Luận văn a study on some discourse features in the reading texts in the vietnamese new english textbook for non english major students with implication for teaching and learning

Chapter 1 discusses the Theoretical Background related to discourse analysis, In this chapter, the researcher will present the basic concept of discourse and discourse analysis, the disc

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND FOREIGN STUDIES

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY:

POST-GRADUATE FACULTY

NGUYEN THI HUONG GIANG

STUDY ON SOME DISCOURSE FEATURES IN THE READING TEXTS

IN THE VIETNAMESE NEW ENLISH TEX TROOK FOR NON-ENGLISH

MAJOR STUDENTS (WITH IMPLICATIONS FOR TEACIIING AND

LEARNING)

Nghiên cứu một số đặc điểm diễn ngôn chính của các bài đọc hiéu trong sách giáo

khaa liễng anh 11 mới đành cho học sinh không chuyên( kèm theo mat sé goi ¥ cho

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND FOREIGN STUDIES

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY:

POST-GRADUATE FACULTY

NGUYEN THI HUONG GIANG

STUDY ON SOME DISCOURSE FEATURES IN THE READING TEXTS

IN THE VIETNAMESE NEW ENLISH TEXTBOOK FOR NON-ENGLISH

MAJOR STUDENTS (WITH IMPLICATIONS FOR TEACIIING AND

LEARNING)

Nghiên cứu một số đặc điểm diễn ngôn chính của các bài đọc hiéu trong sách giáo

khaa liễng anh 11 mới đành cho học sinh không chuyên( kèm theo mat sé gai ¥ cho|

4 Method of the study

5 Organization of the study

Part II: JEVELOPMENT

Chapter 1: Theoretical background

11 Theory of discourse

1.1.1 Definition of discourse

1.1.2 Discaurse versus lext

11.3 Spoken and writin discourse

1.3.1 The concept of cohesion

13.2 Cohesion versus coherence

1.3.3 Main types of cohesion

10

Collecting data, including relevant theories for analysis, Reading texts in the Vietnamese new English 11 textbook for non-English - major students will be collected Relevant theories will be extracted from various linguistics book written by several linguistics, such as; Cook (1989), Hatim and Mason (1990), Swales (1990), Halliday and Hasan (1976), ete, as unavailable in printed books in Vietnam, will be collected from the Intemel sourcas, the addbress of which will bs provided in the lis! of References at the end of this thesis

© Relevant theories will be presented on the ground of several linguists’ view of points

& 16 reading texts in the Victnamesc now English I1 textbook for non-English - major students will be comprehensively investigated for cohesive devices so as to find out the most typical cohesive devices used in written text

& Based on the results of the analysis, some concluding remarks can be generalized and some implication for teaching and learning reading skills can be proposed

5 Organization of the study

‘This rescarch is composed of Urea main parls

Part J, the Introduction, present brietly the rationale, the aims, the scope, and the

methods of the study as well as the organization of the study

Part Ifis the Development, which consist of two chapters

Chapter 1 discusses the Theoretical Background related to discourse analysis, In this chapter, the researcher will present the basic concept of discourse and discourse analysis, the discourse foulures, loxt typos and ils important rols

is alt the reading lsxts

in the chosen textbook is performed in the text fom, as well as the notion of cohesion which mainly focus on

Chapter 2 is devoted to the analysis of Cohesive Devices uscd in lhe reading text in the Vietnamese new English 11 textbook for non-English - major students so as to reveal some typical features And finally, some remarks are discussed to answer the research questions

Part His the Conclusion In this part, a review of the study is presented, together with some implication for teaching and learning, and suggestions for fiuther studies

The shuly is cnded with Appendixes showing Hist of Reading lexts taken into

consideration.

=

purposes (ESP) Therefore, I decided to study on some discourse features in the reading texts in the Vietnamese new English 11 textbook for non-English - major students (because of the limit of time and my knowledge), from the point of view of discourse

analysis, (he researcher only fucus on colwsion devices uscd in the reading texts These

cohesive devices are related to properties that make the text a unified whole They refer

to both tex! characleristics and readers’ interaction with the texl Awareness of echerence

as a quality that make a text conform fo a consistent world picture, to experiences,

culture, and convention and cohesive devices used the linguistics means by which ements of a toxt arc arranged and concern is vital for students of English in improving reading comprehension, Based on my analysis tiom the point of view of cohesive devices, some suggestions are given for improving the effectiveness of teaching reading, skit] and learning reading skill for English teachers and sindents

Aim of the study:

Examining the cohesive devices in the reading texts in the Vietnamese new English 11

lextbook for non-English - major students incudmg grammatical cohesive devicos, lexical cohesive devices and conjunctions, with the aim of working out the typical features of cohesive in reading texts in the Vietnamese new Linglish 11 textbook for non- English - major sludents which to salis{v (he research questions:

Scope of the study:

Foenses of consideration for the investigation of onc of the greatest calegory of the discourse features that is cohesion, used in collected reading texts in a certain textbook: the Vietnamese new English 11 textbook for non-Lnglish - major students

Method of the study:

To reach the final goal of revealing the discourse features of the reading texts in the Vietnamese new English IL Iextbook for non-English - major students, the methods of description, analysis and statistic in linguistics are used in this thesis and are carried out inthe following steps:

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

‘Table 1: 1 Literacy text types

Table 1: 2 Personal reference

Table 1: 3 Demonstrative reference

Table 1: 4

Comparative reference Table 1: 5 Grammatical and lexical cohesion

Figure 2: 1 Analysis of three types of reference in the chosen reading texts Vigure 2: 2 Analysis of four types of conjunction in the chosen reading texts

Figure 2:3 Analysis pf lexical cohesive devives in the chosen reading Lexis

2.5.5 Concluding remarks on lexical cohesive devices:

Part II: Conclusion

1 Major findings and conclusion remarks

2 Implications for teaching and learning English for

non - English- major students at Tram Phu High School

3 Suggestions for further study

1.3.4 Aspects of coherence

1.3.4.1, Topical coherences 1.3.4.2 Logical coherence

Chapter 2: Analysis of main discourse features in the reading text in the

Vietnamese new English 11 textbook for non-English - major students

2.1, Reference

2.1.1 Personal reference 2.1.2, Demonstrative reference 2.1.3 Comparative reference 2.1.4 Concluding remarks on reference 2.2 Substitution:

2.2.1 Nominal substitution 2.2.2, Verbal substitution 2.2.3 Clausal substitution 2.2.4 Concluding remarks on substitution 2.3 Ellipsis:

2.3.1, Nominal ellipsis 2.3.2 Verbal ellipsis 2.3.3, Clausal ellipsis 2.3.4 Concluding remarks on ellipsis 2.4, Conjunction:

2.4.1, Additive 2.4.2, Adversative 2.4.3 Causal

2.4.4, Temporal 2.4.5 Concluding remarks on conjunction 2.5 Lexical ouhesive devices:

2.5.1 Repetition 3.5.2 Synonyms 2.5.3 Super-ordinate anil general word

10

Collecting data, including relevant theories for analysis, Reading texts in the Vietnamese new English 11 textbook for non-English - major students will be collected Relevant theories will be extracted from various linguistics book written by several linguistics, such as; Cook (1989), Hatim and Mason (1990), Swales (1990), Halliday and Hasan (1976), ete, as unavailable in printed books in Vietnam, will be collected from the Intemel sourcas, the addbress of which will bs provided in the lis! of References at the end of this thesis

© Relevant theories will be presented on the ground of several linguists’ view of points

& 16 reading texts in the Victnamesc now English I1 textbook for non-English - major students will be comprehensively investigated for cohesive devices so as to find out the most typical cohesive devices used in written text

& Based on the results of the analysis, some concluding remarks can be generalized and some implication for teaching and learning reading skills can be proposed

5 Organization of the study

‘This rescarch is composed of Urea main parls

Part J, the Introduction, present brietly the rationale, the aims, the scope, and the

methods of the study as well as the organization of the study

Part Ifis the Development, which consist of two chapters

Chapter 1 discusses the Theoretical Background related to discourse analysis, In this chapter, the researcher will present the basic concept of discourse and discourse analysis, the discourse foulures, loxt typos and ils important rols

is alt the reading lsxts

in the chosen textbook is performed in the text fom, as well as the notion of cohesion which mainly focus on

Chapter 2 is devoted to the analysis of Cohesive Devices uscd in lhe reading text in the Vietnamese new English 11 textbook for non-English - major students so as to reveal some typical features And finally, some remarks are discussed to answer the research questions

Part His the Conclusion In this part, a review of the study is presented, together with some implication for teaching and learning, and suggestions for fiuther studies

The shuly is cnded with Appendixes showing Hist of Reading lexts taken into

consideration.

Part INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale:

Nowadays, teachers of languages in Vietnam with the pressnre of professionalization are more aware of the important role of linguistics in their field They spend much time and energy not only keeping up with the field but also doing a lot of research on linguistics in

gonoral and discourse analysis in particular To a teacher of language, it is vital to understand how textbooks are seen in the light of discourse analysis, i.e how language is used in when designing teaching materials or engaging leamers in learning activities aimed at improving their target language proficiency or when evaluating piece of materials before deciding using them

“Discourse feature” is a broad category which covers a variety of oriteria, including both

intraclinguis

s factors and oxtra-Hinguisties clerments, such as cohesive, [home-rhyme

structure, text structure, speech acts, writer’s/ speaker's intensions, background

knowledge, eto Ilalliday and Ilasan (1976:3) claim that: if @ passage of English

containing mora than one sentence perceived as a text, there will he certain linguistics features present in that passage which can be identified as contributing to its total unity

and giving it texture” Yo the researcher, the linguistics features that are of great

imperizneo and inter

these two factors make influential conttibution to defining a genre of discourse

Iligh school English teachers in general and English teachsrs at ‘Iran Phu high school, Vinh Phuc province in particular focus so intensively on their English subject, And they wannly welcome the new set of English textbocks for non-English-major students which based on quits a new approach - communicative approach - is highly appreciated by bath

is arc those of goneri¢ slructure and cohesion duc to the betief thal

teachers and students As a teacher of English here, I am deeply aware of challenges in dealing with the interest but demanding subject of English | also realize some obstacles that needs in solving the teaching and learning process of this subject Most of my sludents face up with the difficulties in reading and decply undarstanding the reading texts in the textbook These difficulties surely will hinder the effectiveness and improvement of students’ study Further more, though there are many researchers who have been paying mach attention and doing rescarches on cohesive devices uscd in the textbooks not for high school students but for those who leam English with special

