Teaching transition signals in ielts writing task 2 to pre intermediate efl learners a case study at a suburban english language center m a

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE TEACHING TRANSITION SIGNALS IN IELTS WRITING T

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HO CHI MINH CITY

UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES

FACULTY OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE

TEACHING TRANSITION SIGNALS IN IELTS WRITING TASK 2 TO PRE-INTERMEDIATE EFL LEARNERS: A CASE STUDY AT A SUBURBAN

ENGLISH LANGUAGE CENTER

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of English Linguistics & Literature

in partial fulfillment of the Master’s degree in TESOL

By

NGUYEN THI TRAM ANH

Supervised by

LE NGUYEN MINH THO, Ph.D

HO CHI MINH CITY, NOVEMBER 2019

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES

FACULTY OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE

TEACHING TRANSITION SIGNALS IN IELTS WRITING TASK 2 TO PRE-INTERMEDIATE EFL LEARNERS: A CASE STUDY AT A SUBURBAN

ENGLISH LANGUAGE CENTER

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of English Linguistics & Literature

in partial fulfillment of the Master’s degree in TESOL

By

NGUYEN THI TRAM ANH

Supervised by

LE NGUYEN MINH THO, Ph.D

HO CHI MINH CITY, NOVEMBER 2019

I am thankful for the continued support that the management of the Faculty of English Linguistics and Literature provided when I was working on my thesis

My genuine appreciation also goes to one of my colleagues, Mr Nguyen Hoang Kham, for all the generous and enthusiastic support as well as the invaluable and professional advice he has given to help me better understand the issue under study Next, I would like to thank a dear friend of mine, Mr Pham Hoang Huy, for having been there to patiently hear me whining about how challenging and exhausting it was

to write the thesis and for reminding me to comply with the APA (6th edition) style

My thanks also go to my sweetest friend, Ms Do Thi Thoa, for her words of encouragement when I was doing the thesis

Last but not least, I am very grateful to my incomparably caring and loving parents and my affectionate younger brother Without my parents, I would never have had the chance to pursue further study and to concentrate on completing my thesis I also feel blessed to have an extremely helpful younger brother who was always by my side to cheer me up when I suffered stress from my work and study

Without the encouragement, support and guidance provided by those named or unlisted, I would not have completed this Master’s Thesis

I appreciate all

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STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY

I hereby certify my authorship of the thesis submitted today entitled:

TEACHING TRANSITION SIGNALS IN IELTS WRITING TASK 2 TO INTERMEDIATE EFL LEARNERS: A CASE STUDY AT A SUBURBAN

PRE-ENGLISH LANGUAGE CENTER

in terms of the statement of Requirements for the Thesis in Master’s Program issued

by the Higher Degree Committee The thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in any other situations

Ho Chi Minh City, November 2019

Nguyen Thi Tram Anh

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RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS

I hereby state that I, Nguyen Thi Tram Anh, being the candidate for the degree of Master in TESOL, accept the requirements of University of Social Sciences and Humanities relating to the retention and use of Master’s Theses deposited in the library

In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original of my thesis deposited in the library should be accessible for the purpose of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the library for the care, loan or reproduction of the thesis

Ho Chi Minh City, November 2019

Nguyen Thi Tram Anh

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i

STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY ii

RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS viii

LIST OF TABLES ix

LIST OF FIGURES x

ABSTRACT xi

1 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY 1

1.2 AIM OF THE STUDY 4

1.3 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY 5

1.4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY 6

1.5 ORGANIZATION OF THESIS CHAPTERS 7

1.6 SUMMARY 9

2 CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 10

2.1 AN OVERVIEW OF IELTS WRITING TASK 2 10

2.1.1 Question types in IELTS writing task 2 10

2.1.2 Assessment criteria of IELTS writing task 2 11

2.1.3 Transition signals usage in IELTS writing task 2 12

2.2 THEORETICAL ISSUES ON TRANSITION SIGNALS 14

2.2.1 Coherence and cohesion 14

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2.2.2 Alternative terms to “transition signals” 16

