Cohesive Devices and Writing Quality : Singapore Learner Corpus Research

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 29-53
Author(s):  
Yin Ling Cheung ◽  
◽  
Hari Jang
Keyword(s):  
Writing Quality ◽  
Learner Corpus ◽  
Cohesive Devices

scholarly journals Cohesive Devices in Translator Training: A Study Based on a Romanian Translational Learner Corpus

2017 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 155-177 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mona Arhire
Keyword(s):  
Graduate Students ◽  
Short Story ◽  
Comprehensive Approach ◽  
Teaching Methodology ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Learner Corpus ◽  
Cohesive Devices ◽  
Translator Training ◽  
Qualitative Nature

Formal links are naturally associated with cohesion as one of the main features of discourse. Cohesion has been extensively discussed in the literature especially in terms of the mechanisms generating it, but also in terms of its equivalence in translation. As with any type of discourse, the communicative value of translated texts is enhanced by their cohesive texture. Less attention has been granted to the translation of formal links carrying additional functions though. This study examines some cohesive devices in student translations with a special focus on the translatability of ellipsis, substitution and reference when they are enriched with stylistic, sociolectal and rhetorical values. The study is based on a translational learner corpus consisting of Romanian graduate students’ translations of a short story from English into Romanian. The methodology for assessing and analyzing the learner corpus is of both quantitative and qualitative nature and employs simplification, explicitation and neutralization. The conclusions comprise insights into some problematic areas in the trainees’ translations, as well as observations related to contrastive aspects of cohesive devices between English and Romanian. A teaching methodology is subsequently derived from the findings in an attempt to offer a more comprehensive approach to the pedagogy of translating cohesive devices with stylistic load.

scholarly journals A Systemic Functional Linguistic Analysis of Cohesion and The Writing Quality of Saudi Female EFL Undergraduate Students

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Khawater Fahad Alshalan
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Writing Assessment ◽  
Writing Quality ◽  
Lexical Cohesion ◽  
Cohesive Devices ◽  
Systemic Functional Linguistic ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
Qualitative Data Analysis Software ◽  
Writing Scores

This study aims to investigate how frequently Halliday and Hasan’s (1976) cohesive devices were used as well as their relationship with the writing quality of 100 Saudi EFL undergraduate students in Al Imam Muhammed Ibn Saud Islamic University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. It uses a mixed method approach, where the students’ essays were analyzed using systemic functional linguistics (SFL) in terms of the textual meta-function of cohesive devices. The five types of the cohesive devices are the following: lexical cohesion, reference, conjunction, substitutions, and ellipses. Moreover, each of their subcategories were analyzed in the students’ texts. The NVivo qualitative data analysis software and the corpus analysis (conducted using AntConc) were used to calculate the frequencies of each cohesive device found in the data. The IELTS writing assessment scale was also used to evaluate the students’ writing scores. The results show that the most frequently used device was lexical cohesion, specifically repetition. Saudi EFL undergraduate students tended to repeatedly stay focused on the central idea of the topic. Furthermore, Pearson’s correlation coefficient found a relationship between the students’ writing scores and length of their essays, the use of cohesive ties and the scores, and cohesive ties and the length of the students’ essays. This study recommends that EFL teachers provide Saudi EFL students several cohesive tools in order to help them improve their writing skills and connect their ideas smoothly.

scholarly journals The Effect of Using Conjunction as Cohesive Device on the Undergraduates’ Quality of Writing in Argumentative Essays of Jordanian EFL Learners

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rawhi Yousef Salman Al Shamalat ◽  
Che An Binti Abdul Ghani
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
English Language ◽  
Mixed Method Research ◽  
Writing Quality ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Cohesive Devices ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
Argumentative Essays ◽  
Mu'tah University

