An analysis of cohesive devices in reading texts in English 11

Because of all reasons mentioned above, this small study on discourse analysis of cohesive devices is decided to be carried out with the source of data taken from reading texts in the En

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT ……… i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……… ii

ABSTRACT……… iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS……… iv

ABBREVIATIONS……… vii

LIST OF TABLES……… viii

PART 1: INTRODUCTION……… 1

1 Rationale……… 1

2 Aims of the Study……… 1

3 Scope of the Study……… 2

4 Significance of the Study……… 2

5 Methods of the Study……… 2

6 Design of the Study……… 3

PART 2: DEVELOPMENT ……… 4

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW……… 4

1 Discourse and Discourse Analysis……… 4

1.1 The Concept of Discourse……… 4

1.2 Text and Discourse ……… 4

1.3 Spoken and Written Discourse……… 5

1.4 Discourse Analysis……… 6

1.5 Context in Discourse Analysis……… 6

1.6 Register and Genre in Discourse Analysis……… 7

2 Cohesion……… 7

2.1 The Concept of Cohesion……… 7

2.2 Cohesion vs Coherence……… 8

2.3 Aspects of Cohesion……… 8

2.3.1 Topical Cohesion……… 8

2.3.2 Logical Cohesion……… 9

2.4 Types of Cohesion……… 10

2.4.1 Grammatical Cohesion ……… 10

2.4.1.1 Reference……… 10

2.4.1.2 Substitution……… 11

2.4.1.3 Ellipsis……… 12

2.4.1.4 Conjunction……… 12

2.4.2 Lexical cohesion……… 13

2.4.2.1 Reiteration……… 14

2.4.2.2 Collocation……… 14

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 16

1 An Overview of the English Textbook 11……… 16

1.1 The Role of the English Textbook in English Language Teaching………… 16

1.2 Description of the English Textbook 11……… 16

2 Research Methodology ……… 17

2 1 Materials for Analysis……… 17

2.2 Methods of the Study……… 17

2.3 Data Collection Procedures……… 19

2.4 Data Analysis Procedures……… 20

CHAPTER 3: MAJOR FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION……… 21

1 Grammatical Cohesion ……… 21

1.1 Reference ……… 21

1.1.1 Anaphoric Reference……… 22

1.1.2 Cataphoric Reference……… 24

1.1.3 Exophoric Reference……… 25

1.2 Substitution……… 25

1.3 Ellipsis……… 26

1.4 Conjunction……… 28

2 Lexical Cohesion……… 30

2.1 Reiteration……… 30

2.2 Collocation……… 33

2.2.1 Lexical Collocation……… 33

2.2.2 Grammatical Collocation……… 35

3 Summary……… 36

PART 3: CONCLUSIONS ……… 37

1 Conclusions ……… 37

2 Suggestions……… 38 2.1 Suggestions for English Teachers and Learners ……… 38 2.2 Suggested Cohesion Exercises for English Teachers and Learners………… 39

3 Limitations and Suggestions for Further Studies……… 40

REFERENCES……… 42

APPENDICES

APPENDIX I ……… I APPENDIX II ……… VIII APPENDIX III……… XII APPENDIX IV……… XIII APPENDIX V……… XV APPENDIX VI……… XXVI APPENDIX VII……… XLI

SOURCE OF DATA……… XLVI

LIST OF TABLES

Page

Table 1: The percentage of different types of reference 20

Table 2: The percentage of different types of reference words for anaphoric ties 21

Table 3: The percentage of different types of reference words for cataphoric ties 23

Table 4: The percentage of different types of reference words for exophoric ties 24

Table 5: The percentage of substitution in English 11 24

Table 7: The percentage of conjunction in English 11 27

Table 8: The percentage of reiteration in English 11 30

Table 9: The percentage of lexical collocation in English 11 33

Table 10: The percentage of grammatical collocation in English 11 34

PART 1: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

It is undeniable that English has become an international language and has been widely used

in many countries in the world In Vietnam, English is regarded as the most important foreign language and taught as a compulsory subject in most schools throughout the country As a result, English has been paid much attention to by both English teachers and English learners

English students nowadays have to master all four skills including reading, speaking, listening and writing Among these, reading is considered to be very important because it helps students to get materials such as new words, structures and background knowledge for other skills To learn reading well, it is necessary for students to comprehend sufficient language base, one of which is the cohesive devices in the text By mastering cohesive devices, students can even interpret the text with inadequate vocabulary

Because of all reasons mentioned above, this small study on discourse analysis of cohesive devices is decided to be carried out with the source of data taken from reading texts in the English textbook 11 This research is hoped to help 11th grade students in learning reading

in particular and in learning English in general Moreover, English teachers are also hoped

to pay more attention to cohesive devices in their teaching process on account of its benefits

2 Aims of the Study

The study aims:

- to describe and analyze lexical and grammatical cohesive devices in the new English textbook 11;

- to give some suggestions for teaching reading skill for 11th grade students

In order to achieve the aims stated, the study is meant to find out the answers to the two following research questions:

1 What are the grammatical and lexical cohesive devices used in reading texts in English textbook 11?

2 How can the findings help English teachers and 11th grade students to improve reading skill?

3 Scope of the Study

Because of the lack of time and the paper size, it is unable for all the issues of discourse to

be analyzed The study focuses on the grammatical and lexical cohesive devices in reading texts in the new English textbook 11

The new English textbook “Tieng Anh 11”, which refers to “English 11” for convenience, is published by Educational Publisher firstly in 2006 English 11 contains sixteen units, in each of which, there are five parts: reading, speaking, listening, writing and language focus Reading is put at the beginning of each unit, this proves its importance In this minor study, sixteen reading passages in sixteen units are analyzed in terms of grammatical and lexical cohesive devices Then, some significant and practical suggestions for 11th grade English students and teachers are given with the hope to improve the reading learning and teaching process

4 Significance of the Study

This study aims at investigating cohesive devices of reading texts in English 11 in the light

of discourse Hence, it contributes to verifying the correctness and significance related to linguistic theories in discourse analysis by analyzing discourse in one specific textbook In addition, the practical significance of the study is to help 11th grade students and teachers in reading skill by applying the knowledge of cohesion Because of the widely application of English 11 in education system throughout the country, the suggestions from this study are much more valuable

5 Methods of the Study

The descriptive, statistical and analytical methods are used in this study The descriptive

method is used to describe theories related to cohesion and to build up a framework for the study Then the statistical method is applied in order to list and number the cohesive devices

in sixteen reading passages in English 11 Finally, analytical method is restored to analyze the collected data in terms of grammatical and lexical cohesive devices Basing on the data analysis, necessary comments and suggestions are made