2.2.3 Transition signals 18

2.2.4 The categorization of transition signals 19

2.3 TRANSITION SIGNALS IN EFL TEACHING AND LEARNING 23

2.3.1 The teaching of transition signals 23

2.3.1.1 Illustration 23

2.3.1.2 Interaction 24

2.3.1.3 Induction 25

2.3.2 The learning of transition signals 26

2.3.2.1 Commonly-used transition signals 26

2.3.2.2 Usage issues with transition signals 29

2.4 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK 30

2.5 SUMMARY 32

3 CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY 33

3.1 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 33

3.2 RESEARCH DESIGN 34

3.3 RESEARCH SITE 37

3.4 POSITION OF THE RESEARCHER 39

3.5 RESEARCH PARTICIPANTS 40

3.5.1 Teacher participants 41

3.5.2 Student participants 44

3.6 RESEARCH TOOLS 45

3.6.1 Teacher interview 45

3.6.2 Student questionnaire 48

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3.6.3 Documents 50

3.6.4 Classroom observation protocol 51

3.7 DATA COLLECTION PROCEDURES 54

3.7.1 Teacher interview 54

3.7.2 Student questionnaire 55

3.7.3 Documents 55

3.7.4 Classroom observation protocol 56

3.8 DATA ANALYSIS SCHEME 58

3.9 ETHICS 60

3.10 SUMMARY 61

4 CHAPTER 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 62

4.1 FINDINGS 62

4.1.1 The teaching of transition signals 62

4.1.1.1 Perception 63

4.1.1.2 Instruction 66

4.1.1.2.1 Textbook instruction 66

4.1.1.2.2 Teachers’ instruction 70

4.1.1.3 Teachers’ evaluation 74

4.1.2 The learning of transition signals 77

4.1.2.1 Commonly-used transition signals 77

4.1.2.2 Usage issues with transition signals 86

4.2 DISCUSSION 89

4.2.1 The teaching of transition signals 89

4.2.1.1 Perception 89

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4.2.1.2 Instruction 90

4.2.1.3 Teachers’ evaluation 91

4.2.2 The learning of transition signals 92

4.2.2.1 Commonly-used transition signals 92

4.2.2.2 Usage issues with transition signals 94

4.3 SUMMARY 95

5 CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSIONS 96

5.1 SUMMARY OF FINDINGS 96

5.2 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY 97

5.3 RECOMMENDATIONS 99

5.3.1 Teaching 99

5.3.2 Learning 102

5.3.3 Future research 103

5.4 SUMMARY 104

REFERENCES 105

APPENDIX A 110

APPENDIX B 111

APPENDIX C 112

APPENDIX D 113

APPENDIX E 115

APPENDIX F 117

APPENDIX G 118

APPENDIX H 119

APPENDIX I 122

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

EFL English as a Foreign Language

ELT English Language Teaching

IB IELTS Basic (the name of the IELTS course under study)

IELTS International Language Testing System

IWT2 IELTS Writing Task 2

TESOL Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages

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LIST OF TABLES

Table 3.1 Teacher Interview – Issues of Concern 47

Table 3.2 Student Questionnaire – Issues of Concern 49

Table 3.3 Function of the Research Tools 53

Table 3.4 IB Class Observation Schedule 57

Table 4.1 Transition Signals Indicating Sequence in IWT2 papers 77

Table 4.2 Transition Signals Indicating Addition in IWT2 papers 79

Table 4.3 Transition Signals Indicating Contrast in IWT2 papers 80

Table 4.4 Transition Signals Indicating Alternative in IWT2 papers 81

Table 4.5 Transition Signals Indicating Clarification in IWT2 papers 82

Table 4.6 Transition Signals Indicating Cause in IWT2 papers 83

Table 4.7 Transition Signals Indicating Result in IWT2 papers 83

Table 4.8 Transition Signals Indicating Example in IWT2 papers 84

Table 4.9 Transition Signals Indicating Conclusion in IWT2 papers 85

Table 4.10 Types of Transition Signals in IWT2 papers 86

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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 2.1 Categorization of transition signals 21

Figure 2.2 The teaching of transition signals 32

Figure 3.1 AntConc corpus analysis toolkit 59

Figure 4.1 Students’ responses for QI2 63

Figure 4.2 Students’ responses for QI3 66

Figure 4.3 Students’ responses for QI5 70

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ABSTRACT

This research aims to provide insights into the teaching of transition signals in IELTS writing task 2 (IWT2) to Vietnamese pre-intermediate EFL learners Carried out as a case study, it investigated how transition signals were taught to pre-intermediate students in five IELTS basic level classes at a language center in a suburb of Ho Chi Minh City The study focused on three issues: (1) teachers’ instruction on the use of transition signals in IWT2; (2) transition signals commonly used by students in IWT2 and (3) issues concerning students’ use of transition signals