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

‘Table 1: 1 Literacy text types

Table 1: 2 Personal reference

Table 1: 3 Demonstrative reference

Table 1: 4

Comparative reference Table 1: 5 Grammatical and lexical cohesion

Figure 2: 1 Analysis of three types of reference in the chosen reading texts Vigure 2: 2 Analysis of four types of conjunction in the chosen reading texts

Figure 2:3 Analysis pf lexical cohesive devives in the chosen reading Lexis

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

‘Table 1: 1 Literacy text types

Table 1: 2 Personal reference

Table 1: 3 Demonstrative reference

Table 1: 4

Comparative reference Table 1: 5 Grammatical and lexical cohesion

Figure 2: 1 Analysis of three types of reference in the chosen reading texts Vigure 2: 2 Analysis of four types of conjunction in the chosen reading texts

Figure 2:3 Analysis pf lexical cohesive devives in the chosen reading Lexis

=

purposes (ESP) Therefore, I decided to study on some discourse features in the reading texts in the Vietnamese new English 11 textbook for non-English - major students (because of the limit of time and my knowledge), from the point of view of discourse

analysis, (he researcher only fucus on colwsion devices uscd in the reading texts These

cohesive devices are related to properties that make the text a unified whole They refer

to both tex! characleristics and readers’ interaction with the texl Awareness of echerence

as a quality that make a text conform fo a consistent world picture, to experiences,

culture, and convention and cohesive devices used the linguistics means by which ements of a toxt arc arranged and concern is vital for students of English in improving reading comprehension, Based on my analysis tiom the point of view of cohesive devices, some suggestions are given for improving the effectiveness of teaching reading, skit] and learning reading skill for English teachers and sindents

Aim of the study:

Examining the cohesive devices in the reading texts in the Vietnamese new English 11

lextbook for non-English - major students incudmg grammatical cohesive devicos, lexical cohesive devices and conjunctions, with the aim of working out the typical features of cohesive in reading texts in the Vietnamese new Linglish 11 textbook for non- English - major sludents which to salis{v (he research questions:

Scope of the study:

Foenses of consideration for the investigation of onc of the greatest calegory of the discourse features that is cohesion, used in collected reading texts in a certain textbook: the Vietnamese new English 11 textbook for non-Lnglish - major students

Method of the study:

To reach the final goal of revealing the discourse features of the reading texts in the Vietnamese new English IL Iextbook for non-English - major students, the methods of description, analysis and statistic in linguistics are used in this thesis and are carried out inthe following steps:

=

purposes (ESP) Therefore, I decided to study on some discourse features in the reading texts in the Vietnamese new English 11 textbook for non-English - major students (because of the limit of time and my knowledge), from the point of view of discourse

analysis, (he researcher only fucus on colwsion devices uscd in the reading texts These

cohesive devices are related to properties that make the text a unified whole They refer

to both tex! characleristics and readers’ interaction with the texl Awareness of echerence

as a quality that make a text conform fo a consistent world picture, to experiences,

culture, and convention and cohesive devices used the linguistics means by which ements of a toxt arc arranged and concern is vital for students of English in improving reading comprehension, Based on my analysis tiom the point of view of cohesive devices, some suggestions are given for improving the effectiveness of teaching reading, skit] and learning reading skill for English teachers and sindents

Aim of the study:

Examining the cohesive devices in the reading texts in the Vietnamese new English 11

lextbook for non-English - major students incudmg grammatical cohesive devicos, lexical cohesive devices and conjunctions, with the aim of working out the typical features of cohesive in reading texts in the Vietnamese new Linglish 11 textbook for non- English - major sludents which to salis{v (he research questions:

Scope of the study:

Foenses of consideration for the investigation of onc of the greatest calegory of the discourse features that is cohesion, used in collected reading texts in a certain textbook: the Vietnamese new English 11 textbook for non-Lnglish - major students

Method of the study:

To reach the final goal of revealing the discourse features of the reading texts in the Vietnamese new English IL Iextbook for non-English - major students, the methods of description, analysis and statistic in linguistics are used in this thesis and are carried out inthe following steps:

1.3.4 Aspects of coherence

1.3.4.1, Topical coherences 1.3.4.2 Logical coherence

Chapter 2: Analysis of main discourse features in the reading text in the

Vietnamese new English 11 textbook for non-English - major students

2.1, Reference

2.1.1 Personal reference 2.1.2, Demonstrative reference 2.1.3 Comparative reference 2.1.4 Concluding remarks on reference 2.2 Substitution:

2.2.1 Nominal substitution 2.2.2, Verbal substitution 2.2.3 Clausal substitution 2.2.4 Concluding remarks on substitution 2.3 Ellipsis:

2.3.1, Nominal ellipsis 2.3.2 Verbal ellipsis 2.3.3, Clausal ellipsis 2.3.4 Concluding remarks on ellipsis 2.4, Conjunction:

2.4.1, Additive 2.4.2, Adversative 2.4.3 Causal

2.4.4, Temporal 2.4.5 Concluding remarks on conjunction 2.5 Lexical ouhesive devices:

2.5.1 Repetition 3.5.2 Synonyms 2.5.3 Super-ordinate anil general word

11

Part II: DEVERLOPMENT Chapter I: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.1 Theory af discourse

