Application of discourse analysis theory to the teaching of writing to students at International Standard Programme-ULIS-VNU = Áp dụng lý thuyết phân tích diễn

Problems related to cohesion and coherence competence ISP students have in writing .... Although these problems have been realized by a lot of researchers, very few solutions have been s

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

VŨ THÙY LINH

APPLICATION OF DISCOURSE ANALYSIS THEORY TO THE TEACHING OF WRITING TO STUDENTS AT INTERNATIONAL

STANDARD PROGRAMME – ULIS – VNU

(Áp dụng lý thuyết phân tích diễn ngôn vào việc giảng dạy môn viết

cho sinh viên Nhiệm vụ chiến lược – ĐHNN- ĐHQGHN)

MINOR M.A THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60.14.10

Hanoi, December, 2012

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

VŨ THÙY LINH

APPLICATION OF DISCOURSE ANALYSIS THEORY TO THE TEACHING OF WRITING TO STUDENTS AT INTERNATIONAL

STANDARD PROGRAMME – ULIS – VNU

(Áp dụng lý thuyết phân tích diễn ngôn vào việc giảng dạy môn viết

cho sinh viên Nhiệm vụ chiến lược – ĐHNN- ĐHQGHN)

MINOR M.A THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60.14.10

Supervisor: Huynh Anh Tuan, PhD

Hanoi, December, 2012

TABLE OF CONTENT

Table of Contents

Declaration i

Acknowledgments ii

Abstract iii

Table of content iv

List of tables, figures and abbreviations vi

PART A: INTRODUCTION I Rationale 1

II Aims 3

III Significance 3

IV Scope 4

V Research methodology 4

VI Limitations 6

VII Organizations 7

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER ONE: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND LITERATURE REVIEW I THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1 Writing 1.1 Definition of writing 8

1.2 The importance of EFL writing 9

1.3 What makes good writing 9

2 Discourse and discourse analysis 10

3 Coherence 11

4 Cohesion

4.1 The concept of cohesion 13

4.2 Types of cohesion 13

II LITERATURE REVIEW 16

CHAPTER TWO: METHODOLOGY 2.1 Research questions 18

2.2 Research approach 18

2.3 Data collection instruments 19

2.4 Data collection procedure 20

CHAPTER THREE: DATA ANALYSIS 3 Data analysis 3.1 Ways of evaluation 22

3.2 Data analysis 24

3.2.1 Problems related to cohesion and coherence competence ISP students have in writing 24

3.2.2 Relationship between giving L2 learners explicit instruction in coherence -cohesion and the improvement of their writing proficiency 30

3.2.3 Students’ evaluation 34

PART C: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS I Major findings 37

II Recommendations 38

III Suggestions for further studies 45

REFERENCES

APPENDICES

LISTS OF TABLES, FIGURES AND ABBREVIATIONS

Lists of Tables

Table 1: The researcher’s analytical scoring criteria

Table 2: Descriptive Statistics for the group’s performance in the pre-test Table 3: Students’ pre-test and post-test results

Table 4: Results of the Paired-Sample T-tests

Lists of Figures

Figure 1: Participants’ satisfaction with the course

Figure 2: Participants’ overall evaluation of the course

Lists of Abbreviations

L1: first language

L2: second language

ISP: International Standard Programme

ULIS: University of Languages and International Studies

VNU: Vietnam National University

PART A: INTRODUCTION

I Rationale

Writing is a fundamental component of English language learning In the light

of this fact, it is imperative that learners be taught and trained on the conventions of English writing, especially academic writing Some of these conventions are cohesion and coherence Cohesion refers to “the grammatical and/ or lexical relationships between the different elements of a text” (Richard, Platt & Webb, 1985:45) Coherence refers to the relationships of ideas and the ability of those ideas to function together for the purpose of conveying the meaning (Mclinn, 1988:15)

It has been noted by Magableh (1992) that English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners focus almost exclusively on the sentence level rather than the level of the whole discourse that is textual coherence Most EFL learners feel that correct grammar is the only tool they depend on in writing English essays Therefore, they rely on what they have learned about grammar

However, according to Kies (1995) some EFL writings appear to be poor in coherence and in cohesion Such writings may lack persuasiveness, satisfactory and logical connection of ideas This problem can be attributed to the fact that learners know the grammar and lexical items of the language, but they are unaware of the mechanics of coherence and cohesion Maqableh (1992) claims that Arab EFL learners encounter serious problems when they write These problems involve producing a coherent text and making the produced text cohesive The focus on writing has been on generating grammatically correct sentences depending on the belief that grammar is the only requirement for learners

In recent years with the appearance of Halliday and Hasan (1976)’s book

Cohesion in English, there has been a shift in focus among researchers from

detecting EFL learners’ problems at the sentential level toward diagnosing

cohesion and coherence Khalil (1989:359) says “New concepts such as cohesion and coherence have identified as two major standards of textuality” Halliday and Hasan (1976) consider the text as a unit of language in use

It has been noticed that some of writing features may be ignored by EFL learners Such features involve coherence and cohesion Researchers point out three factors that could contribute to the weakness in writing These factors are: 1- Language transfer Different studies by Kapalan (1966), Tadros (1976) and Hole (1984) indicate that EFL learners transfer the conventions of their first language (L1) to their second language (L2); therefore, they show negative transfer Conner (1996:3) says “Students often mention that when they write in English, they translate, or attempt to translate, first language words, phrases or organization into English.”