It was found that the teaching of transition signals to pre-intermediate EFL learners was quite satisfactory given what was available in the context under study (e.g teacher and student perception of transition signals, teacher capabilities and students’ use of different types of transition signals in their papers) Generally, the role of transition signals in IWT2 was well aware of by teachers and students and there were

a number of activities employed by teachers that were deemed to be able to consolidate and improve their students’ use of transition signals However, there were apparent problems concerning the imbalanced use of certain grammatical forms and functions of different transition signals

Overall, the teaching of transition signals greatly influences the way transition signals are used in students’ IWT2 papers Hence, teachers’ instruction on transition signals should be elaborate Specifically, teachers should clarify the categorization of transition signals and check students’ comprehension of transition signals on a regular basis Moreover, it is recommended that teachers need to point out the differences of transition signals with similar functions, make use of authentic written texts to help students evaluate the use of transition signals in such texts, and systemize the way feedback should be given on students’ use of transition signals

Key words: teaching, transition signals, IELTS writing task 2, pre-intermediate EFL learners

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1 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

This chapter presents the background to the study by stating the importance of using transition signals as one of the vital means to guarantee the coherence and cohesion (i.e one of the assessment criteria) in IELTS writing task 2 (IWT2) Next, the research aim and three research questions, preceded by the rationale for the present study provided in the last paragraph of the previous section, are presented Then reasons for conducting this study are explained, followed by the scope of the study and organization of the thesis chapters

1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

Among four English language skills, writing appears to be a challenging skill to acquire and it is also an indispensable part in evaluating learners’ English language proficiency With respect to the difficulty of English writing skill, Richards (1990), Bliss (2001, cited in Vu, 2011), Cohen and Miller (2003) as well as Bailey (2011) claimed that writing is considered to be a demanding and daunting task for both first language and second language learners Particularly, in the context of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) such as Vietnam, writing has been seen as one of the skills that is troublesome for many Vietnamese learners (Vu, 2011; Nguyen and Le, 2012; Trinh and Nguyen, 2014) In spite of its difficulty, being good at writing skill seems

to be the evidence of individual academic success and the requirement in a number of further educational programs and professions (Richards, 1990; Zemach and Rumisek, 2005)

In order to measure language learners’ writing ability, many English language proficiency tests have included writing skill as part of their testing components A typical example of such proficiency tests is International English Language Testing System (IELTS) taken by a vast number of learners annually IELTS offers two writing tasks which are IELTS writing task 1 (IWT1) and IELTS writing task 2 (IWT2) for both academic and general modules Test takers could choose either

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academic or general module depending on their specific purposes Even though the first writing task for academic module is different from that of general module, the second writing task is the same in both modules In IWT2, learners have to write an essay with a minimum of 250 words in which they have to respond to an opinion, a problem or issue or they may be required to provide a solution, evaluate a problem and compare and contrast a number of ideas (Cullen, Amanda & Jakeman, 2014) Compared to the first writing task, IWT2 appears to be a much more challenging task

to most EFL learners

In order to assess how effectively test takers do IWT2, examiners will refer back to the four assessment criteria while scoring IWT2 papers These criteria include “task achievement”, “coherence and cohesion”, “lexical resource” and “grammatical range and accuracy” Among those criteria, coherence and cohesion are indispensable in the second IELTS writing task due to their interrelationship To achieve cohesion and coherence for a paragraph and/or an essay, cohesive devices are what should be highly considered Between the two types of cohesive device, one type of the grammatical cohesive devices (known as transition signals) is paid attention to since learning how to use transition signals effectively might partly help to achieve the cohesion as well as coherence in IWT2

The term “transition signals” refers to the device used to connect the ideas that writers want to convey in a piece of writing In fact, there is a bewildering variety of terms which are equivalent to “transition signals” such as “linking words”, “signposts”,

“conjunction” and so on so forth Varied as they might be, these terms all refer to the connecting device used in a written text to make the text more cohesive Among the aforementioned terms, the term “transition signals” has been chosen in the present study