Cook (1989: 156) shares the same idea with Crystal in stating that discourse is “stretches

of language porceived lo be meaningful, unified and pumpuseful” In his point of view, discourse may be composed of one or more well-formed grammatical sentences and

indeed it often is — but it does not have to be There can be some grammatical mistakes in

a discourse, which do not affect the overatt struciins and meaning of the discourse Discourse treats the rules of grammar as a resource, conforming to them when it needs to, but departing fom them when it does not Discourse can be anything from a canversation

to a gical novel or a longth legel caso Cook aso argues thal “Whal’ matters is not its conformity to rules, but the fact that it commrunicates and is recognized by its receivers as coherent” discourse is supposed to be meaningful and thus used to communicate with one person int a way that anoltier person docs not have the necessary knowledge to make sense of,

Halliday & Hasan define discourse as follow: “We can define text (disconrse) in the simplest way perhaps, by saying that it is language that is functional By functional, we simply mean language that is doing the same job in some context as opposed to isolated words or sentences that { might put on the blackboard (hese might also be functional of course, if Twas using them as linguistic cxamples) So any instanea of living language that is playing some part in a context of situation, we shall call a text It may be either spoken ot written or indeed in any other medium of expression that we like to think of”

We can understand from Halliday & Hasan’s perspective on discourse is that discourse is

a unit of meaning and is functional It is functional in the sense that it occurs in a context

Part INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale:

Nowadays, teachers of languages in Vietnam with the pressnre of professionalization are more aware of the important role of linguistics in their field They spend much time and energy not only keeping up with the field but also doing a lot of research on linguistics in

gonoral and discourse analysis in particular To a teacher of language, it is vital to understand how textbooks are seen in the light of discourse analysis, i.e how language is used in when designing teaching materials or engaging leamers in learning activities aimed at improving their target language proficiency or when evaluating piece of materials before deciding using them

“Discourse feature” is a broad category which covers a variety of oriteria, including both

intraclinguis

s factors and oxtra-Hinguisties clerments, such as cohesive, [home-rhyme

structure, text structure, speech acts, writer’s/ speaker's intensions, background

knowledge, eto Ilalliday and Ilasan (1976:3) claim that: if @ passage of English

containing mora than one sentence perceived as a text, there will he certain linguistics features present in that passage which can be identified as contributing to its total unity

and giving it texture” Yo the researcher, the linguistics features that are of great

imperizneo and inter

these two factors make influential conttibution to defining a genre of discourse

Iligh school English teachers in general and English teachsrs at ‘Iran Phu high school, Vinh Phuc province in particular focus so intensively on their English subject, And they wannly welcome the new set of English textbocks for non-English-major students which based on quits a new approach - communicative approach - is highly appreciated by bath

is arc those of goneri¢ slructure and cohesion duc to the betief thal

teachers and students As a teacher of English here, I am deeply aware of challenges in dealing with the interest but demanding subject of English | also realize some obstacles that needs in solving the teaching and learning process of this subject Most of my sludents face up with the difficulties in reading and decply undarstanding the reading texts in the textbook These difficulties surely will hinder the effectiveness and improvement of students’ study Further more, though there are many researchers who have been paying mach attention and doing rescarches on cohesive devices uscd in the textbooks not for high school students but for those who leam English with special

11

Part II: DEVERLOPMENT Chapter I: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.1 Theory af discourse

Cook (1989: 156) shares the same idea with Crystal in stating that discourse is “stretches

of language porceived lo be meaningful, unified and pumpuseful” In his point of view, discourse may be composed of one or more well-formed grammatical sentences and

indeed it often is — but it does not have to be There can be some grammatical mistakes in

a discourse, which do not affect the overatt struciins and meaning of the discourse Discourse treats the rules of grammar as a resource, conforming to them when it needs to, but departing fom them when it does not Discourse can be anything from a canversation

to a gical novel or a longth legel caso Cook aso argues thal “Whal’ matters is not its conformity to rules, but the fact that it commrunicates and is recognized by its receivers as coherent” discourse is supposed to be meaningful and thus used to communicate with one person int a way that anoltier person docs not have the necessary knowledge to make sense of,

Halliday & Hasan define discourse as follow: “We can define text (disconrse) in the simplest way perhaps, by saying that it is language that is functional By functional, we simply mean language that is doing the same job in some context as opposed to isolated words or sentences that { might put on the blackboard (hese might also be functional of course, if Twas using them as linguistic cxamples) So any instanea of living language that is playing some part in a context of situation, we shall call a text It may be either spoken ot written or indeed in any other medium of expression that we like to think of”

We can understand from Halliday & Hasan’s perspective on discourse is that discourse is

a unit of meaning and is functional It is functional in the sense that it occurs in a context

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

‘Table 1: 1 Literacy text types

Table 1: 2 Personal reference

Table 1: 3 Demonstrative reference

Table 1: 4

Comparative reference Table 1: 5 Grammatical and lexical cohesion

Figure 2: 1 Analysis of three types of reference in the chosen reading texts Vigure 2: 2 Analysis of four types of conjunction in the chosen reading texts

Figure 2:3 Analysis pf lexical cohesive devives in the chosen reading Lexis

10

Collecting data, including relevant theories for analysis, Reading texts in the Vietnamese new English 11 textbook for non-English - major students will be collected Relevant theories will be extracted from various linguistics book written by several linguistics, such as; Cook (1989), Hatim and Mason (1990), Swales (1990), Halliday and Hasan (1976), ete, as unavailable in printed books in Vietnam, will be collected from the Intemel sourcas, the addbress of which will bs provided in the lis! of References at the end of this thesis

© Relevant theories will be presented on the ground of several linguists’ view of points