2- Ignorance of the features of cohesion and coherence Zhu (1992) states that EFL learners are usually unaware of the terms cohesion and coherence in writing Thus, they have inadequate knowledge of cohesive devices that are necessary for making a text cohesive Even if they have knowledge of these discourse markers, they do not use them appropriately This problem can be attributed to the fact that teachers at schools generally do not emphasize on such devices

3- Lack of training: According to Kharma (1985), students are not well-trained

in English writing Normally, the focus is laid on the sentence level and in some cases the paragraph level

To sum up, it can be concluded that EFL learners encounter rhetorical problems especially in coherence and cohesion These problems can be attributed to many factors such as negative transfer, or rather nonexistence of certain features in the mother tongue That is to say, many learners still do not have the adequate knowledge of using cohesive devices that are necessary for making a text cohesive

Although these problems have been realized by a lot of researchers, very few solutions have been suggested to improve EFL students’ writing quality, especially in terms of cohesion and coherence This gap gives the researcher the desire to conduct this study

II Aims of the study

The purpose of the study is to examine the real situation of the Vietnam National University (VNU) International Standard Programme (ISP) students’ writing skill, specifically in terms of their cohesion and coherence- related issues It aims (1) to find out ISP students’ problems in terms of cohesion and coherence in their writing and (2) to provide some recommendations that could improve their writing through the experimental teaching of cohesion and coherence

It is hoped that this study will be contribute to the field of applied linguistics especially in EFL writing It could act as a great help to not only students, teachers but also researchers working on relating issues This study aims at investigating ISP students’ problems in cohesion and coherence Therefore, it can be a contribution for evaluating students’ writing competence in terms of cohesion and coherence Besides, this study, to some extent, can help increase students’ awareness of the benefits of cohesion and coherence in their writing quality

The significance of this study can be stated that it will provide teaching implications for EFL teachers into the procedures and the teaching material to

be used in dealing with cohesive devices and coherent elements Witte and Faigley (1981) indicated that cohesion and coherence research can help discover the developmental stages undergo in their writing process In other words, this is significant for educators in providing implications for developing their essay writing syllabus, methods of teaching and assessment

Lastly, this research can be used as a reference source for those who have interest in this issue and a supplement to the previous studies on cohesion and coherence problems

IV Scope of the research

 Field of the study: The writing issue is so broad and complicated that the researcher has no desire to cover all aspects of it Within the frame of this thesis, the researcher would like to work on the problems of coherence and cohesion in students’ writing and make some useful suggestions to help students achieve greater competence in this skill

 Targeted subjects: The research is restricted to students at International Standard Program (ISP) – ULIS – VNU and it is confined to the analysis of cohesion and coherence written by 20 learners of group 9 in ISP

V Research methodology

V.1 Research questions

This survey aims at addressing the two following questions

 What problems related to cohesion and coherence competence do ISP students have in writing?

 Is there any relationship between giving L2 learners explicit instruction in coherence-cohesion and the improvement of their writing proficiency?

V.2 Informants

The target population of this research was from class 9 with 20 students at International Standard Programme (ISP), University of Language and International Studies (ULIS), Vietnam National University (VNU)

V.3 Approach

Action research was chosen as the primary research method as it meets the aim and objectives of the study This method is also justified to offer significant benefits for the researcher, who is also a teacher Johnson (1995) pointed out three mains advantages of action research namely to promote personal and

professional growth, to improve practice to enhance student learning, and to advance the teacher profession

V.4 Data collection instruments and procedure

Two data collection instruments were used in the study: tests and survey questionnaires To be specific, two writing tests were conducted before and after the experimental teaching Students were required to write discussive essays with the following topics:

 Pre-test: These days internet-based courses have become a popular alternative to university-based courses Some students prefer this type of learning because they do not need to attend lectures Others argue that it is important to study at university Discuss both these views

 Post-test: It is generally believed that some people are born with certain talents, for instance for sport or music, and others are not However, it is sometimes claimed that any child can be taught to become a good sports person or musician Discuss both these views and give your own opinion

The questionnaire survey consists of two main parts: The first part is composed of six questions which are to evaluate students’ satisfaction after the experimental teaching The second part asks for students’ suggestion for improvement in the next teaching