6 Design of the Study

The minor thesis consists of three parts:

- Part 1 is The Introduction which gives rationale, aims, scope, significance and methods of the study

- Part 2 is The Development which is divided into three chapters:

+ Chapter 1 is Literature Review

+ Chapter 2 is Methodology

+ Chapter 3 is Major Findings and Discussions

- Part 3 is The Conclusion which states some conclusions of the study and several suggestions for English teachers and learners and gives recommendations for further research

PART 2: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

1 Discourse and Discourse Analysis

1.1 The Concept of Discourse

Discourse is defined in various ways by different scholars and authors The classical definition of discourse as derived from formalist assumptions is that discourse is “language above the sentence or above the clause” (Stubbs 1983: 1) Schiffrin, D (1994: 20) shares the same idea; he defines discourse in two ways: a particular unit of language and a particular focus In the other words, discourse is above sentences and it focuses on language use Crystal (1992: 25) defined discourse more clearly by stating that “discourse is a continuous stretch of language larger than a sentence, often constituting a coherent unit such as sermon, argument, joke or narrative.” David Nunan (1993: 5) also adds by writing that “discourse can be defined as a stretch of language consisting of several sentences which as perceived as being related not only in terms of the ideas they share but also in terms of the jobs they perform within the discourse That is, in terms of their functions.”

Although there are a lot of different definitions of discourse, the definition given by Halliday and Hasan is regarded as the simplest and the clearest to follow According to Halliday and Hasan (1976: 38), discourse is language that is functional It means that discourse is “language in use”

1.2 Text and Discourse

In the view of Brown and Yule (1983: 6), “text” is regarded as a technical term; it refers to the verbal record of a communicative act By this mean, the text may be differently presented in various forms of editions, with different types, on different papers’ size; however, it is still assumed to be the same text Halliday and Hasan define a text as a

semantic unit which focuses on meaning instead of on its form In their view, a text does not

consist of sentences; it is realized by, or encoded in, sentences

To understand what a text is in the most detailed distinction, it is a good way to compare it with discourse Many linguists have defined text and discourse differently According to

Widdowson (1979), text has cohesion while discourse has coherence or Cook (1989) see discourse as a process and text as a product Crystal (1992: 72) distinguishes text and discourse by its use, text should be used only for writing but discourse for speech

On the other hand, many linguists think that text and discourse cannot be made a clear distinction In the view of Halliday and Hasan (1976: 23), “text” is employed to refer to

“discourse”; they see “text” as a “semantic unit” characterized by cohesion They state: “A text is a passage of discourse which coherent in these two regards: it is coherent with respect to the context of situation and therefore consistent in register; and it is coherent with respect to itself, and therefore cohesive” Sharing the same ideas, Brown & Yule (1983) support that text is the representation of discourse and the verbal record of a communicative act In other words, they all view the notion of text is the representation of discourse, text is the form of discourse and they have a close relationship

Although some linguists try to set “text” and “discourse” apart, it is undeniable that the term

“text” and “discourse” refer to the same subject matter In this study, the term discourse will

be used without difference from text They both refer to any written record for communicative functional purposes

1.3 Spoken and Written Discourse

Spoken and written discourses are distinguished in terms of modes for expressing linguistic meaning and various functions Spoken and written discourses represent different modes for expressing linguistic meaning In the view of Cook (1989: 50), spoken discourse is changeable and less planed It can be produced and processed “on line” Receivers, by this way, are open to make an intervention to spoken discourse Written discourse, on the other hand, is well-structured and permanent In writing process, writers are unable to go back and change or restructure his words

Spoken and written language can be also distinguished by different functions According to Brown and Yule (1983: 13), the function of spoken language is mainly to establish and maintain human relationship whereas written language has functions to store information from time and space and to permit words and sentences to be examined out of their original contexts In other words, spoken discourse is concerned with interactional use meanwhile the latter with the transactional use

of the analysis of its purposes and functions Language has to be understood in its functions

or its uses

McCarthy, M (1991: 5) shares the same idea with Brown and Yule (1983) by stating that

“discourse analysis is concerned with the study of the relationship between language and

the contexts in which it is used.” It can be referred that language cannot be outside the context in which it makes sense

Discourse analysis, in short, is language in context To understand discourse analysis, it is essential to understand and interpret a text

1.5 Context in Discourse Analysis

Discourse analysis is language in context, hence, context has a very important role in discourse analysis There are a numerous of definitions of context According to Nunan, D (1993: 7), context is the situation in which discourse is embedded Context may be understood as all factors and elements that are non-linguistic and textual which affect spoken or written communication interaction

Eggins (1994: 30) sees context in terms of three variables: (a) what is talked about; (b) what the relationship between the communicators is; and (c) what the role of the language plays However, in the view of Malinowski (1923) and Halliday M.A.K (1985: 52) context is divided as “context of situation” and “context of culture” Context of situation is the environment which affects text meaning and it can be seen and discussed as human issues

On the other hand, context of culture which is different from one county to others is difficult

to realize and understand

1.6 Register and Genre in Discourse Analysis

According to Halliday and Hasan (1976: 41), register is language variety according to use

Register is featured by “field”, “tenor” and “mode” Three linguistic consequences can be

seen as “field, mode and tenor” Field which is related to what language is being used and talked about, deals with subjects involved in the text such as persons and things Mode

specifies the medium and channel of communication Two basic modes are spoken and

written Tenor is concerned with the role of interaction Tenor reflects relationship between

participants taking part in communication

The concept of genre is defined in terms of culture context Eggins (1994: 32) defines genre

It means that participants can give the framework of the situation basing on his cultural knowledge Genre and register, to some extent, share the same features and characteristics

2 Cohesion

2.1 The Concept of Cohesion

Cohesion is defined in the relation with text It is concerned with the grammatical and lexical relationship among different factors in a text Cohesion is the surface relation It connects and hangs words together in order to create a text 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 the 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.”