& 16 reading texts in the Victnamesc now English I1 textbook for non-English - major students will be comprehensively investigated for cohesive devices so as to find out the most typical cohesive devices used in written text

& Based on the results of the analysis, some concluding remarks can be generalized and some implication for teaching and learning reading skills can be proposed

5 Organization of the study

‘This rescarch is composed of Urea main parls

Part J, the Introduction, present brietly the rationale, the aims, the scope, and the

methods of the study as well as the organization of the study

Part Ifis the Development, which consist of two chapters

Chapter 1 discusses the Theoretical Background related to discourse analysis, In this chapter, the researcher will present the basic concept of discourse and discourse analysis, the discourse foulures, loxt typos and ils important rols

is alt the reading lsxts

in the chosen textbook is performed in the text fom, as well as the notion of cohesion which mainly focus on

Chapter 2 is devoted to the analysis of Cohesive Devices uscd in lhe reading text in the Vietnamese new English 11 textbook for non-English - major students so as to reveal some typical features And finally, some remarks are discussed to answer the research questions

Part His the Conclusion In this part, a review of the study is presented, together with some implication for teaching and learning, and suggestions for fiuther studies

The shuly is cnded with Appendixes showing Hist of Reading lexts taken into

consideration.

=

purposes (ESP) Therefore, I decided to study on some discourse features in the reading texts in the Vietnamese new English 11 textbook for non-English - major students (because of the limit of time and my knowledge), from the point of view of discourse

analysis, (he researcher only fucus on colwsion devices uscd in the reading texts These

cohesive devices are related to properties that make the text a unified whole They refer

to both tex! characleristics and readers’ interaction with the texl Awareness of echerence

as a quality that make a text conform fo a consistent world picture, to experiences,

culture, and convention and cohesive devices used the linguistics means by which ements of a toxt arc arranged and concern is vital for students of English in improving reading comprehension, Based on my analysis tiom the point of view of cohesive devices, some suggestions are given for improving the effectiveness of teaching reading, skit] and learning reading skill for English teachers and sindents

Aim of the study:

Examining the cohesive devices in the reading texts in the Vietnamese new English 11

lextbook for non-English - major students incudmg grammatical cohesive devicos, lexical cohesive devices and conjunctions, with the aim of working out the typical features of cohesive in reading texts in the Vietnamese new Linglish 11 textbook for non- English - major sludents which to salis{v (he research questions:

Scope of the study:

Foenses of consideration for the investigation of onc of the greatest calegory of the discourse features that is cohesion, used in collected reading texts in a certain textbook: the Vietnamese new English 11 textbook for non-Lnglish - major students

Method of the study:

To reach the final goal of revealing the discourse features of the reading texts in the Vietnamese new English IL Iextbook for non-English - major students, the methods of description, analysis and statistic in linguistics are used in this thesis and are carried out inthe following steps:

=

purposes (ESP) Therefore, I decided to study on some discourse features in the reading texts in the Vietnamese new English 11 textbook for non-English - major students (because of the limit of time and my knowledge), from the point of view of discourse

analysis, (he researcher only fucus on colwsion devices uscd in the reading texts These

cohesive devices are related to properties that make the text a unified whole They refer

to both tex! characleristics and readers’ interaction with the texl Awareness of echerence

as a quality that make a text conform fo a consistent world picture, to experiences,

culture, and convention and cohesive devices used the linguistics means by which ements of a toxt arc arranged and concern is vital for students of English in improving reading comprehension, Based on my analysis tiom the point of view of cohesive devices, some suggestions are given for improving the effectiveness of teaching reading, skit] and learning reading skill for English teachers and sindents

Aim of the study:

Examining the cohesive devices in the reading texts in the Vietnamese new English 11

lextbook for non-English - major students incudmg grammatical cohesive devicos, lexical cohesive devices and conjunctions, with the aim of working out the typical features of cohesive in reading texts in the Vietnamese new Linglish 11 textbook for non- English - major sludents which to salis{v (he research questions:

Scope of the study:

Foenses of consideration for the investigation of onc of the greatest calegory of the discourse features that is cohesion, used in collected reading texts in a certain textbook: the Vietnamese new English 11 textbook for non-Lnglish - major students

Method of the study:

To reach the final goal of revealing the discourse features of the reading texts in the Vietnamese new English IL Iextbook for non-English - major students, the methods of description, analysis and statistic in linguistics are used in this thesis and are carried out inthe following steps:

=

purposes (ESP) Therefore, I decided to study on some discourse features in the reading texts in the Vietnamese new English 11 textbook for non-English - major students (because of the limit of time and my knowledge), from the point of view of discourse

analysis, (he researcher only fucus on colwsion devices uscd in the reading texts These

cohesive devices are related to properties that make the text a unified whole They refer

to both tex! characleristics and readers’ interaction with the texl Awareness of echerence

as a quality that make a text conform fo a consistent world picture, to experiences,

culture, and convention and cohesive devices used the linguistics means by which ements of a toxt arc arranged and concern is vital for students of English in improving reading comprehension, Based on my analysis tiom the point of view of cohesive devices, some suggestions are given for improving the effectiveness of teaching reading, skit] and learning reading skill for English teachers and sindents

Aim of the study:

Examining the cohesive devices in the reading texts in the Vietnamese new English 11

lextbook for non-English - major students incudmg grammatical cohesive devicos, lexical cohesive devices and conjunctions, with the aim of working out the typical features of cohesive in reading texts in the Vietnamese new Linglish 11 textbook for non- English - major sludents which to salis{v (he research questions:

Scope of the study:

Foenses of consideration for the investigation of onc of the greatest calegory of the discourse features that is cohesion, used in collected reading texts in a certain textbook: the Vietnamese new English 11 textbook for non-Lnglish - major students

Method of the study:

To reach the final goal of revealing the discourse features of the reading texts in the Vietnamese new English IL Iextbook for non-English - major students, the methods of description, analysis and statistic in linguistics are used in this thesis and are carried out inthe following steps:

2.5.5 Concluding remarks on lexical cohesive devices:

Part II: Conclusion

1 Major findings and conclusion remarks

2 Implications for teaching and learning English for

non - English- major students at Tram Phu High School

3 Suggestions for further study

=

purposes (ESP) Therefore, I decided to study on some discourse features in the reading texts in the Vietnamese new English 11 textbook for non-English - major students (because of the limit of time and my knowledge), from the point of view of discourse

analysis, (he researcher only fucus on colwsion devices uscd in the reading texts These

cohesive devices are related to properties that make the text a unified whole They refer

to both tex! characleristics and readers’ interaction with the texl Awareness of echerence

as a quality that make a text conform fo a consistent world picture, to experiences,

culture, and convention and cohesive devices used the linguistics means by which ements of a toxt arc arranged and concern is vital for students of English in improving reading comprehension, Based on my analysis tiom the point of view of cohesive devices, some suggestions are given for improving the effectiveness of teaching reading, skit] and learning reading skill for English teachers and sindents

Aim of the study:

Examining the cohesive devices in the reading texts in the Vietnamese new English 11

lextbook for non-English - major students incudmg grammatical cohesive devicos, lexical cohesive devices and conjunctions, with the aim of working out the typical features of cohesive in reading texts in the Vietnamese new Linglish 11 textbook for non- English - major sludents which to salis{v (he research questions:

Scope of the study:

Foenses of consideration for the investigation of onc of the greatest calegory of the discourse features that is cohesion, used in collected reading texts in a certain textbook: the Vietnamese new English 11 textbook for non-Lnglish - major students

Method of the study:

To reach the final goal of revealing the discourse features of the reading texts in the Vietnamese new English IL Iextbook for non-English - major students, the methods of description, analysis and statistic in linguistics are used in this thesis and are carried out inthe following steps:

11

Part II: DEVERLOPMENT Chapter I: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.1 Theory af discourse

Cook (1989: 156) shares the same idea with Crystal in stating that discourse is “stretches

of language porceived lo be meaningful, unified and pumpuseful” In his point of view, discourse may be composed of one or more well-formed grammatical sentences and

indeed it often is — but it does not have to be There can be some grammatical mistakes in

a discourse, which do not affect the overatt struciins and meaning of the discourse Discourse treats the rules of grammar as a resource, conforming to them when it needs to, but departing fom them when it does not Discourse can be anything from a canversation

to a gical novel or a longth legel caso Cook aso argues thal “Whal’ matters is not its conformity to rules, but the fact that it commrunicates and is recognized by its receivers as coherent” discourse is supposed to be meaningful and thus used to communicate with one person int a way that anoltier person docs not have the necessary knowledge to make sense of,

Halliday & Hasan define discourse as follow: “We can define text (disconrse) in the simplest way perhaps, by saying that it is language that is functional By functional, we simply mean language that is doing the same job in some context as opposed to isolated words or sentences that { might put on the blackboard (hese might also be functional of course, if Twas using them as linguistic cxamples) So any instanea of living language that is playing some part in a context of situation, we shall call a text It may be either spoken ot written or indeed in any other medium of expression that we like to think of”

We can understand from Halliday & Hasan’s perspective on discourse is that discourse is

a unit of meaning and is functional It is functional in the sense that it occurs in a context

Part INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale:

Nowadays, teachers of languages in Vietnam with the pressnre of professionalization are more aware of the important role of linguistics in their field They spend much time and energy not only keeping up with the field but also doing a lot of research on linguistics in

gonoral and discourse analysis in particular To a teacher of language, it is vital to understand how textbooks are seen in the light of discourse analysis, i.e how language is used in when designing teaching materials or engaging leamers in learning activities aimed at improving their target language proficiency or when evaluating piece of materials before deciding using them

“Discourse feature” is a broad category which covers a variety of oriteria, including both

intraclinguis

s factors and oxtra-Hinguisties clerments, such as cohesive, [home-rhyme

structure, text structure, speech acts, writer’s/ speaker's intensions, background

knowledge, eto Ilalliday and Ilasan (1976:3) claim that: if @ passage of English

containing mora than one sentence perceived as a text, there will he certain linguistics features present in that passage which can be identified as contributing to its total unity

and giving it texture” Yo the researcher, the linguistics features that are of great

imperizneo and inter

these two factors make influential conttibution to defining a genre of discourse

Iligh school English teachers in general and English teachsrs at ‘Iran Phu high school, Vinh Phuc province in particular focus so intensively on their English subject, And they wannly welcome the new set of English textbocks for non-English-major students which based on quits a new approach - communicative approach - is highly appreciated by bath

is arc those of goneri¢ slructure and cohesion duc to the betief thal

teachers and students As a teacher of English here, I am deeply aware of challenges in dealing with the interest but demanding subject of English | also realize some obstacles that needs in solving the teaching and learning process of this subject Most of my sludents face up with the difficulties in reading and decply undarstanding the reading texts in the textbook These difficulties surely will hinder the effectiveness and improvement of students’ study Further more, though there are many researchers who have been paying mach attention and doing rescarches on cohesive devices uscd in the textbooks not for high school students but for those who leam English with special

