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Dedication
First of all, my thanks go to ALLAH the lord of the world.
Words are not enough to express my immense thankful to my parent for their
encouragement and devotion.
To my brothers Mohammed, Abdelhakim,Abdelhak, Azzeddine and Hocine,
To my sisters Soumia and Faiza,
To my nieces Khawla, Hadjar, Asmaa and my nephew Fayçal,
To my partner Kheira,
To all those I know and love, but those names have not mentioned.
Amina
Dedication
First of all, I thank ‘‘ALLAH’’ the lord of the world who grants me his
guidness and help me to acheive my aim to accomplish my extended essay.
I dedicate this work to whom I owe everything, to my parents, the two
candles of my life, who help and encourage me a lot to succeed in my studies
from school to university.
With a great happiness and gratitude, I dedicate it to my lovely sisters
Amel, Fatima Zohra and Bahidja.
To my dearest brothers Sidi Mohammed, Hichem and Ahmed.
To my future husband Belkacem.
To my sweety nieces Amina, Zineb, Asmaa, Fadila, Bouchra, Kawtar
and my nephews Youcef, Ibrahim and Oussama.
To my dear partner Amina.
Finally, I would like to dedicate it to my family and all those I know
and love but I have not mentioned their names.
Kheira
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Abstract
Among the four English language skills, writing is considered to be the most difficult and complex one. Although, great efforts are done to improve this important and productive skill, Algerian English language students seem still facing many difficulties in the writing tasks. The present work attempts to investigate these problems that our English learners may often encounter, mainly those of cohesion and coherence at the university level. This case study was based on the analysis of essays written by third-year “Civilization and Literature” students, in addition to a questionnaire directed to the same sample population. The main findings of this study revealed that English learners have problems with the different aspects of the two main discourse features stated before. At the level of cohesion they were of “ellipsis” and “substitution”, while at the level of coherence learners had problems of creating the unity of ideas, specially at the essay level.
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List of Abbreviations
EFL: English as a Foreign Language.
L1: First Language.
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Table of Contents
Dedication.......................................................................................................... i
Dedication......................................................................................................... ii
Acknowledgements ........................................................................................... i
Abstract ............................................................................................................ ii
List of Abbreviations ...................................................................................... iii
List of Tables................................................................................................... iv
List of Pie-Charts and Bar-Graphs ............................................................. vii
Table of Contents ......................................................................................... viii
General Introduction ...................................................................................... 1
Chapter one: Theoretical Concepts .............................................................. 3
1.1. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................... 5
1.2. WRITING DEFINED .............................................................................. 5
1.3. The WRITING as a PROCESS .............................................................. 6
1.4. WRITING DIFFICULTIES.................................................................... 8
1.4.1. Discourse Level ................................................................................................. 9
1.4.1.1. Coherence ....................................................................................................... 9
1.4.1.2. Cohesion ....................................................................................................... 10
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General Introduction
1
General Introduction
Since the publication of cohesion in English in 1976 by Halliday and Hasan, textual cohesion and coherence have been important notions in text analysis, and have aroused great interest of different scholars all over the world. But unfortunately, its application in Algeria is by far not satisfactory, especially in EFL writing.
Students writing in an EFL classroom context should show their awareness of their own communicative goals, of the reader, and of the writing context, through producing acceptable academic essays where sentences and ideas must be connected one to another using cohesive devices, and coherence to create unity of the text context.
But writing cohesively and coherently is a major challenge, specially at the essay level for many EFL students at Tlemcen University.
For this purpose, a general research question in addition to three sub- questions are asked to reach the objectives of this study:
- Do our EFL students have difficulties with cohesion and coherence in essay writing?
*How may writing strategies help our EFL students overcome their difficulties with cohesion and coherence?
These questions lead to suppose the following hypotheses:
- Cohesion and coherence are the main common difficulties that our students encounter in EFL essay writing.
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Chapter One
Theoretical Concepts
- Table 1.1: Common marks of punctuation ……………………………………… List of Tables
- Table 1. 2 :Example of Linguistic Relations and Common Use...............................
- Table2.1: Students‟ Use of Reference………………………...………………......
- Table2.2: Students‟ Use of Substitution………………………..………...……....
- Table 2.3: Students‟ Use of Ellipsis…………………………………….…….......
- Table 2.4: Students‟ Use of Lexical Cohesion………………………….……......
- Table2.5:Students‟Use of Conjunctions………………………………..…….....
- Table 2.6:Students‟Use of Coherence………………………………..………….
- Table 2.7: Students‟ Attitudes towards Writing in English...................................
- performing the Writing Skill................................................................................. Table2.8: Students „Performance of the Writing Skill/ Students‟ Difficulty in
- Table2.9: Students‟ Ability to Write Correct Paragraphs in English...................