2.2 Cohesion vs Coherence

Both cohesion and coherence mean sticking together, however, the difference between them

is rather significant Cohesion is a formal network which connects or links many parts of a text together by grammar or words Meanwhile, coherence is the connections which bring interpretation of linguistic messages The elements of the messages are seen to be connected with or without formal linguistic connectors The reader or the hearer not only look at the literal meaning of the messages but look at the intended meanings which underlie into the text Hoa (2000: 23) and Mc Carthy (1991: 23) both regard coherence as a type of semantic

or rhetorical relationship which underlies the text

Obviously, cohesion and coherence both make perfectly communicative text by connecting and hanging the text together While coherence is the “content cohesion” which is created

by receivers in the act of reading or hearing, cohesion is created by writers or speakers in the act of writing or speaking Cohesion, seen on the surface of the text and produced by grammatical and lexical links, contributes to the coherence of a text

2.3 Aspects of Cohesion

Cohesion is a means to create coherence in a text and it has to make every sentence, every phrase and every paragraph contribute to the meaning of the whole piece In written discourse, coherence is more difficult to obtain because writers lack the nonverbal clues to inform their message Therefore, writers must make their writing more explicit and much more carefully planned by making use of cohesion which can be understood in terms of

topical and lexical

2.3.1 Topical Cohesion

Topic is concerned with the description of sentence structure which contains the topic or theme and the comment or rheme Theme, which is often put in the front of clause, conveying known information, serves as the point of the departure of the message Theme may be realized by a nominal group, a prepositional phrase, an adverbial group or even a clause and it may be single or multiple, marked or unmarked

While information in theme is common shared knowledge; rheme or the comment which is the remainder of the message brings new information Theme and rheme help connect and stick sentences in a meaningful text to create topical cohesion

2.3.2 Logical Cohesion

Hoa, N (2000: 28) indicates that “logical cohesive devices are also powerful sentence connectors They demonstrate the logical relationships holding between sentences, thus creating or expressing cohesion.” Cohesive devices can be divided into some types as follows:

- And: The word “and” is used to connect sentences or clauses cohesively

- Enumeration: Enumerators are used to indicate a list of what is being said Common

words are seen such as first, second,… next, to begin with, to start with, for one thing,…for

another thing, for final point…

- Addition: It is expressed by two classes of additive conjuncts: reinforcing conjuncts: also,

too, furthermore, moreover, then, in addition, above all, and what is more, neither, nor,

either… and equative conjuncts: equally, likewise, similarly, in the same way…

- Transition: There are some words or phrases in this type: Now, with reference to, with respect to, with regard to, incidentally, by the way…

- Summation: Summation as a cohesive device generalizes or sums up what has been

discussed or said earlier Some conjuncts are used such as then, all in all, in conclusion, to

sum up, in a nutshell…

- Apposition: It refers back to the previous sentences Some items are seen such as: namely,

in other words, for example, for instance, that is, that is to say, another way of putting it is,

an example could be, etc

- Result: It indicates the results or consequences of what was mentioned or said in the

preceding sentences Some items are seen such as: consequently, hence (formal), so

(informal), therefore, thus (formal), as a result

- Inference: It is used to infer some things stated earlier Some items are used such as: Else, otherwise, then, in other words, in that case

- Reformulation or replacement: It introduces another way of saying the same thing by

means of such conjuncts: Better, rather, in other words, or again…

- Contrast: Contrast is to introduce information which is contradictory to the previous

information Some items are seen such as: Instead, then, on the contrary, in/by contrast, by comparison, on the other hand

- Concession: It signals the unexpected, surprising information in the view of known information

It contains some words such as anyhow (informal), anyway (informal), besides, else, however, nevertheless, still, through, yet, in any case, at any rate, etc some adverbials are also employed as

concession for example, actually, admittedly, certainly, really = “this at least is true”

- Comparison: The comparison markers are often found in adjectives and adverbs

including more, as, less, least

this case, the interpretation lies outside the text It lies in the context of situation However, both or all participants can understand exophoric reference items regardless of cultural

background

Reference items in English include three types The first type is personal reference which is

by means of function in speech and situation through the category of person It is expressed

by pronouns he, she, it, me, them, etc or determiners such as his, her, your, etc The second type is demonstrative reference which is by means of location on a scale of proximity including that, there, those, then, etc The last one is comparative reference which is by

means of identity or similarity and is expressed through adjectives and adverbs such as

same, identical, equal, identically, similar, else, different, other, etc Study the example of Halliday (1994: 312) as follow:

E.g Peter, Peter, pumpkin eater,

Had a wife and couldn’t keep her

He put her in a pumpkin shell And there he kept her very well

In this example, the words “he” and “her’ are understood by referring backward to Peter and his wife and the word “there” can be referred backward to “a pumpkin shell” Halliday use anaphoric reference in terms of personal and demonstrative type

2.4.1.2 Substitution

Substitution is defined by Halliday and Hasan (1976: 89) as “a relation between linguistic items, such as words or phrases and in terms of linguistic level, it is a relation on the lexico-grammatical level, the level of grammar and vocabulary” In simpler words, substitution is the replacement of an expression by another in a text to avoid repetition Sharing the same idea, Hoa (2000: 24) regards substitution as “a device which shows the relation between sentences, where it is derivable to avoid repetition.” Halliday & Hassan divides substitution

into three main types namely: nominal, verbal and clausal substitution

Firstly in respect to nominal substitution, substitute words are used to replace the head of a

nominal group In English, nominal substitution is realized by one, ones and same In addition, all, any, each, either, neither, some and none can behave in the same way

Secondly, in terms of verbal substitution, verbal substitute in English is do It operates as a

head of a verbal group in which it can be occupied by the lexical verb The position of the

verbal substitution do is always final in the group Finally, in clausal substitution, what is

presupposed is not an element within the clause but an entire clause The linguistic items

used as substitutes in English are so and not They are commonly used after verbs: think, hope, assume, guess, suppose… Look at some examples of Halliday (1994: 317-321):

E.g I’ve lost my voice

- Get a new one

E.g Have the children gone to sleep?

- I think they must have done

E.g If you’ve seen them so often, of course you know what they’re like

- I believe so

In these examples, the word “one” is used to substitute for the noun “my voice”, “done” for the verbal clausal “gone to sleep” and “so” for the clause “I know what they’re like”

2.4.1.3 Ellipsis

Ellipsis can be interpreted as the form of substitution in which the item is replaced by zero

or nothing In Halliday and Hasan’s point of view (1976: 142), ellipsis is “the omission of certain elements from a sentence, allowed by context.” In ellipsis, something is omitted in a structure but the missing part can always be retrieved from another structure Like

substitution, ellipsis can be studied in terms of nominal, verbal and clausal Firstly, ellipsis within the nominal group is divided into five types: specific deictic, non-specific deictic, post-deictic, numerative and epithets Secondly, ellipsis in verbal group is shown by the presence of mood but the absence of residue Lastly, clausal ellipsis takes the presupposing

clause as a basic structure where ellipsis occurs in constituents like the subject, complement, predicator and adjunct The missing part can be retrieved from the corresponding presupposed structure in another sentence The whole sentence can be omitted in this way

In the following example taken from Halliday (1994: 318), a clause is omitted, so it is called clausal ellipsis

E.g.: Can you row?