11

Part II: DEVERLOPMENT Chapter I: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.1 Theory af discourse

Cook (1989: 156) shares the same idea with Crystal in stating that discourse is “stretches

of language porceived lo be meaningful, unified and pumpuseful” In his point of view, discourse may be composed of one or more well-formed grammatical sentences and

indeed it often is — but it does not have to be There can be some grammatical mistakes in

a discourse, which do not affect the overatt struciins and meaning of the discourse Discourse treats the rules of grammar as a resource, conforming to them when it needs to, but departing fom them when it does not Discourse can be anything from a canversation

to a gical novel or a longth legel caso Cook aso argues thal “Whal’ matters is not its conformity to rules, but the fact that it commrunicates and is recognized by its receivers as coherent” discourse is supposed to be meaningful and thus used to communicate with one person int a way that anoltier person docs not have the necessary knowledge to make sense of,

Halliday & Hasan define discourse as follow: “We can define text (disconrse) in the simplest way perhaps, by saying that it is language that is functional By functional, we simply mean language that is doing the same job in some context as opposed to isolated words or sentences that { might put on the blackboard (hese might also be functional of course, if Twas using them as linguistic cxamples) So any instanea of living language that is playing some part in a context of situation, we shall call a text It may be either spoken ot written or indeed in any other medium of expression that we like to think of”

We can understand from Halliday & Hasan’s perspective on discourse is that discourse is

a unit of meaning and is functional It is functional in the sense that it occurs in a context

11

Part II: DEVERLOPMENT Chapter I: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.1 Theory af discourse

Cook (1989: 156) shares the same idea with Crystal in stating that discourse is “stretches

of language porceived lo be meaningful, unified and pumpuseful” In his point of view, discourse may be composed of one or more well-formed grammatical sentences and

indeed it often is — but it does not have to be There can be some grammatical mistakes in

a discourse, which do not affect the overatt struciins and meaning of the discourse Discourse treats the rules of grammar as a resource, conforming to them when it needs to, but departing fom them when it does not Discourse can be anything from a canversation

to a gical novel or a longth legel caso Cook aso argues thal “Whal’ matters is not its conformity to rules, but the fact that it commrunicates and is recognized by its receivers as coherent” discourse is supposed to be meaningful and thus used to communicate with one person int a way that anoltier person docs not have the necessary knowledge to make sense of,

Halliday & Hasan define discourse as follow: “We can define text (disconrse) in the simplest way perhaps, by saying that it is language that is functional By functional, we simply mean language that is doing the same job in some context as opposed to isolated words or sentences that { might put on the blackboard (hese might also be functional of course, if Twas using them as linguistic cxamples) So any instanea of living language that is playing some part in a context of situation, we shall call a text It may be either spoken ot written or indeed in any other medium of expression that we like to think of”

We can understand from Halliday & Hasan’s perspective on discourse is that discourse is

a unit of meaning and is functional It is functional in the sense that it occurs in a context

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

‘Table 1: 1 Literacy text types

Table 1: 2 Personal reference

Table 1: 3 Demonstrative reference

Table 1: 4

Comparative reference Table 1: 5 Grammatical and lexical cohesion

Figure 2: 1 Analysis of three types of reference in the chosen reading texts Vigure 2: 2 Analysis of four types of conjunction in the chosen reading texts

Figure 2:3 Analysis pf lexical cohesive devives in the chosen reading Lexis

2.5.5 Concluding remarks on lexical cohesive devices:

Part II: Conclusion

1 Major findings and conclusion remarks

2 Implications for teaching and learning English for

non - English- major students at Tram Phu High School

3 Suggestions for further study

2.5.5 Concluding remarks on lexical cohesive devices:

Part II: Conclusion

1 Major findings and conclusion remarks

2 Implications for teaching and learning English for

non - English- major students at Tram Phu High School

3 Suggestions for further study

=

purposes (ESP) Therefore, I decided to study on some discourse features in the reading texts in the Vietnamese new English 11 textbook for non-English - major students (because of the limit of time and my knowledge), from the point of view of discourse

analysis, (he researcher only fucus on colwsion devices uscd in the reading texts These

cohesive devices are related to properties that make the text a unified whole They refer

to both tex! characleristics and readers’ interaction with the texl Awareness of echerence

as a quality that make a text conform fo a consistent world picture, to experiences,

culture, and convention and cohesive devices used the linguistics means by which ements of a toxt arc arranged and concern is vital for students of English in improving reading comprehension, Based on my analysis tiom the point of view of cohesive devices, some suggestions are given for improving the effectiveness of teaching reading, skit] and learning reading skill for English teachers and sindents

Aim of the study:

Examining the cohesive devices in the reading texts in the Vietnamese new English 11

lextbook for non-English - major students incudmg grammatical cohesive devicos, lexical cohesive devices and conjunctions, with the aim of working out the typical features of cohesive in reading texts in the Vietnamese new Linglish 11 textbook for non- English - major sludents which to salis{v (he research questions:

Scope of the study:

Foenses of consideration for the investigation of onc of the greatest calegory of the discourse features that is cohesion, used in collected reading texts in a certain textbook: the Vietnamese new English 11 textbook for non-Lnglish - major students