The data collection procedure underwent 3 phases A pre-test was administered among an ISP group to assess their writing competence and analyzed to find out their writing problems in terms of cohesion and coherence in the pre-teaching phase The participants then participated in a 6-week experimental while-teaching phase in which participants were given thorough theory of cohesion and coherence

in academic writing as well as provided a lot of practicing exercise Finally, they took a post-test to evaluate their improvement in writing ability in the post-teaching

phase Also in this phase, students completed one survey questionnaire concerning their opinions about the teaching and learning process

V.5 Data analysis methods

Learners’ writings are qualitatively analyzed using a rating scale set up by the researcher The rating scale specifies criteria for marking Learners’ proficiency in points was quantitatively analyzed using the SPSS software to conclude to what extent ISP students’ writing improves after the researcher’s experimental teaching

VI Limitations

Although the research has achieved some certain results in investigating cohesion and coherence problems in ISP students’ writing as well as illustrating some teaching methods to tackle such issues, it still contains some limitations due to limited time and scope of the study

The first limitation lies in the participants in this study One special feature of ISP students is that they are classified into different groups according to their entry test result The in-survey group got the medium score; so they can be ranked at the average level That means a lot of low-level students are not really involved in the research

Secondly, because the researcher was supposed to follow the fixed ISP timetable, the experimental teaching only lasted 6 weeks with one writing session per week Therefore, students actually were not given thorough teaching about cohesion and coherence, which more or less affected their writing quality

VII Organization of the study

The study totally consists of three main parts: Introduction, Development and Conclusion

Part 1 states the rationale, aims, scope and significance of the study

Part 2 includes three chapters namely theoretical background and literature review, methodology, and data analysis

 Chapter 1 provides the background on the study, including the definitions and the features of some determinant terms such as writing, discourse analysis, coherence and cohesion

Also presented in this chapter is a brief review of some previous studies on cohesion and coherence problems in EFL students’ writing

 Chapter 2 demonstrates the research methods applied in the study with details on how and why these methods were implemented Besides, the data collection procedure and data analysis methods are also illustrated in this chapter

 Chapter 3, data analysis presents the results and discussion in terms of how much they answer the research questions

Part 3 summarizes the main issues covered in the paper, presents the limitations of the study and some suggestions for further studies in the research area Following this chapter are the References and Appendixes for the whole research

Bryne (1988) considers writing “the act of forming graphic symbols” such as letters

or combination of letters According to this definition, an act that results in the forming of letters with or without meaning can be defined as writing On the other hand, Lannon (1989) views writing as “the process of transforming the material discovered by research inspiration, accident, trial and error, or whatever into a message with a definite meaning- writing is a process of deliberate decision” In this way, writing must convey a message without meaning The definition of writing experienced a big change in some later years In 2000, Chakraverty and Gautum offered a quite different definition in which writing is “a reflective activity that requires enough time to think about the specific topic and to analyze and classify any background knowledge Then, writers need a suitable language to structure these ideas in the form of coherent discourse” Besides, writing is defined by several contrasts by Sokolik (2003) In her opinion, writing, firstly, is both “a physical and mental act” in the sense that requires writiers to commit words or ideas to some medium and at the same time to invent ideas, think about how to express them, and organize them into statements and paragraphs Secondly, writing aims at expressing and impressing Writers typically try to express their ideas or feelings; meanwhile they need to impress their readers in certain ways Thirdly writing is a process and a product Writers have to generate ideas, organize, draft, edit, read, and reread to produce a product- a paragraph, an essay or a report Also writing is seen by

Shokrpour and Fallahzadeh (2007) as “a complex activity, a social act which reflects the writer’s communicative skills which is difficult to develop and learn, especially in an EFL context” In line with the process writing approach adopted in the current study, I perceive EFL writing as a multi-dimensional process composed

of a cognitive activity affected by a number of linguistic and contextual factors; EFL linguistic proficiency, instructional, psychological, socio-cultural, and socio-political issues If these factors are well addressed, this will make writing an unforgettable experience

EFL writing has always been considered an important skill in teaching and learning

As commented by Rao, EFL writing is useful in two respects: First, it motivates students’ thinking, organizing ideas, developing their ability to summarize, analyze and criticize Second, it strengthens students’ learning, thinking and reflecting on English language

In relation to the context of the current study, essay writing is significant to the learning of students of English because it facilitates students’ acquisition of the basic study skills needed for understanding what they study and expressing it in their own words This will assist them to keep away from memorization, rote learning and plagiarism that are much discouraged in the recent theories of teaching and learning In addition, competence in writing will help students pass all their academic courses successfully and enable them to be successful teachers and researchers in the future

Writing is an important means of communication; it is probably the skill that is most needed in academic communities According to Beaugrande and Dressler (2002) a text derives its communicative value from its conformity to the following ten standards of communication: cohesion, coherence, intentionality, acceptability, informativity, situationality, intertextuality, efficiency, effectiveness, and

cohesion and coherence have a special status Beaugrande and Dressler say “to some degree, cohesion and coherence could themselves be regarded as operational goals without whose attainment other discourse goals may be blocked” (I.3) The empirical studies of Chiang (1999) confirm that raters’ and native speakers’ judgments of the quality of EFL students’ writing relies more on discourse features like cohesion and coherence Grammatical weaknesses are not considered unless they hinder their understanding of their writer’s intended meaning