- Yes [I can row]

2.4.1.4 Conjunction

Conjunction is concerned with the use of formal markers to relate or connect clauses, sentences or paragraphs together It is different from reference, substitution and ellipsis because it does not point readers or listeners to previously pointed entities or state of affairs

Conjunction, in contrast, signals the ways to connect sentences together According to Cook (1989: 21), “conjunctions are words or phrases which explicitly draw attention to the type of relationship between one sentence and clause and another” In simpler words, conjunctions are used to connect sentences and clauses together into one text

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

adversative, casual and temporal Firstly, additive relation is the relation of adding

meaning among sentences Common conjunctions used in this relation listed by Halliday

and Hasan (1976) include: and, also, moreover, in addition, besides, etc Secondly,

adversative relation means “contrary to expectation” When the speaking process is

expressed, the listener or the hearer tends to expect some kind of information to be said, however, in this type the information appears in the opposite way Typical adversative

conjunctions are but, yet, though, however, on the contrary, etc Thirdly, casual relation

consists of two elements: cause and effect In most of situations, course will come before the effect, however, in reality; people sometimes put the effect first and then come to the

causes This kind of relation is expressed by some items such as: so, hence, therefore,

however, consequently… Lastly, temporal relation creates a unified and tied discourse On

the other words, discourse appears as a process of an episode with the development of a

time sequence There are three main types of temporal relation namely simple, complex and conclusive temporal relation

2.4.2 Lexical cohesion

Apart from grammatical cohesion, lexical cohesion plays an important role in developing textuality of discourse and creating cohesion in a text Lexical cohesion is one of the most significant features of cohesion According to Van (2006: 80-81), the concept of lexical cohesion was first defined in terms of collocation by Firth (1957), and then it was developed

by Halliday and Hassan (1976) Eggins (1994: 101) and Halliday (1985) share the same point of view by supposing that lexical relation analysis is a way of systematically describing how words in a text relate to each other, how they cluster to build up lexical sets

or lexical strings Lexical relation is the selection of items that are related in some ways to those that have gone before The followings are subtypes of lexical cohesion:

2.4.2.1 Reiteration

Reiteration is regarded as a significant feature of textuality Mc Carthy (1991: 65) writes 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 can be

divided into five subtypes, namely repetition, synonym or near-synonym, super-ordinate and general words

Repetition: refers to the same lexical item with the same meaning occurring more than one

time in the same discourse Repeated items are different from forms to the entities they denote If the repetition is used too much, the text will become monotonous and easy to

follow

E.g.: Algy met a bear The bear was bulgy

(M A K Halliday, 1994: 330)

Synonymy: refers to the relation between different words bearing the same meaning or

nearly the same meaning for a particular person, object, process or quality Because it is not easy to find two words which have the same meaning, near-synonym tends to occur more often than synonym

E.g.: He was just wondering which road to take when he was startled by the noise from behind him It was the noise of trotting horses… he dismounted and led his horse as quickly

as he could along the right-hand road The sound of the cavalry grew rapidly nearer…

(M A K Halliday, 1994: 331)

Super-ordinate: is the relation between a class and a subclass or a lower term and an upper term Super-ordinate is termed hyponym and two lower terms is named co-hyponym

General word: there are some general words serving as lexical cohesion and they fall on

major noun classes, such as “human nouns”: people, person, man, woman, child, boy, girl;

“object nouns”: thing, object; “place nouns”: place

2.4.2.2 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 Hassan (1976) “Word combination” or “word co-occurrence” is known as

collocation which brings a particular sense or meaning

Collocation has two subtypes: grammatical collocation and lexical collocation The first

one usually contains a lexical content word and a grammar function word There are four

main types of grammatical collocation: V + Prep, Adj + Prep, N + Prep, Prep + N The

second one is restricted by word pairs Lexical collocation do not contain preposition but consist of various combinations of nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs They can be seen

in following common patterns: Adj + N, Quant + N, V + N, N + V, V + Adv, V + Adj, V + V, Adv + Adj, N + N

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

1 An Overview of the English Textbook 11

1.1 The Role of the English Textbook in English Language Teaching

Textbooks are seen as a type of teaching and learning materials They are considered to be a key component in most language programs because of their function as a guide-map which helps learners know exactly what they have learned, what they are going to learn, and what they should revise for achievement exams Hence, textbooks, in the view of Hutchinson and Torres (1994) and Sheldon (1988), are the core of a language program or a language course and offer a variety of different benefits to both students and teachers

English textbooks, like textbooks in general, are a vital tool in the hand of English teachers and they have to know how to use it and how useful it can be English textbooks give primary supplements to teachers to plan their lessons appropriately and perfectively Thanks

to them, English teachers can know the focus of the lessons and examinations Students can comprehend the basic knowledge and skill as acquired

1.2 Description of the English Textbook 11

The new English textbook “Tieng Anh 11” or “English 11” was written by a group of lecturers of the University of Languages and International Studies (Vietnam National University, Hanoi) and firstly published in 2006 The syllabus of English 11 is the continuation of English 10

English 11, including sixteen units for two semesters, follows the theme-based approach

and is developed on six broad themes, that is, You and me, Education, Community, Nature and Environment, Recreation and People and Places Each theme, in its turn, is broken into

subthemes or topics which are used as titles for sixteen units in English 11 The titles for

sixteen units in English 11 are friendship, personal experiences, a party, volunteer work, illiteracy, competitions, world population, celebrations, the post office, nature in danger, sources of energy, the Asian Games, hobbies, recreation, space conquest, the wonders of the world

In each unit, there are five parts: reading, speaking, listening, writing and language focus

Reading skill is put at the beginning of each unit with the aim at introducing the topic and the language content of the unit and helping students with speaking, listening, writing skill and language focus part Reading texts, from 260 words to 320 words in length, are presented as a monologue or a dialogue to provide students with language base such as

words and structures which are vital to other skills

2 Research Methodology

2 1 Materials for Analysis

All materials used for analyzing in this study are extracted from sixteen reading texts in English 11 These reading texts, which are put at the beginning of each unit, are rather short and simple in terms of language use Despite of its simplicity, in each reading texts, there are a number of new words and structures for 11th grade students to acquire Many kinds of reading exercises are designed to check students’ use of language In addition, through the teaching process, the researcher realizes that the contents of most texts are familiar to

students, however, there are some passages unfamiliar to them such as Illiteracy, Source of Energy, Space Conquest and the Wonders of the World In other words, the variety in the content of reading texts may be challenging to students

2.2 Methods of the Study

This study aims at investigating the frequency of the use of cohesive devices in reading texts in English 11 to obtain the data for the study, some steps below are followed