The goal of this research was to investigate the effect of use conjunctions on the overall quality of argumentative writing of Jordanian English as foreign language (EFL) learners. This mixed-method research included sixty (n=60) undergraduate students at the Department. of English Language and Literature at Mu’tah University in Jordan. The participants of the research were selected using purposive sampling method. The data of the research were collected using written essays and interviews. The data was analyzed using SPSS. The data was collected using analytical scale Jacob et al., (1981) to measure the quality of argumentative essays. The result of this research showed that there was a weak negative but irrelevant correlation between writing quality and the frequency of conjunctions as cohesive devices. This correlation indicates that the frequent and general use of devices in the writing of Jordanian students did not contribute to the quality of the writing under any conditions. Also the finding revealed that there is an extremely negative but irrelevant correlation between the use of conjunctions devices by Jordanian EFL students and their writing quality. Therefore, the correlation was negative and insignificant for Jordanian EFL students. More specifically, the result shows that the frequencies of conjunctions were not found as an indicator of good writing quality for Jordanian EFL students. This research is significant for providing a considerable number of pedagogical implications for further research that will offer great contribution to the field of teaching writing in EFL setting in Jordan in particular and English as second language (ESL) context in general. Moreover, the research has shown a better understanding of cohesive devices / conjunctions by Jordanian EFL students at Mu’tah University.

scholarly journals Cohesive Devices and Academic Writing Quality of Thai Undergraduate Students

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 994 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natthapong Chanyoo
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Writing Assessment ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Writing Quality ◽  
Cohesive Devices ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Writing Scores ◽  
Junior Students

The current study aims to investigate (1) common cohesive devices used in the writing development of Thai undergraduate students majoring in English, (2) the frequency of cohesive devices used in the writing of Thai undergraduate students majoring in English, and (3) the relationship between the number and types of cohesive devices and the quality of the writing as rated by writing experts. Thirty junior students majoring in English contributed thirty academic essays as sample texts in the study, with a total number of 16,856 words. Halliday & Hasan’s (1976) taxonomy of cohesion was used as an analytical framework of cohesive devices, while a writing assessment rubric developed by Hogue & Oshima (2007) was used to determine students’ writing quality. His findings revealed four types of cohesive devices frequently used by Thai undergraduate students including reiteration, reference, conjunction, and ellipsis. A one-way ANOVA revealed significant difference numbers of cohesive devices used in the students’ writing. In addition, students’ writing scores positively correlated with the total number of words used in the writing task, the total number of cohesive devices used, and the number of references.

scholarly journals THE ROLE OF GRAMMATICAL COHESION IN THE TEXT QUALITY AMONG JORDANIAN EFL STUDENTS IN EXPOSITORY ESSAYS

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (42) ◽  
pp. 299-306
Author(s):  
Khaled Salem Ahmad Amayreh ◽  
Ahmad Taufik Hidayah Abdullah
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
English Language ◽  
Writing Quality ◽  
Text Quality ◽  
Cohesive Devices ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
Written Compositions ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Expository Essays

The present paper shares interest that many scholars and linguists have highlighted in investigating the relationship between writing quality and grammatical cohesion devices. The aim of this study is to find out the relationship between the use of grammatical cohesive devices on the overall quality of expository essays produced by EFL fourth-year undergraduate students majoring in the English language at the Department of English language and literature Hashemite University in Jordan. It seeks to determine the efficacy of academic writing by Jordanian EFL students. Thirty purposive samples of compositions were collected and analyzed by the researcher to measure the relationship between the score of the writing quality and the grammatical cohesion devices in students' writing based on (1) analytical scale Jacob et al., (1981), and (2) Halliday and Hasan (1976) taxonomy of grammatical cohesion. The results showed that grammatical cohesive devices did not constitute a statistically significant correlation with the score of writing quality. It also revealed that the EFL students' written compositions were not successful due to their incapability to utilize the different forms of grammatical cohesive devices and their lack of knowledge about effectively using these devices in their academic writing.

scholarly journals Lexical standards for expository writing at Grade 3:The transition from early literacy to academic literacy

2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 123
Author(s):  
Hetty Roessingh ◽  
Scott Douglas ◽  
Brock Wojtalewicz
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Early Literacy ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Sampling Strategy ◽  
Learning Needs ◽  
Writing Quality ◽  
Learner Corpus ◽  
Grade 3 ◽  
Expository Prose ◽  
Quota Sampling