Therefore, coherence should be given an important weight in writing syllabuses of instruction is to be effective, and in order to be able to teach it appropriately, we need thorough understanding of the concept and useful insights on how to introduce

it best in writing classes

Discourse analysis, as remarked by Brown and Yule (1983:8), “has come to be used with a wide range of meanings which cover a range of activities at the intersection

of many disciplines from sociolinguistics, philosophical linguistics to computational linguistics” In other words, discourse analysis is a field of study which concerns different aspects basically including three basic strands; that is text grammar, conversation analysis, and pragmatics, as pointed out by Hoa Nguyen (2000:11) He also defines discourse analysis, in the eyes of a linguist, as” a study of how and for what purposes language is used in a certain context of situation and the linguistic means to carry out these purposes.”

In the study of discourse analysis, it is crucial to make a clear distinction between two terms: discourse and text According to Brown and Yule (1983:6), text is “the verbal record of a communicative act”; meanwhile, discourse … “is language in use”…(p.1) De Beaugrande and Dressler (1981) presents an elaborate definition of text as a “communicative occurrence which possesses seven constitute conditions of textual communication, cohesion, coherence, intentionality, acceptability, informability, situationality and intertextuality” In this approach, De Beaugrande and Dressler see text and discourse in the same light

The most explicit and clearest distinction is by Widowson (1984) He elaborates discourse as “a communicative process by means of interaction Its situational outcome is a change in a state of affair: information is conveyed, intention made clear, its linguistic product is Text” (as cited in Hoa Nguyen, 2000, p.14) In the explanation, text is understood as simply a representation of a communicative process In other words, text is the verbal realization of discourse

Coherence refers to the functioning of the text as a unified whole Moreover, coherence refers to the relationships of ideas and the ability of those ideas to function together for the purpose of conveying the meaning (Mclinn 1988: 15)

In fact, any piece of writing has coherence if it represents its argument in a clear, plausible, convincing and comprehensible order This piece of writing should have

no logical gaps in its line of reasoning and it avoids unnecessary digression

Any piece of writing is considered coherent if it is understandable, follow a clear line in presenting facts, arguments and avoid statements which are incomprehensible for the reader There is a strong connection between the text and the reader concerning coherence So, the writer should cut what is irrelevant or unintelligible for the reader Kies (1995) stated “Any piece of writing can be coherent if the authors:

 Know the subjects well

 Have an eye on their audience and tailor their writing to what their readers probably know beforehand and are able to understand

Oshima and Hogue (2006) indicate that there are five ways to achieve coherence: 1- Repeat key nouns: repeat key nouns or use synonyms or expressions with the same meaning

2- Use consistent pronouns: make sure that you use the same person and number throughout the paragraph

3- Use transition signals to link ideas: they are like traffic signs, they tell you

4- Arrange your ideas in logical order:

There are several common and logical ways to arrange the sentences in orderly

sequence in a paragraph Time order is the simplest and the most common order,

which is usually suitable for narrative paragraphs and for paragraphs that explain how something is happened (Razzak and AL-Hassan, 1981:57) It is important to know when and in what order the things in any story we read happen This enables

us to understand how the various steps are arranged in correct order

If the sentences have no time order we can arrange them in a space order, in which

the paragraph moves from east to west or from right to left or vice versa Space order is sometimes suitable for giving direction The writer should know that he can use space order when he wants to tell the others what the things are looking like

The order of climax which is the least important ideas í writing first, then the other

ideas are given in order of increasing important The movement within the paragraph in this order may be from general to the particular or from the particular

to the general or from familiar to the unfamiliar describes the room to enable the reader to have a clear picture of the room which the writer saw

The discussion of the idea may move from cause to effect or from effect to cause

(Razzak and AL-Hassan, 1981:60-62) The writer can order sentences in any order

to make the sequence of the thought clear and the reader can understand what he reads

5- Consider the length of Paragraph

Razzak and AL-Hassan (1981:69) indicate that there is no rule about the length of paragraphs A paragraph is a unit and all the sentences in it are necessary to make the idea as a whole one and clear The length of the paragraph depends upon the idea itself It is important for the writer to know that he must be able to put down his thoughts or ideas clearly enough and completely enough so that anyone who reads his paper will be able to follow his directions and understand what he is explaining

The length of paragraph should be tailored to aid the reader's understanding of the ideas A short paragraph can indicate poor organization of materials, that the writer can make the larger idea as a topic sentence for a single paragraph A series of short paragraph can also sacrifice unity by breaking a single idea into several pieces A series of long paragraph can fail to provide the reader with manageable subdivisions

of thought A good rule for writing the paragraph should be just long enough to deal adequately with the subject of its topic sentence (Brauasw et al; 1987:464)