Steps 1: Determine the Research Topic

Through the teaching process, the researcher realizes that 11th grade students have to meet with lots of difficulties and problems in learning reading Despite many problems in reading skills, the knowledge of cohesion seems to confuse them most Students tend to solve texts

by reading words by words or words in isolation and they have difficulties in capturing the overall or the main meaning of texts For this reason, the researcher has decided to carry out the study on the topic of cohesion in reading passages in English 11

Step 2: Determine and Define the Research Questions

The researcher begins with a review of the literature review to determine what prior studies have determined about this issue and uses the literature review to define the questions for

the study The two research questions solved in this study are:

1 What are the lexical and grammatical cohesive devices used in reading texts in English textbook 11?

2 How can the findings help English teachers and 11th grade students to improve reading skill?

Step 3: Build the framework for the study

The researcher has consulted a lot of books and studies related to the theories of discourse

in general and the theories of cohesion in particular These theories are used to build up the

framework for this study Although there are a lot of different opinions or views of scholars and researchers on cohesion, the theories of Halliday and Hassan (1976) are regarded as the basic to follow

Step 4: Collect the Data

After the framework is built, the researcher starts collecting the data for the study Firstly,

all sixteen reading passages in English 11, which are put in Source of Data part for

referring, are collected to assure the reliability and validity of the data Secondly, these reading passages have been analyzed in terms of grammatical and lexical cohesive devices relying on the given framework With respect to grammatical cohesive devices, the

frequency of use of reference, substitution, ellipsis and conjunction has been solved meanwhile with respect to lexical cohesive devices, the frequency of use of reiteration and collocation has been dealt with All the data collected from analyzing process has been

presented in ten tables (consulting lists of tables for details)

Step 5: Analyze the Data

The researcher studies ten tables of the data collected from collecting process Ten tables present the percentage of different types of grammatical and lexical cohesive devices Each table is analyzed basing on the percentage of each type and some illustrations are given,

then some comments on the common features of cohesion in reading texts in English 11 are drawn out

Step 6: Give Conclusions and Suggestions for 11 th Grade Students in Learning Reading

On capturing the overall picture of cohesive devices used in the reading passages in English

11, the researcher can draw some conclusions These conclusions are given basing on the data analysis At the end of the study, some suggestions and exercises on cohesion are given

to all 11th grade students and teachers for consulting

2.3 Data Collection Procedures

After deciding on the research topic, research questions and building the study framework,

the researcher has taken time to collect the data The methods of descriptive and statistical

have been used to gather the data The descriptive and statistical methods are used to list, number and describe all grammatical and lexical cohesive devices consisting items of

reference, substitution, ellipsis, conjunction, reiteration and collocation The frequency of

occurrence of each type through sixteen reading passages is summed up and illustrated

respectively in seven Appendices for referring

After gathering the data in these appendices, the author has to divide them into many subtypes and number the times of occurrence of each subtype Firstly, different types of reference is illustrated and drawn in the table 1 Besides, reference is understood in

concerned with three subtypes namely anaphoric, cataphoric and exophoric The

percentage of anaphoric, cataphoric and exophoric reference are shown in the table 2, 3 and

4 in succession Secondly, percentage of substitution and ellipsis are numbered and put

respectively in the table 5 and 6 in respect to three types: nominal, verbal and clausal Thirdly, percentage of four subtypes of conjunction: additive, temporal, clausal and adversative is presented at the table 7 Fourthly, items in reiteration such as repetition,

synonym, super-ordinate and general word are drawn at the table 8 Finally, table 9 and table 10 express 12 types of lexical and grammatical collocation In short, there are ten tables illustrating all important figures for this study and necessary analysis and discussion are drawn basing on these figures

2.4 Data Analysis Procedures

Analytical method has been restored to when dealing with data This step is regarded as the

most important since it is the source for discussion and suggestion parts To find out the significant features of each type of cohesion in English 11, the figures of each table have been analyzed In the process of analyzing each table, the author has given the percentage of frequent occurrence with respect to each type of cohesive devices and then some discussions and suggestions have been stated Thanks to outstanding features of cohesion in each type, 11th grade students are able to solve lots of reading exercises

CHAPTER 3: MAJOR FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

It can be seen from the data that the total of cohesion used in sixteen reading texts are 2385 items, in which grammatical cohesive devices take up 929 items, accounting for 39% while the lexical cohesive devices occupy 1456 items, representing for 61%

In terms of grammatical cohesion, reference accounts for the largest part with 595 ties, presenting for 64% Conjunction comes second by 31% with 289 ties Substitution and ellipsis explain for the smallest percentage in grammatical cohesion with only 1,8% and 3,2%

In terms of lexical cohesion, reiteration is used much more frequently than collocation While the percentage of reiteration is 71.1% with 1035 cases, collocation takes up 28.9%

types namely anaphoric, cataphoric and exophoric The table below shows the percentage

of each type of reference in detail

Reference Number of items Percentage Total

It can be seen from the table that anaphoric reference takes up the largest part with 70.9%

Anaphoric reference is found in all reading texts, but falls on mainly on three words: I, my and the The word “I” appears twenty-one times in unit 2 and twenty-two times in unit 13,

the word “my” occurs fourteen times in unit 2 and eight times in unit 13 Looking at the

frequency of appearance of two words I and my, students can guess the topic of reading

texts The word “the” is present in most reading texts, but concentrate on unit 2 (15), unit 5 (12), unit 6 (27), unit 12 (10), unit 15 (17) and unit 16 (16) Surprisingly, exophoric reference ranks second with 120 ties accounting for 20.2% Exophoric reference does not refer readers backward or forward to connect the text It is understood basing on background knowledge of readers or listeners Anaphoric reference tends to occur in topics related to nature, people and places such as unit 10: Nature in Danger, unit 11: Source of Energy, unit 15: Space Conquest and unit 16: The Wonders of the World Standing in the last position is cataphoric reference with 8.9% appearing five times in unit 1, 2, 7, six times

in unit 5 and seven times in unit 3

patterns in 16 reading passages in the English 11

It can be seen from table 2 that the personal pronoun takes up the largest part, accounting for

40.5% There are some common personal pronouns in sixteen units such as it, they, them, I,

my, him, he, she, her Here are some examples from unit 5 and 2 on personal pronouns:

- Those students who took part in the fight against illiteracy considered it an honorable job

to help people in their home villages

- In those days, my biggest dream was a red hat- a floppy cotton hat like the one my pop star idol wore in her video clip I thought I would look great in it

In the first example, the personal pronoun “it” is used to refer to an event “the fight against illiteracy” while in the second example, personal pronoun “it” is used to replace for an object “a red-floppy cotton”