This article reports on an investigation of vocabulary thresholds across four standards of writing quality for grade 3 children. An expository prompt was used to elicit first draft writing from 222 students. A quota sampling strategy was used to create a learner corpus of 80 papers. Online lexical profiling tools were used to generate indices of lexical richness. Distinct differences in vocabulary use were noted between quality standards, in particular the ability to access low frequency words among the samples judged of excellent quality. Pedagogical implications emerge for classroom practitioners to address the language learning needs of linguistically vulnerable youngsters.Key words: expository prose, writing, transitional literacy, vocabulary profiling        

scholarly journals The Usage of Cohesive Devices by High-Achieving EFL Students in Writing Argumentative Essays

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-58
Author(s):  
Andri Saputra ◽  
M. Arif Rahman Hakim
Keyword(s):  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Writing Quality ◽  
Lexical Diversity ◽  
Cohesive Devices ◽  
Determining Factors ◽  
Good Writing ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
High Achieving ◽  
Argumentative Essays

This study aims to investigate types of cohesive devices frequently used in writing argumentative essays by high-achieving college students in Indonesia and to analyse their awareness of usage of these. Participants were asked to write an essay on a pre-determined topic; analysis was then conducted to investigate the most frequent cohesive devices used. Data on the second study question, understanding of the usage of cohesive devices, were gathered though semi-structured interviews. The data indicate that students effectively used various types of grammatical cohesive devices, particularly reference devices. However, some claimed not to know that they were using other cohesive devices. They believed that conjunctions were the only type that functions to connect ideas across sentences and paragraphs, and did not realise that this, that, the, and other reference devices are cohesive devices. In terms of the use of lexical cohesive devices, participants used synonyms more than other sub-types of lexical cohesive devices. The most frequently used device was the, which functions both as a cohesive device and an article. All participants agreed that though links or cohesive devices are necessary to achieve coherence, two claimed that these are not determining factors in producing good writing quality. They argued that high-quality writing needs to contain linguistic features related to sophisticated language and text difficulty. The first suggestion is that focused programs should be adopted to teach the writing of argumentative essays to help lower-achieving students attain the same writing level as high-achieving students. Second, a teaching programme integrating the use of sophisticated grammar, lexical diversity and cohesive devices should be a curriculum priority. 

scholarly journals Discourse Analysis of Cohesive Devices in Saudi Student’s Writing

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 516
Author(s):  
Norah Dhawi Almutairi
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Writing Quality ◽  
Lexical Cohesion ◽  
Cohesive Devices

<p><em>This paper attempts to analyze a piece of writing written by Saudi student in public schools which is problematic in terms of cohesion. The analysis is based upon the work of Halliday and Hasan (1976) and others such as Hoey (1991). The cohesive devices are defined, described and a framework of analysis is developed to investigate the writing with attention to grammatical and lexical cohesion. The student’s writing quality is then judged according to the problems showcased by lack of cohesion. Instructors’ role is perceived in dealing with cohesion in students’ writing.</em><em></em></p>

Chinese learners’ use of concessive connectors in English argumentative writing

2020 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-123
Author(s):  
Chan-Chia Hsu ◽  
Richard Hill Davis ◽  
Yu-Chi Wang
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Argumentative Writing ◽  
L1 Transfer ◽  
Learner Corpus ◽  
Cohesive Devices ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Chinese Learners ◽  
Language Writing ◽  
Argumentative Essays

Abstract A learner corpus, i.e., a principled collection of contextualized texts produced by second language learners, can be of invaluable help in identifying learners’ needs. Previous learner corpus research has indicated that an area for improvement in second language writing is learners’ use of logical connectors as cohesive devices. While most previous studies have been general surveys that examined a wide range of English connectors, the present one is a more focused investigation, probing into Chinese-speaking learners’ use of concessive connectors. The data is taken from a self-constructed corpus of argumentative essays written by Taiwanese freshmen, who were placed into four proficiency levels. Common errors, including orthographical, syntactic, and semantic ones, were identified and categorized. The frequency distribution of the attested concessive connectors reveals Chinese learners’ development in their use of individual connectors. Difficulties may be attributed to the linguistic complexity of concessive connectors in English and L1 transfer. Moreover, previously identified lexico-syntactic characteristics in learners’ use of English connectors were reconfirmed by our corpus data. More importantly, the pragmatic function of concessive connectors in Chinese learners’ argumentative writing is also addressed. The findings have important pedagogical implications. Pragmatics is an area in need of further attention in learner corpus research, and we have gone some way toward enhancing our understanding of that area.

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