In relation to EFL essay writing cohesion, many researchers agree that cohesion, on the macro level is related to linking ideas whereas on the micro level, is concerned with connecting sentences and phrases “The concept of cohesion is a semantic one,

it refers to relations of meaning that exist within the text, and that define it as a text” Cohesion connects and hangs words together in order to create a text Many researchers have highlighted the importance of text cohesion claiming that a text stands as a text by means of cohesion According to Halliday and Hasan (1976, as cited in Hoa, 2000) “A text has texture and this is what distinguishes it from something that is not a text… the texture is provided by cohesive relation” It means that cohesion creates texture in a text, in other words, creates the text Hoa (2000: 23) shares the same idea by stating that “cohesion refers to the formal relationship that causes text to cohere or stick together.”

4.2 Type of cohesion

4.2.1 Grammatical Cohesion

4.2.1.1 Reference

According to Halliday and Hasan (1976:32), reference is a semantic relation and

“since the relationship is on semantic level, the reference item is in no way constrain to match the grammatical class of the item it refers to” The two scholars also classify discourse reference into two types, namely exophoric and endophoric

If the reference item is endophoric, it can be either anaphoric or cataphoric Anaphoric reference occurs when the writer refers back to someone or something that has been previously identified, to avoid repetition It points the listeners and readers backward to previous entity to understand the text In constrast, cataphoric reference lead listeners and readers forward to the text

Exophoric reference is different from these two types by describing generics or abstracts without ever being identified In this case, the interpretation is assisted by the context of the situation

Reference items in English comes into three main forms, including personal reference expressed by pronouns (he, she, it, me, mine…) and determiners (his, her, your…); demonstrative reference (this, that, there, then, etc.) and comparative reference which is expressed by adjectives and adverbs such as same, identical, equal, different, other, etc

4.2.1.2 Substitution

Halliday and Hasan (1976:89) define substitution as “a relation between linguistic items such as words or phrases and in terms of linguistic level, it is a relation on the lexico-grammar level, the level of grammar and vocabulary” Hoa Nguyen (2000: 24) also sees substitution as “a device which shows the relation between sentences, where it is derivable to avoid repetition”

In this light, Halliday and Hasan (1976) categorized substitution into nominal, verbal and clausal substitution Nominal substitution is realized by one, ones, and same Verbal substitute in English is “do” and clausal substitutes are “so” and not Clausal substitution is commonly used after verbs: think, hope, suppose, etc

4.2.1.3 Ellipsis

In Halliday and Hasan (1976:142)’s point of view ellipsis is “the omission of certain elements from a sentence, allowed by context” It is important to make a difference between ellipsis and substitution With ellipsis, the omitted parts can be recovered based on the context but such possibility does not exist

Quirk et all (1972) discuss three conditions under which ellipsis may occur namely, repetition, expansion and replacement

a Repetition: the speaker repeat what has been said by the first

E.g/ Did you go there?

Yes, I did (go there)

b Expansion: the speakers adds to what has been said

E.g/ Will he come?

Probably (he will come)

c Replacement: the second speaker replaces what has been said by the first with new information

E.g/ Where did he go?

(He went to) Canada

4.2.1.4 Conjunction

According to Cook (1989:21), “conjunction is words or phrases which explicitly draw attention to the type of relationship between one sentence and clause and another” Briefly speaking, conjunctions are used to connect sentences and clauses together into one context

Halliday and Hasan (1976: 242-243) divide conjunction into four types including additive, adversative, causal and temporal

a additive: the relation of adding meaning among sentences

E.g/ and, also, moreover, in addition, etc

b adversative: information appears in the contradict way

E.g/ but, yet, though, however, on the contrary, etc

c causal: the relation of cause and effect

E.g/ so, hence, before, consequently, as a result, etc

d temporal: this relation creates unified and tied discourse

E/g : then, next, last, etc…

4.2.2 Lexical cohesion

According to Van (2006:80-81), the concept of lexical cohesion was first defined in terms of collocation by Firth (1975), then developed by Halliday and Hasan (1976) Eggins (1994) and Halliday (1985) share the same idea that lexical relation analysis

is a way of systematically describing how words in a text related to each other, how they cluster to build up lexical sets or lexical strings Lexical relation appears in two main types, reiteration and collocation

4.2.2.1 Reiteration

According to Mc Carthy (1991:65) presents that “reiteration means either restating

an item in a later part of discourse by direct repetition or else reasserting its meaning by exploiting lexical relations” Reiteration is divided into five types, namely repetition, synonyms, super-ordinate and general words

4.2.2.2 Collocation

Collocation occupies an important role in lexical items to create cohesion in a text

In fact, words seldom stand alone, but tend to combine together and relate to each other According to Halliday and Hasan (1976), “Word combination” or “word co-occurrence” is known as collocation which brings a particular sense or meaning