It is not surprising for definite article to come second with 29.9% because definite article or

“the” is one special phenomenon in English Consider examples with “the” from unit 2 and 5:

- I got on the bus and sat down next to a schoolboy about my age The boy glanced at me

and turned away

- The Vietnam Society of Learning Promotion started a campaign for illiteracy eradication

In the campaign, six hundred (…) their home villages

“The” has a lot of meanings, however, it serves as an identifier of a particular individual or

a subclass of noun Furthermore, the main function of definite article “the” is to refer something which is stated or mentioned earlier in the text It means, “the” serves as an anaphoric one This can explain for the high frequency of use of definite article in reference

Personal determiner ranks third because of the high percentage of personal pronoun Look

at the example in unit 8:

- The kumquat tree with its ripe deep orange fruits is popular throughout the country Demonstrative pronoun, comparative adjective, comparative adverb and demonstrative adverb, which tend to make the texts more complicated and difficult to interpret, account

for a very small percentage of reference The aim of these reading passages is not only to improve reading comprehension for 11th grade students, but to provide them with structures and words for other skills as well This leads to the fact that these reading passages are rather simple and concise to understand

Table 3: The percentage of different types of reference words for cataphoric ties

Cataphoric reference, in table 1, accounts for the smallest part of reference, however, it is vital to vary the direction of reference and create the cohesion of the text Surprisingly, the definite article takes up the largest ties with 35 ties accounting for 66% Here are some

examples from unit 4 and 6:

- Volunteers believe that some of the happiest people in the world are those who help to bring happiness to others

- Last Saturday the representatives of three classes of my school took part in the annual final English Competition organized by our English teachers

In the first example, to find the meaning of “the happiest people” readers have to refer forward to “those who help to bring happiness to others” Likewise, in the second example, the meaning of “the representatives” can be understood by referring forward to “three classes of my school”

In fact, it is not difficult to explain for “the” phenomenon In fact, sixteen units in English

11 contain sixteen topics which are unrelated to each other As a result, the person, the object or the event which stands at the beginning of the text tends to refer forward into the text to connect the ideas together Cataphoric reference, by this way, can be illustrated through “the” ties In contrast, most of other patterns including personal pronoun, demonstrative pronoun, comparative adverb and demonstrative adverb take up a very small percentage While personal and demonstrative pronouns both take up 4 ties, accounting for 7.5%, comparative adverb, comparative adjective and demonstrative adverb all occupy 3 ties, representing for 5.7% Personal determiner comes last with only 1.9% of total In

general, cataphoric reference is not used frequently in units in the English 11 “The”, in particular, is employed in the largest percentage

Table 4: The percentage of different types of reference words for exophoric ties

Exophoric reference stands in the second rank in comparison with cataphoric and anaphoric

reference Like cataphoric and anaphoric reference, definite article “the” in exophoric type

occupies the largest part with 76.7% The high percentage of definite article “the” can be explained through different topics which are concerned with Nature, People and Places such

as unit 10: Nature in Danger, unit 11: Source of Energy, unit 15: Space Conquest and unit

16: the Wonders of the World On the other hands, other types such as personal pronoun,

demonstrative pronoun, comparative adjective, etc are used in very low percentage

Exophoric reference refers to objects or events which are out of language and it can be understood by all people without relation to the meaning of the text For this reason, it does not have much value in connecting the text together

Substitution is defined as a good cohesive tie to avoid repetition in a text It is a means of cohesive device that uses different words or phrases referring to the same entity Substitution, on the contrary to our expectations, occupies a very low frequency of occurrence There are only 16 ties of substitution in 16 reading texts Surprisingly, nominal substitution takes up 15 ties, representing for 93.8% of total The substitution “one”, “ones”

or “others” presupposes to nouns that function as heads in the nominal groups Consider the following examples from unit 2:

- In those days, my biggest dream was a red hat- a floppy cotton hat like the one my pop star idol wore in her video clip

- I saw a wad of dollar notes exactly like the ones my father had given me

Nominal substitution occurs in unit 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 12, 13 but mainly focus on unit 2, unit 4 and unit 13 Because substitution tends to make students misunderstand or misinterpret the reading passages, teachers should remind students when they deal with unit 2, 4 and 13 There is only one clausal substitution appearing in unit 2 in English 11:

- In those days, my biggest dream was a red hat- a floppy cotton hat like the one my pop star idol wore in her video clip (…) My father knew this, so on my birthday he gave me some money so that I could buy the hat for myself

Verbal substitution, in contrast, is not found in statistics data In fact, all the passages in English 11 are academic and good models of writing while verbal substitution tends to be used in speech instead of writing

In short, substitution accounts for a very low percentage of usage due to the conciseness and coherence of academic writing style To be more detailed analysis, the percentage of nominal substitution is very high in comparison with the percentage of verbal and clausal substitution This is made explicitly by the point of view of Halliday and Hasan (1976:

130), they suppose that verbal and clausal substitutes tend to be presented in speech

1.3 Ellipsis

Ellipsis, in the view of Halliday and Hasan, is the substitution by zero Furthermore, it is also considered to be an ideal way to avoid reiteration and to shorten the text It is something left unsaid but understood by readers or listeners In fact, there is little difference between substitution and ellipsis According to statistics, sixteen reading passages in

English 11 consist of 29 ellipsis items including all three classes namely nominal, verbal and clausal, which are presented in the table below:

Table 6: The percentage of ellipsis in English 11

Firstly, in sixteen reading texts, nominal ellipsis occupies the largest percentage with eighteen items, representing for 62.1% Nominal ellipsis is seen as the absence of the Head element within a nominal group To understand more about ellipsis in nominal group, it is necessary to know about the structure of a nominal group A nominal group usually consists

of a head and some optional modifications such as Pre-modifier and Post-modifier There

are a lot of elements which serve as modifiers including deictic, numerative, epithet and classifier In case the nominal group is elliptical, the head is omitted and one of the modifier

functions as a head Look at the examples from unit 5 and 7:

- They voluntarily spent their summer vocations teaching illiterate people to read and write Some even prepared relevant materials for their classes

- In A.D 1, there were 300 million It took 1,750 years for the world population to reach

625 million In 1850, only one hundred years later, the population reached the figure of 1,300 million In 1950, the figure had more than doubled to reach 2,510 million

In the first example, the word “some” replace for “some students”, and in the second example, the word “million” is used to replace for “million people” In both situations, numerative in pre-modifier is employed In these situations, it is unnecessary to repeat the head noun because it is too clear Furthermore, the overusing of noun repetition can make the text lengthy and monotonous