- Interest............... Table 2.10: Students‟ Ability of Finding Appropriate Words on a Topic of
- Table 2.11: Students‟ Ability to Use Appropriate Vocabulary...........................
- Table 2.12: Students‟ Ability to Use Appropriate Spelling
- Table2.13: Students‟ Ability to Use Appropriate Punctuation..........................
- Table2.14: Students‟ Edition to Improve Grammar and Punctuation........... v
- Table2.15: Students‟ Edition to Correct Spelling Mistakes...........................
- Table2.16: Students‟ Respect of the Appropriate Essay Structure..............
- Table 2.17: Students‟ Use of Conjunctions...................................................
- Table2.18: Putting a Plan before Starting to write........................................
- Table 2.19: Students‟ Ability to brainstorm Ideas Effectively.....................
- Table2.20: Students‟ Use of Draft before Writing the Final Draft..............
- Table2.21: Students‟ Ability to Organize Ideas Logically..........................
- Table2.22: Students‟ Connection of Sentences in a Paragraph...................
- Table2. 23: Students‟ Revision of the Final Product..................................
- Table2. 24: Rereading the Essay While and After Writing........................
- Pie-chart2.1:Students‟Use of Reference…………………………………………... List of Pie-Charts and Bar-Graphs
- Pie-chart 2.2: Students‟ Use of Substitution…………………….…………....……
- Pie-chart 2.3: Students‟ Use of Ellipsis………………………….………………...
- Pie-chart 2.4: Students‟ Use of Lexical cohesion……………….……………...….
- Pie-chart 2. 5: Students‟ Use of Conjunctions……………………………………..
- Pie-chart 2.6: Students‟ Use of Coherence……………………….…………….….
- Bar-graph 2.1: Students‟ Attitudes towards Writing in English...............................
- Bar-graph 2.2: Students‟ Performance of the Writing Skill......................................
- Bar-graph2.3: Students‟ Ability to Write Correct Paragraphs in English................
- Interest....................................................................................................................... Bar-graph 2.4: Students‟ Ability of Finding Appropriate Words on a Topic of
- Bar-graph 2.5: Students‟ Ability to Use Appropriate Vocabulary............................
- Bar-graph2.6: Students‟ Ability to Use Appropriate Spelling................................
- Bar-graph.2.7: Students‟ Ability to Use Appropriate Punctuation...........................
- Bar-graph2.8: Students‟ Edition to Improve Grammar and Punctuation................
- Bar-graph2.9: Students‟ Edition to Correct Spelling Mistakes.................................
- Bar-graph2.10: Students‟ Respect of the Appropriate Essay Structure....................
- Bar-graph 2.11: Students‟ Use of Conjunctions....................................................... vii
- Bar-graph 2.12: Putting a Plan before Starting to write...........................................
- Bar-graph2.13: Students‟ Ability to brainstorm Ideas Effectively..........................
- Bar-graph 2.14: Students‟ Use of Draft before Writing the Final Draft.................
- Bar-graph 2.15: Students‟ Ability to Organize Ideas Logically.............................
- Bar-graph2.16: Students‟ Connection of Sentences in a Paragraph.......................
- Bar-graph 2.17: Students‟ Revision of the Final Product.......................................
- Bar-graph2.18: Rereading the Essay While and After Writing..............................
- 1.4.1.3. The Relationship between Cohesion and Coherence
- 1.4.2. Sentence Level
- 1.4.2.1. Punctuation
- 1.4.2.2. Spelling
- 1.4.2.3. Handwriting
- 1.4.3. Language Structure Control
- 1.4.3.1. Grammatical knowledge
- 1.4.3.2. Lexical knowledge........................................................................................
- 1.5. WRITING STRATEGIES.....................................................................
- 1.5.1. The Pre-writing Stage
- 1.5.2. The Drafting Stage
- 1.5.3. The Revising Stage
- 1.5.4. The Editing Stage
- 1.6. Conclusion
- Chapter two: Research Method and Data Analysis...................................
- 2.1. Introduction
- 2.2. The Participants
- 2.3. Research Instrument and Data Collection
- 2.3.1. Students‟ Exam Papers………………………………………………...…….
- 2.3.2. Students‟ Questionnaire…………………………………………………….
- 2.4. Data analyses………………………………………………………………. x
- 2.4.1. Exam Papers Analysis……………………………………………………..
- 2.4.1.1.Using Reference:…………………………………………………………
- 2.4.1.2. Using Substitution:……………………………………………...……...
- 2.4.1.3. Using Ellipsis:…………………………………………………………..
- 2.4.1.4. Using lexical Cohesion:…………………………………………… …..
- 2.4.1.5. Using Conjunctions:…………………………………………………....
- 2.4.1.6. Coherence: ………………………………………………………….....
- 2.4.2. Students‟ Questionnaire Analysis……………………………………….
- 2.5. Conclusion:………………………………………………………………..