Method of the study:

To reach the final goal of revealing the discourse features of the reading texts in the Vietnamese new English IL Iextbook for non-English - major students, the methods of description, analysis and statistic in linguistics are used in this thesis and are carried out inthe following steps:

Part INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale:

Nowadays, teachers of languages in Vietnam with the pressnre of professionalization are more aware of the important role of linguistics in their field They spend much time and energy not only keeping up with the field but also doing a lot of research on linguistics in

gonoral and discourse analysis in particular To a teacher of language, it is vital to understand how textbooks are seen in the light of discourse analysis, i.e how language is used in when designing teaching materials or engaging leamers in learning activities aimed at improving their target language proficiency or when evaluating piece of materials before deciding using them

“Discourse feature” is a broad category which covers a variety of oriteria, including both

intraclinguis

s factors and oxtra-Hinguisties clerments, such as cohesive, [home-rhyme

structure, text structure, speech acts, writer’s/ speaker's intensions, background

knowledge, eto Ilalliday and Ilasan (1976:3) claim that: if @ passage of English

containing mora than one sentence perceived as a text, there will he certain linguistics features present in that passage which can be identified as contributing to its total unity

and giving it texture” Yo the researcher, the linguistics features that are of great

imperizneo and inter

these two factors make influential conttibution to defining a genre of discourse

Iligh school English teachers in general and English teachsrs at ‘Iran Phu high school, Vinh Phuc province in particular focus so intensively on their English subject, And they wannly welcome the new set of English textbocks for non-English-major students which based on quits a new approach - communicative approach - is highly appreciated by bath

is arc those of goneri¢ slructure and cohesion duc to the betief thal

teachers and students As a teacher of English here, I am deeply aware of challenges in dealing with the interest but demanding subject of English | also realize some obstacles that needs in solving the teaching and learning process of this subject Most of my sludents face up with the difficulties in reading and decply undarstanding the reading texts in the textbook These difficulties surely will hinder the effectiveness and improvement of students’ study Further more, though there are many researchers who have been paying mach attention and doing rescarches on cohesive devices uscd in the textbooks not for high school students but for those who leam English with special

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

‘Table 1: 1 Literacy text types

Table 1: 2 Personal reference

Table 1: 3 Demonstrative reference

Table 1: 4

Comparative reference Table 1: 5 Grammatical and lexical cohesion

Figure 2: 1 Analysis of three types of reference in the chosen reading texts Vigure 2: 2 Analysis of four types of conjunction in the chosen reading texts

Figure 2:3 Analysis pf lexical cohesive devives in the chosen reading Lexis

10

Collecting data, including relevant theories for analysis, Reading texts in the Vietnamese new English 11 textbook for non-English - major students will be collected Relevant theories will be extracted from various linguistics book written by several linguistics, such as; Cook (1989), Hatim and Mason (1990), Swales (1990), Halliday and Hasan (1976), ete, as unavailable in printed books in Vietnam, will be collected from the Intemel sourcas, the addbress of which will bs provided in the lis! of References at the end of this thesis

© Relevant theories will be presented on the ground of several linguists’ view of points

& 16 reading texts in the Victnamesc now English I1 textbook for non-English - major students will be comprehensively investigated for cohesive devices so as to find out the most typical cohesive devices used in written text

& Based on the results of the analysis, some concluding remarks can be generalized and some implication for teaching and learning reading skills can be proposed

5 Organization of the study

‘This rescarch is composed of Urea main parls

Part J, the Introduction, present brietly the rationale, the aims, the scope, and the

methods of the study as well as the organization of the study

Part Ifis the Development, which consist of two chapters

Chapter 1 discusses the Theoretical Background related to discourse analysis, In this chapter, the researcher will present the basic concept of discourse and discourse analysis, the discourse foulures, loxt typos and ils important rols

is alt the reading lsxts

in the chosen textbook is performed in the text fom, as well as the notion of cohesion which mainly focus on

Chapter 2 is devoted to the analysis of Cohesive Devices uscd in lhe reading text in the Vietnamese new English 11 textbook for non-English - major students so as to reveal some typical features And finally, some remarks are discussed to answer the research questions

Part His the Conclusion In this part, a review of the study is presented, together with some implication for teaching and learning, and suggestions for fiuther studies

The shuly is cnded with Appendixes showing Hist of Reading lexts taken into

consideration.

1.3.4 Aspects of coherence

1.3.4.1, Topical coherences 1.3.4.2 Logical coherence

Chapter 2: Analysis of main discourse features in the reading text in the

Vietnamese new English 11 textbook for non-English - major students

2.1, Reference

2.1.1 Personal reference 2.1.2, Demonstrative reference 2.1.3 Comparative reference 2.1.4 Concluding remarks on reference 2.2 Substitution:

2.2.1 Nominal substitution 2.2.2, Verbal substitution 2.2.3 Clausal substitution 2.2.4 Concluding remarks on substitution 2.3 Ellipsis:

2.3.1, Nominal ellipsis 2.3.2 Verbal ellipsis 2.3.3, Clausal ellipsis 2.3.4 Concluding remarks on ellipsis 2.4, Conjunction:

2.4.1, Additive 2.4.2, Adversative 2.4.3 Causal

2.4.4, Temporal 2.4.5 Concluding remarks on conjunction 2.5 Lexical ouhesive devices:

2.5.1 Repetition 3.5.2 Synonyms 2.5.3 Super-ordinate anil general word