Cohesion and textual coherence in students’ essays in Colleges of Education in Ghana: A case study
Main Article Content
Abstract
The challenges that confront ESL students in their use of cohesive devices are pervasive. The study employed the sequential exploratory mixed research approach data collecting tool. The research employed the use of questionnaires to collect factual data from the tutors. Also, semi-structured interviews and observation were used as data collection tools. The target population of the study comprised 120 level 200 students of EPCE, Bimbilla. Sixty essays were analyzed using Halliday and Hasan's (1976) cohesion model and augmented with an observation of sub-categories of the devices. The findings of this study showed that the causes of the problems were intralingual limitations, interlingual sources, interference, and developmental errors. Based on the findings, the study suggests that the problems could be minimized with the use of awareness creation strategies, coupled with assistive devices, embedded teaching, and tutors adhering to students' errors and providing comprehensive feedback to them.
Downloads
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
How to Cite
References
Ahmed, A. H. (2010). Students’ problems with cohesion and coherence in EFL essay writing in Egypt: Different perspectives. Literacy Information and Computer Education Journal (LICEJ), 1(4), 211-221.
Akindele, J. (2011). Cohesive Devices in Selected ESL Academic Papers. African Nebula, 1(3).
Almaden, D. O. (2006). An analysis of the topical structure of paragraphs written by Filipino students. The Asia-Pacific Education Research, 15(1), 127-153
Best, J. W., & Kahn, J. V. (2006). Research in education, 10th. New Delhi: PHI Learning Private Ltd.
Carrell, P. L. (1992). Awareness of text structure: Effects on recall. Language learning, 42(1), 1-18.
Creswell, J. W. (2014). A concise introduction to mixed methods research. SAGE publications
Crossley, S. A., Roscoe, R., & McNamara, D. S. (2014). What is successful writing? An investigation into the multiple ways writers can write successful essays. Written Communication, 31(2), 184-214.
Halliday, M. A. K., & Hasan, R. (2013). Cohesion in English. Abingdon.
Hesse-Biber, S. N., & Leavy, P. (2010). The practice of qualitative research. Sage.
Hinkel, E. (2001). Matters of cohesion in L2 academic texts. Applied language learning, 12(2), 111-132.
Jafarpur, A. (1991). Cohesiveness as a basis for evaluating compositions. System, 19(4), 459-465.
Kyle, K., & McNamara, D. S. (2016). The tool for the automatic analysis of text cohesion (TAACO): Automatic assessment of local, global, and text cohesion. Behavior research methods, 48(4), 1227-1237.
Leki, I., Cumming, A., & Silva, T. (2008). Composing processes. A synthesis of research on second language writing in English, 118-138.
Liu, M., & Braine, G. (2005). Cohesive features in argumentative writing produced by Chinese undergraduates. System, 33(4), 623-636.
Malah, Z., Tan, H., & Rashid, S. M. (2016). Evaluating lexical cohesion in Nigerian newspaper genres: Focus on the editorials. International Journal of Applied Linguistics and English Literature, 6(1), 240-256.
Paltridge, B. (2004). Academic writing. Language teaching, 37(2), 87.
Pathan, H. (2012). Coherence and the Role of Cohesion in Coherent Texts. Language In India, 12(5).
Richards, J. C. (1976). The role of vocabulary teaching. TESOL quarterly, 77-89.
Uba, S. Y., & Souidi, N. M. (2020). Students' Writing Difficulties in English for Business Classes in Dhofar University, Oman. International Journal of Higher Education, 9(3), 86-97.
Yang, W., & Sun, Y. (2012). The use of cohesive devices in argumentative writing by Chinese EFL learners at different proficiency levels. Linguistics and education, 23(1), 31-48.
Zhang, (2000). Cohesive features in the expository writing of undergraduates in two Chinese universities. RELC journal, 31(1), 61-95.