Secondly, verbal ellipsis takes up only six items, accounting for 20.7% These six items occur in four units: 5, 6, 7 and 16 Below are examples on verbal ellipsis:

- Only 10 percent of the Earth’s land can be used for farming and another 20 percent for raising animals

- Last Saturday the representatives of three classes of my school took part in the annual final English Competition organized by our English teachers

Lastly, clausal ellipsis accounts for the smallest number with five items for 17.2% Five elliptical items appear in unit 1, 2 and 3 Consider examples in clausal ellipsis from unit 2:

- I got on the bus and sat down next to a schoolboy about my age

- “How did you pay for it?” he asked

“[I paid for it] With the money you gave me for my birthday, of course, Dad” I replied

In summary, cohesion through verbal and clausal ellipses is limited because of their function in question Verbal and clausal ellipsis both tend to appear in question-answer structure which, in turn, usually occurs in conversations or dialogues In other words, verbal and clausal ellipses occur in speech rather than in written discourse Therefore, the appearance of verbal and clausal ellipses in academic and scientific reading texts in English

11 is in low rate

1.4 Conjunction

Conjunction plays a great role in creating cohesion of the discourse Conjunction, in Telemans’ (2001-2002: 9) words, does not set off a search backward or forward for its reference, but it presupposes a textual sequence and signals a relationship between segments

of discourse The analysis of conjunction will be studied in terms of four main types

classified by Halliday and Hasan (1976): additive, adversative, temporal and causal

Table 7: The percentage of conjunction in English 11

At the first look, it can be seen that additive conjunction occupies the biggest percentage of the total Additive conjunction takes up 183 items, accounting for 63.3%, in which the word

“and” occupies the biggest number of all In fact, “and” is the simplest form of conjunction

to link words, phrases or clauses to make the text cohesive and easily understandable Apart from “and”, some other additive words such as “or”, “for example” are also used to create cohesion in the text with much lower frequency Look at examples on additive conjunction

in unit 3 and 8:

- After that, Lisa opens her birthday cards and presents

- People visit other family members or friends, and they exchange New Year’s wishes

The high occurrence of additive conjunction may be due to the feature of reading passages

in English textbook for high school students Although these texts are academic, it is rather simple because its purpose is to train students’ reading comprehension and to provide source materials for other skills Due to the simplicity of the text, all information tends to appear in sequence Additive conjunction, as a result, is employed in very high rate

Temporal conjunction, which is used in rather high percentage, comes second with 66 items, accounting for 22.8% of total Look at the followings from unit 1 and unit 7:

- The first quality is unselfishness (…) Constancy is the second quality (…) Loyalty is the third quality (…) Trust is perhaps the forth quality (…) Lastly, there must be a perfect sympathy between friends

- In 10,000 B.C., there were probably only 10 million people In A.D 1 (…) In 1850, only one hundred years later,(…) In 1950, the figure had more than doubled (…) In 1985, only

35 years later,(…) In 2000, the world’s population(…)

Temporal conjunction is used to connect sequence of events or sequence of time Meanwhile, academic writings or reading texts in English 11 tend to focus on structures which are organized by many ways, two of which are time and event order The features of temporal conjunction in reading passages may be used intentionally by the author of the textbook in order to help students deal with the structures of an academic written documents The most significant items used as temporal conjunction are “when”, “then”,

“as” In addition, the structure “in + year” and the sequence of time such as “first, second, third, etc” are also employed many times

Adversative conjunction comes third with 27 items, representing for 9.4% Look at the example from unit 6:

- Hung apologized for not being able to complete the poem But Nga made it better (…)

While temporal conjunction is used to state or list facts or events in sequence of time or actions, adversative conjunction is used to contrast or prove facts Most reading texts in English 11 seem to list facts, events or activities in special occasions or special festivals The presence of adversative conjunction, hence, tends not to be popular Surprisingly, there

are only four words namely but, however, although, fortunately serving as adversative

conjunctions in sixteen reading passages in the English textbook 11

Causal conjunction presents the lowest frequency of use with only 13 items, representing for 4.5% Here are some examples in unit 1 and unit 4:

- There must be mutual trust between friends, so that each can feel safe when telling the other his or her secrets

- Most of these clubs use a lot of high school and college students as volunteers because they are young enough (…)

It is not surprising that causal conjunction stands at the lowest rank of conjunction Causal conjunction may be expressed by the relationship of cause-effect which tends to appear in essays instead of scientific documents Since reading texts in English 11 contain lots of facts, events or sequence of actions, it is difficult to catch cause-effect relationship there

Although there are a lot of expressions for causal conjunction such as so, thus, hence, therefore, because, because of, as a result, etc, in these reading texts, just some very

common kinds of causal conjunctions are used: “so that”, “so”, “because”, “thus”

In short, among four main types of conjunction, additive presents for the largest part while causal presents for the smallest part Besides, temporal and adversative are used in low percentage in comparison with two previous types This can help readers to imagine the features of reading texts in the course book for students of grade 11 The passages are expressed by explaining, listing and adding information in sequence of time or events These passages are not concerned with stating causes or contrasting ideas

2 Lexical Cohesion

2.1 Reiteration

Reiteration, in the definition of Halliday and Hasan (1976), is “a form of lexical cohesion which involves the repetition of a lexical item (…) and a number of things in between – the use of synonyms, near-synonyms, or super-ordinates.” According to Tran Ngoc Them

(2000: 106), “Lexical reiteration is a form of lexical cohesion in which the two cohesive items refer to the same entity and event” Reiteration is seen as a form involving the

repetition of lexical items, the use of a general word of a preceding item, the use of synonym, near synonym, or super-ordinate By analyzing elements of reiteration in reading

passages in English 11, a clear picture of the frequency of use as well as the cohesive functions can be drawn out The occurrence of reiteration is shown in the table below

Table 8: The percentage of reiteration in English 11

As shown in the table, among the four types of reiteration, repetition is the most used device with the percentage of up to 68.5% Super-ordinate ranking second takes up 18.2% Synonyms or near-synonym comes third with 10.7% General word accounts for the smallest portion of total with only 2.6%

frequently-First of all, the figures indicate that repetition is the most effective tool in gaining cohesion

in reading texts in English 11 A large number of repetitions can be understood because of certain aspects The first one refers to the language nature used in the textbook The English textbook for high school students is written in focus of TOPIC All parts in one unit

including reading, speaking, listening, writing, language focus are written topically In

reading texts, the words related to the topic of each unit, as a consequence, are often repeated many times For instance:

- The population of the (…) In 10,000 B.C., there were probably only 10 million people In A.D 1, there were 300 million It took 1,750 years for the world population to reach 625 million In 1850, (…), the population reached the figure of 1,300 million In 1950, the figure (…) reach 2,510 million In 1985, only 35 years later, there were 4,760 million people In

