08:16:22+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"16349894465442659783199934126925726674","date":"2025-06-10T06:59:43+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorAssigned","content":"","date":"2025-04-24T10:19:25+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewersInvited","content":"","date":"2025-04-15T07:32:40+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"checksComplete","content":"","date":"2025-04-12T13:41:28+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"submitted","content":"Discover Education","date":"2025-04-05T04:27:18+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"discover-education","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"diedu","sideBox":"Learn more about [Discover Education](https://www.springer.com/journal/44217)","snPcode":"44217","submissionUrl":"https://submission.nature.com/new-submission/44217/3","title":"Discover Education","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"stoa","reportingPortfolio":"Discover Series","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"aae6ec10-2c1c-468f-90e1-bda2be2ea078","owner":[],"postedDate":"April 16th, 2025","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"under-review","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2025-07-14T15:23:43+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2025-04-16 10:24:45","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-5387019","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-5387019","identity":"rs-5387019","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"XKTyCvWXoU3ODBz1xrDgd","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}