II LITERATURE REVIEW

In recent years, researchers have given considerable attention to how EFL and ESL learner actually write and what problems they usually encounter in their writing One of the widely explored subfields of second language writing is the construct of coherence and cohesion As one of essential criteria for assessing writing, coherence and cohesion have been regarded as subjective and hazy concepts which are hard to

learn and teach (Crewe, 1990; Lee, 2002) Findings of some previous studies

revealed that EFL students generally experience some coherence and cohesion problems in their English writing For examples, Crewe (1990) identified two problems with regard to incoherent writing that most Hong Kong college students had One was using numerous connectives without discerning the semantic differences among them, such as using “on the contrary” for “however” The other problem concerned overusing connectives Inexperienced writers tended to use

more connecitves to maintain surface logicality, but actually there was no logicality

in their writing Some other examples can be illustrated here such as the research

by Abel (2000) on students’ problems with cohesion and coherence in EFL essay writing, the investigation into the use of cohesive devices by students in National Tsing Hua University (2002) and the study by Bassaem (2010) on cohesion and coherence in the essay writing of Palestinian college In relation to coherence problems in their writing, some problems were revealed such as difficulty in writing the introduction, the thesis statement, the topic sentence, writing conclusion, transition of ideas and sequence of ideas A number of reasons are associated with students’ coherence problems in English writing In reference to student teachers’ problems in cohesion, some were reported such as difficulty in using cataphoric and anaphoric reference, ellipsis, substitution, and genre related cohesive ties In

addition, overusing certain cohesive ties was also reported by university lecturers

Results of some related studies revealed that there are a number of factors and contexts lying behind these different coherence and cohesion problems At the psychological level, students faced a number of challenges including lack of motivation, lack of self-confidence, and writing anxiety Most EFL students are not given opportunities to practice their writing at high school and are not motivated to write English essays for a number of possible reasons

Although a number of studies have been carried out as regards problems related to cohesion and coherence in writing as well as illustrated some causes of such issues, the question of tackling this issue has still remained unanswered Furthermore, as far as the researcher knows, no studies on coherence and cohesion problems have been carried out among Vietnamese students That’s the reason why the researcher decided to do this research as a contribution to finding a solution to this problem in Vietnamese universities context

CHAPTER TWO: METHODOLOGY

The aims of this study are to find out the relationship between the participants’ enhancement in their cohesion-coherence competence and the improvement in their writing skill after receiving explicit instruction enhancing their knowledge of cohesion and coherence In order to achieve this aim, answers to the following two questions must be sought:

 What problems related to cohesion and coherence competence do ISP students have in writing?

 Is there any relationship between giving L2 learners explicit instruction in coherence-cohesion and the improvement of their writing proficiency?

Action research, as defined in Cohen and Manion (1994, p.186) is “small-scale intervention in the functioning of the real world and a close examination of the effects of such an intervention” In other words, Hopkins (1985, p.32) and Ebbutt (1985, p.156) defined it as the combination of action and research in which a person attempted to understand, improve and reform practice Carr and Kemmis (1986, p.162) presented a different point when regarding action research as a form of “self-reflective inquiry”

From these definitions, researchers suggested some main features of an action

research as follows:

- Combination of action and research

- Intervention to solve real problems in the real world

- Close and careful examination of the effect of the intervention

- Self-reflection of the participants on their changes, or in other words, the researcher is also a participant

Some other characteristics of an action research were also stated by Hult and Lennung (1980) and Mckernan (1991) as:

- Aiming at improving the quality of human actions

- Being in an on-going cycle process, i.e the feedback from data collected can be used to improve the next steps in the research

- Being formative, i.e the researcher may witness the alteration in definition, aims and methodology

- Contributing to a science of education

- Being collaborative, i.e the research involves all contribution to improve the understanding and action

These features were reflected in this study First, the aim of the study was to improve the current situation of teaching writing for ISP students (specifically in terms of coherence and cohesion) Second, the study would contribute to the science

of language education Third, the study included the researcher’s intervention on other participants’ writing competence Forth, the study was formed with several uncertainties and suspicions, thus, it needed the alteration and improvement from within the research process Finally, the answer to the research question needed answering as participants reflected on their own improvement, interest and emotion during the research

In conclusion, action research is a good choice for this study on account of the suitability in target, design and characteristics of the study

 1 Test: to seek answers to both research questions Best and Kakn (2003) regarded documents among the most significant sources for data collection (cited in Ghonaim, 2005, p.91) 20 writing samples of ISP students were collected and analyzed The samples were collected twice, one before, one after the teaching phase The analysis from these samples helps bring more insightful information; thus increase the reliability of the study findings

 2 Questionnaire: to seek answer to the second to the second research question A questionnaire survey was conducted to collect students’ opinions

questionnaire is a very useful tool to administer a group of people and it provides permanent, systematic records of feedback from all students