2000, the world’s population was about 6.6 billion, and by 2015 (…) over 7 billion

The example is taken from unit 7 with the topic “world population” It can be seen that the words “million, population, billion” are repeated respectively five, four and two times, it can be concluded that there is a close relation between the topic and words repeated in it or

repetition is one way to express the topic of the passages

The second aspect can be understood due to the language features Reading texts for 11thgrade students need to be concise and clear, so repetition seems to work If the writers use

too many synonyms or super-ordinates to replace repetition, the texts may be complex and difficult to understand and interpret

Secondly, super-ordinate occupies the second position with 188 items, accounting for 18.2% of total Interestingly, super-ordinate occurs more often than synonym in reading texts in English 11 However, it is not unbelievable due to some factors Firstly, super-ordinate appears quite frequently because it has close relationship with TOPIC and all the reading passages in English 11 are written in respect to topic Secondly, students have habit

of learning English basing on super-ordinate, especially learning new words They can learn words in general and then add their subclasses The authors of the English 11 may put super-ordinate as a cohesive device on purpose with the aim at improving students’ learning habits In summary, because of application of super-ordinate in learning English for 11thgrade students, it is occupied with rather high rate Look at these examples:

- Homes are often decorated with plants and flowers at this time Peach blossom is traditional at Tet in the North while apricot blossom is traditional in the South The kumquat tree with its ripe deep orange fruits is popular throughout the country One of Tet’s most special food is banh chung, which is made from sticky rice, green beans and fatty pork Mut, which is candied fruit such as sugared apples, plums or tomatoes, is also popular

This is a paragraph taken from unit 8: celebrations The word “flowers” is illustrated by

“peach blossom” and “apricot blossom”, “plants” is illustrated by “kumquat tree”, “food”

by “banh chung” and these words “apples, plums, tomatoes” can be expressed through the super-ordinate “fruit” “The North” and “the South” can be understood in the relationship with the super-ordinate- country

Thirdly, it is rather surprising that synonyms or near-synonym comes third with only 10.7% When repetition is overused, the texts tend to become too simple and easy to read In this case, synonym or near-synonym should be applied to make the text more challenging, flexible and diversified Synonymy, which can be nouns, adverbs or adjectives, is realized

by different words or phrases conveying the same meaning Synonym, implied in many exercises in English 11, is regarded as one of the most important knowledge in improving students’ English competence Consider examples in unit 3 and 6:

- Most married couples in the United States celebrate wedding anniversaries each year Husbands and wives give flowers or gifts to each other

- The maximum score for each activity is 15 points

In the last place, it is common for general word to be applied in a smallest portion In fact, the amount of general words in English is limited Therefore, 27 general words or 2.6% found in reading texts are reasonable Study some examples in unit 3 and unit 4:

- Today their family and friends are giving them a party Everyone eats some cakes and says

“Happy Anniversary!” to Rosa and Luis People also give cards and gifts to the anniversary couple

- Some of these clubs organize short trips to the mountains, beaches or other places of interest

2.2 Collocation

Collocation plays a very important role in making the text cohesive There are several of classifications of collocation according to the views as far as the nature of collocation concerned In this study, collocation is treated in terms of its structure classifications In the light of structure, collocation is divided into two types: grammatical and lexical collocation Basing on the statistics from the analysis, the total of collocation patterns in sixteen reading passages in English textbook 11 are 421 ties Lexical collocation takes up 361 items, accounting for 85.7% while grammatical collocation occupies only 60 items, representing for 14.3% Lexical collocation outnumbers grammatical collocation because grammatical collocation is formed by combination of closed class items whereas lexical collocation is expressed through open class items

361

Table 9: The percentage of lexical collocation in English 11

The table 9 provides an overall picture of grammatical collocations used in reading passages

in English 11 Collocations with nouns are outstanding with the highest percentage, ranging from 13.3% to 33.5% Among them, Adj + N pattern comes first with 121 items, illustrating for 33.5% of total In English, noun is preferred to be used at the highest frequency; this leads

to the high rate of adjective-noun collocation Study some examples in unit 13 and unit 16:

- However, I would not call myself an avid stamp collector

- Before Gagarin’s historic flight, there were still enormous uncertainties

Furthermore, the combination between verbs and nouns seems to be employed frequently in these reading passages Verb-noun collocation type occupies 91 items, representing for 25.2% of total Some examples on this type in unit 8 and unit 9:

- They clean up their houses, do their shopping or mow their lawns

- This speedy and secure service for transferring money can be useful

Although native speakers do not have habits of using verbs, verb-noun collocation, in this situation, accounts for a rather high percentage The high rate of this type is owing to the occurrence of nouns which is preferred in English One more reason for this phenomenon is because of the popular structure S V O which employs the presence of both nouns and verbs

In addition, the noun-noun collocation, contrary to our expectation, comes third with 74 ties

or 20.5% In Mai Thi Loan’s (2006) study, noun-noun collocation ranks first with 41.6% It can be seen that there is a big difference in this situation The difference can be explained

by the features of texts In technical documents, nouns tend to appear in combination with nouns, meanwhile, in academic documents, nouns tend to appear in the combination with various forms rather than nouns Consider the example from unit 12:

- It is an occasion when strength and sport skills are tested; friendship and solidarity are built and promoted

Moreover, the Quantity-noun collocation comes last with only 13.3% The Quant + N pattern is restricted because the number of quantity words in English is limited Followings are some specific examples in unit 4:

- Each city has a number of clubs where boys and girls (…) Some of these clubs organize short trips to the mountains, beaches or other places of interest Most of these clubs use a lot of high school and college students as volunteers (…)

Surprisingly, the collocations with verbs occupy very small percentages, ranging from 0.3%

to 2.5% Below are some illustrations of collocations with verbs in unit 6 and unit 7

- At first, things went smoothly

- The population of the world has been increasing faster and faster

In fact, English language tends to take advantage of nouns and noun phrases instead of verbs or verb phrases On the other words, verbs or verb phrases are not popular in English

language Consequently, in English, the presence of collocations with verbs is not frequent

Lastly, adverb-adjective collocation makes up a very small percentage, only 0.6% Since verbs tend not to be used in English; adverbs, as a result, are also employed in a very low percentage Furthermore, the small quantity of adverbs leads to lead to the low number of collocation of adverbs with adjectives Only two patterns of this part appear in unit 2, as

illustrated in following examples:

- I was extremely excited and decided to go to the shop at once

- Inside it, I saw a wad of dollar notes exactly like the ones my father had given me