- Chapter Three : Suggestions and Recommendations……………………….
- 3.1. Introduction……………………………………………………………….
- 3.2. Strategies to Improve the Writing Skill……………………………...….
- 3.2.1. Using Various Writing Activities ………………………………………
- 3.2.2. Ordering Sentences…………………………………………………......
- 3.2.3. Creating Cohesion………………………………………………………..
- 3.2.4. Ellipsis and Substitution …………………………………………….......
- 3.3.Activities to Produce Coherent Writing…………………………………
- 3.3.1. Filling the Gaps………………………………………………………….5
- 3.3.2. Writing Letters, Stories and Reports…………………………………….
- 3.3.3. Transformation or Rewriting……………………………………………
- 3.3.4. Reading………………………………………………………………….
- 3.4. The Effective Use of Writing Strategies………………………….……
- 3.5. Teaching Cohesion and Coherence……………………………………. xi
- 3.6.Conclusion……………………………………………………….….……
- General Conclusion…………………………………………………...
- Bibliography…………………………………………………………..
- Appendices……………………………………………………………
- Appendix A ………………………………………………………………..…
- Appendix B… ……………………………………………………………….
- 1.1. INTRODUCTION Chapter One: Theoretical Concepts
- 1.2. WRITING DEFINED
- 1.3. The WRITING as a PROCESS
- 1.4. WRITING DIFFICULTIES
- 1.4.1. Discourse Level
- 1.4.1.1. Coherence
- 1.4.1.2. Cohesion
- 1.4.1.3. The Relationship between Cohesion and Coherence
- 1.4.2. Sentence Level
- 1.4.2.1. Punctuation
- 1.4.2.2. Spelling
- 1.4.2.3. Handwriting
- 1.4.3.1. Grammatical knowledge
- 1.4.3.2. Lexical knowledge.......................................................................................
- 1.5. WRITING STRATEGIES
- 1.5.1. The Pre-writing Stage
- 1.5.2. The Drafting Stage
- 1.5.3. The Revising Stage
- 1.5.4. The Editing Stage
- 1.6. Conclusion
Chapter One Theoretical Concepts
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Jim A.P (2010:2) explains that writing skill is complex and difficult to learn. Requiring mastery is not only grammatical patterns but also the rule of writing such as high degree of organization in the development of ideas and information and also choosing the appropriate vocabularies and sentence structure to create a style which is appropriate to subject matter.Therefore the write conclude that Writing is making a hand writing where the one who write gives a form for everything what he or she thinks and whatever he or she feels. A writer has to be able in using written language to give an idea or message.
According to Heaton (1975:138), there are four skills necessary for writing.
They are:
a. Grammatical skill : The ability to write correct sentences.
b. Stylistic skill : The ability to manipulate sentence and use language effectively.
c. Mechanical skill : The ability to use correctly those conversations peculiar to
the written language e.g. punctuation, and spelling
d. Judgment skill : The ability to write in an appropriate manner for a particular purpose with on ability to select, organize and relevant information.
Finally, one may denote that writing is a very important skill that all EFL students should master in order to produce effective and sufficient pieces of work.
1.3. WRITING as a PROCESS
Recently writing as a process has gained much more attention as it has been related to the thinking process and focuses on how to create and join ideas.
The writing process is described as „„a road map‟‟ which allows students to express their ideas and thoughts in meaningful piece of writing „„from the beginning of writing‟‟ untill the final product. However, this map is considered as a guide that gives the writer instructions about the best strategies to be followed to produce well structured and effective essays (kavkaytar and Yasar, 2008).
Chapter One Theoretical Concepts
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The process of writing involves at least four distinct steps: pre-writing, drafting, revising and editing to reach the final product. Furthermore, a “Good writing is result of a writing process, a series of steps the writer has taken” (Fawcett and Sandberg, 2004:4).
This process is known as being recursive i.e., while the students are revising, they might have to return to the pre-writing step to develop and expand their ideas (Manchon and Roca De Larios, 2007).
According to Wohl(1985: 2) in almost all kinds of writing the basic structural unit is the paragraph which is basic to all good writing.
Moreover, Wohl (1985: 3) said that there are 3 writing processes:
- Finding the Topic Sentence:
Usually some students find difficulties in recognizing the topic sentence of
paragraph. The topic sentence is usually taken from several things such as: an
experience and from the book and it occurs most frequently at the beginning of a paragraph. When the topic sentence does occur at the end, it serves to summarize the preceding sentence and to conclude the paragraph.
- Developing Paragraph from Topic Sentence:
Some students can write a paragraph without following any formal steps
or using formal techniques such as a topic sentence. Here are some steps to
develop a paragraph according to Wohl (1985:13) :
a. Choose a general topic of interest to you.
b. Narrow down the topic. Select one aspect of the topic and decide what your
main point is.
c. Write down the few facts, believe or opinion that are directly related to your