The target population of this research was students at ISP (International Standard Program), ULIS, VNU These students were not majored at English at high school and they are supposed to spend their first year improving their English proficiency They passed the entrance exam to be eligible for the Talent program of VNU with rather high results Therefore, it can be said that most ISP students show good cognitive ability, which helps greatly their process of acquiring English knowledge

at university

All the participants of the research were chosen from class ISP 9 with 20 members because the researcher was the main teacher to be in charge of writing skill in this group Also the researcher acted as the group’s head teacher and all these students were active and enthusiastic ones who had strong motivation in improving their writing skill Hence, the study was carried out with willingness and great contribution from all participants

September 10th Pre-test in class

The topic “These days internet-based courses have become a popular alternative to university-based courses Some students prefer this type of learning because they do not need to attend lectures Others argue that it is important to study at university Discuss both these views”

A total of 20 essays were then collected, marked and analyzed

September 15th- the experimental teaching (see appendix 1&2)

October 30th

November 1st Post-test

The topic “Nowadays many students have the opportunity

to study for part or all of their courses in foreign countries.While studying abroad brings many benefits to individual students, it also has a number of disadvantages

Discuss both the advantages and disadvantages”

November 3th A questionnaire survey (see appendix 3)

Learners’ writings are qualitatively analyzed using a rating scale set up by the researcher The rating scale specifies criteria for marking Learners’ proficiency

in points was quantitatively analyzed using the SPSS software to evaluate their improvement

Next, the questionnaire survey is also qualitatively analyzed to get their opinions toward the six-week experimental teaching

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS

Organization Cohesion Smooth transitions and/ or

connections between sentences and paragraphs

2

Coherence The organization of discourse

with all elements present and fitting together logically

2

Grammar Grammatical structures The range of grammatical

structures

1

Accuracy The grammatical accuracies that

hinder/ disrupt communication

1

Language Accuracy The ratio of error-free words of

the length of the essay

All the writing samples were marked on the basis of holistic and analytic scoring scale and then get the average score for the final result The results were then divided into three groups: high level (group A), intermediate (group B) and low level (group C)

3.1.2 Evaluation of coherence Concerning this study, all essays were evaluated on the basis of Grice’s maxims and Oshima and Hogu’s criteria of achieving coherence

 Grice’s maxims (1975) consists of

Relation: make sure what you say relevant to the topic or purpose of the

communication

Quality: be truthful and do not say things you know to be false

Manner: be clear, avoid ambiguity and obscurity

Quantity: do not provide more or less information than is necessary

However, the researcher excluded the “quality” maxim from the study since it does not apply to the topic written by the participants in the present study The other three maxims are considered to be necessary characteristics to measure coherence in the essays written by ISP students

Repeat key pronouns

Use consistent pronouns

Use transition signals to link ideas

Arrange your ideas in logical order

3.2.1 Research question 1: What problems related to cohesion and

coherence competence do ISP students have in writing?

The results reveal that the problem of cohesion falls into three categories: reiteration, conjunctions and reference The researcher analyzed the following problems

 Reiteration (lexical)

 The excessive use of “and”

 The underuse of connectives

 Malfunctioning of connectives

 Wrong reference

3.2.1.1.1 Reiteration The analysis of participants’ writing samples show that ISP students tended to use reiteration more than synonyms and antonyms to create cohesion in their writing In other words, they relied on the repetition of the same word Have a look at the following examples

Repetition in English discourse is evaluated negatively Haiman (1997) argues that English favors economically motivated non-repetition, i.e the use of pronouns instead of repeating the same word and the use of phrases

It is clear that this kind of repetition could be attributed to language transfer In fact, repetition is widely used in Vietnamese language as a main text-building device Therefore, students attempt to make use of the system of his/her native language which is repetition and transfer it to the English language

3.2.1.1.2 Conjunctions (connectives)

a The excessive use of “and”

The learners in low level group have serious problems with connectives The students in high-level group perform better in using the connective “and” and were able to use fewer additives than the low-level one They used more other types of conjunctions, such as adversative, temporal and casual

- The learners in group C lack the ability to establish logical relationship of addition, contrast casual and temporal The following are typical examples:

Ex 3: The internet network makes the world a small village and connects people together and can make a call from your computer to any place in the world

b Underuse of connectives

As reported by Atari (1984) and Chafe (1980), the absence of connectives is called

“Fragmentation of ideas” This fragmentation of ideas results in a sequence of choppy sentences which contained disconnected ideas Khalil (2000) says that choppy sentences strip the text of its connectivity The following exemplify the absence of connectives

Ex 4: It is not surprising that other students prefer to attend lectures Learning online involves an important responsibility and huge skills of organization The courses at the university help students to develop their soft skills through studying

in small groups, presentation and physical education classes Students have many opportunities to take part in clubs, events, workshops or social activities when

As it can be seen in this example, the writer shifts from one sentence to another without providing any transitional words or adverbial conjunctions The sentence could be bettered if appropriate conjunctions are used, for example:

It is not surprising that other students prefer to attend lectures because learning

at university involves an important responsibility and huge skills of organization

In deed the courses at the university help students to develop their soft skills through studying in small groups, presentation and physical education classes Moreover, students have many opportunities to take part in clubs, events, workshops or social activities when they choose university-based course

3.2.1.1.3 Overuse of connectives

In contrast with the above problems, some students may have formed the impression “the more, the better” Hence, they abuse cohesive devices to make their writing cohesive and coherence However, overusing cohesive device, actually, can cause the writing to be redundant or difficult to decipher

to concentrate more than for a university course

3.2.1.1.4 Reference The learners in group C misused some reference items which lead to ambiguity of meaning for the reader They fail to realize that any inadequately abrupt shift in perspective can affect cohesion and coherence in discourse Gula (1980:9) asserts

“Such a shift can impede the flow if writing and often distract and confuse the reader” The following examples illustrate this problem

In this example, the occurrence of possessive pronoun “your” is confusing because

it has no antecedent to refer to

Example 8:

As a result, I really believe that we should take university-based courses rather than internet-based ones since you can have an unforgettable experience in your life

In the above example, the problem of pronoun shift not only causes the readers to

be confused but also mixes up the reference use

3.2.1.1.5 Misuse of lexical items

Through analysis of the essays written by the participants, two problems in employing lexical devices were found: limited choice of lexical items and misuse of lexicons or collocation The following examples display the participants’ misuse of lexical items

The analysis shows that ISP students, especially in group B and C insert irrelevant ideas into their writing Therefore, this insertion influences the unity of thought, and thus weakening coherence as it diverts the reader’s attention and causes discontinuity in meaning The following examples reveal some out-of-context ideas found in the analyzed samples:

Example 11:

The convenience of internet-based courses accounts for their popularity They are best choice for students who want to stay at home together with learning without moving What’s more, students can receive more knowledge on the internet; thus they are more interested in their learning Besides, learning on internet means that you have to use computer They can access to different website and discover many things around the world

The above example lacks coherence because the underlined sentence does not support the topic sentence The writer is discussing the reason for the popularity of

internet-based courses but then the issue of “having to use computer” is of no relevance

Example 12:

It is not surprising that other students prefer to attend lectures because learning online involves an important responsibility and huge skills of organization Indeed the courses at university help students to develop their soft skills through studying

in small groups, presentation and physical education classes A lot of students often play truant from physical education classes these days Moreover, students have many opportunities to take part in clubs, events or social activities

The inclusion of irrelevant ideas could be accounted for as a misconception on the part of students who mistakenly think that the more they write, the higher grade they expected to get, regardless of any intrusive ideas they include Pilus (2006) maintains that the students try to demonstrate the depth of their knowledge to the examiner When this occurs, it creates the web of confusion that the reader is unable

to disentangle

3.2.1.2.2 Disorganization of ideas and insufficient information

Oshime and Hogue (2006) point out that the important point to remember is to arrange your ideas in some kind of the order that is logical to a reader accustomed

to the English way of writing

The findings show that many ISP students, especially in group B and C are ignorant

of this pattern of development They sometimes rationalize a far-fetched introduction that has no direct relevance to the target topic, then move to talk about the assigned topic without a thesis that bridges the introduction with the body paragraphs Carpenter (1981: 426) maintains “The discourse processes in creating a coherent overall organization for a composition or paper generally prove to be the most elusive skills to master for students in advanced writing classes” This is compounded by their ability to elaborate on the main topic by backing up their topics by subtopics or supporting ideas This ability to provide insufficient

information represents a violation of the informative aspect of Grice’s maxims (Quantity) The following is one specimen that exemplifies disorganized writing:

There are several internet-based courses’ benefits that make students prefer them Attending online course is very convenient; people can learn whenever and wherever they can manage Students will concentrate on lectures more when they study on internet Besides, they can choose subjects that are suitable for their interests and necessary to their promising careers Students don’t neglect due to noise, friends stories and so on Therefore, studying is not a compelled action any longer, and then it is more effective

3.2.1.2.3 Excessive reliance on repetition of ideas

The samples under analysis show that ISP students tend to repeat the same idea within the same paragraph as in the following example:

University-based courses are important as well At university, students study with classmates, teachers, this expand their social relationships They can join many activities at school and meet different people; therefore, make many new friends They can also improve their practical knowledge and behavior For example, that they must attend lectures, do homework, work in a team provides them with skills to live in a society They learn how to behave well with other people and how to get on well with members in a team

3.2.2 Research question 2: Is there any relationship between giving L2 learners

explicit instruction in coherence-cohesion and the improvement of their writing proficiency?

To answer this question, the researcher made a comparison between the participants’ pre-test and post-test results with the help of SPSS software to see if the test preparation course improved participants’' score on the test

Students Pre-test Post-test

1 Holistic

score

Analytic score

Final score

Holistic score

Analytic score

Final score