Transition signals seem to be so important that they have been discussed in a great number of English academic writing books by authors like Oshima and Hogue (1998,

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2006, 2007), Swales and Feak (2012) Emphasizing the role of transition signals in writing, Oshima and Hogue (1998, 2006, 2007) stated that transition signals give the paragraph coherence as they help to link one idea to the next, which facilitates readers’ comprehension The use of transition signals is also emphasized in IELTS training books written by well-known authors like Hopkins and Cullen (2007) or Aish and Tomlinson (2012) It is noteworthy that those authors used different terms to indicate the connecting devices in a written piece For example, while Oshima and Hogue (1998, 2006, 2007) used the term “transition signals”, Hopkins and Cullen (2007) and Aish and Tomlinson (2012) used the term “linking words” or “connecting words” However, as stated earlier, all those different terms are used interchangeably with the term “transition signals”

Apart from that, “transition signals” and their significance are also the topic widely discussed in many research papers There are various empirical studies on the learning

as well as teaching of transition signals In terms of the teaching practice of transition signals, it has been widely agreed that students should be provided with explicit instruction on how to use transition signals in the writing lessons (Sugita, 2012; Rassouli and Abbasvandi, 2013; Anderson, 2014; Yin, 2017) There has also been a consensus that a variety of exercises or activities should also be embedded in the writing lessons to make sure that students could understand the use of transition signals (Hyland, 2004; Ahmed, 2010; Crosson and Lesaux, 2013; Rassouli and Abbasvandi, 2013; Anderson, 2014; Yin, 2017) and thereby use the devices effectively

Next, regarding the learning of transition signals, students’ use of transition signals and their problems when using such transition signals have been the choice of research topics of quite a large number of researchers Some of these researchers are Bolton, Nelson and Hung (2002), Narita, Sato and Suigura (2004), Ahmed (2010), Rahimi (2011), Khelifii (2014), Mahendra and Dewi (2017), Lam (2013) and Do and

Vo (2014) These researchers were interested in analyzing common transition signals

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used in students’ papers (i.e transition signals indicating addition, contrast, alternative and so on so forth) Concerning problems students usually encounter in using transition signals, most of these researchers identified such problems based on students’ overuse and underuse of transition signals From the investigation on kinds

of transition signal frequently used by students and students’ problems with the use of such transition signals, the above-mentioned researchers put forward suggestions or recommendations for teachers to improve their students’ use of transition signals in paragraph and/or essay writing

In essence, transition signal might not be a new research interest since there are a wide range of materials discussing the usage of transition signals and numerous studies focusing on how transition signals are employed in essay writing However, there are still limited researches concentrating on the teaching practice of transition signals Not to mention that, even fewer studies have been set out to explore how transition signals are instructed to pre-intermediate EFL learners, particularly in IWT2 Narrowing the scope down to Vietnamese English Language Teaching (ELT) context, the teaching of transition signals in IWT2 to pre-intermediate EFL learners seems to receive little attention Filling this research gap has motivated the researcher

to conduct the present study

1.2 AIM OF THE STUDY

This study aimed to explore the teaching practice of transition signals in IWT2 to pre-intermediate EFL learners at a suburban English language center in Ho Chi Minh City In order to achieve this aim, a case study of the IELTS Basic (IB) course specifically designed for pre-intermediate students was carried out at an English language center in the suburb of Ho Chi Minh City

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The study has three research questions In order to make it more succinct, the phrase

“pre-intermediate EFL learners” was replaced with “students” in the three research questions

1 How are students taught to use transition signals in IWT2?

2 What transition signals do students use in IWT2?

3 How do students use transition signals in IWT2?

Among these three research questions, the first research question focused on how the teaching of transition signals in IWT2 to pre-intermediate EFL learners was at the language center under study A critical and deep exploration of the teaching practice of such discourse feature required observing and recording not only teachers’ in-class activities but also students’ use of transition signals in IWT2

Therefore, the next two research questions were posed with reference to the learning

of transition signals or how transition signals were used in students’ papers Specifically, the second research question was raised to investigate types of transition signals used by pre-intermediate EFL learners in IWT2 papers The third research question looked for the ways students used transition signals when they did the second IELTS writing task Through the third research question, it was expected that both of the positives and negatives in students’ use of transition signals in IWT2 would be discovered Overall, it was hoped that the last two research questions could act as the premise to facilitate the understanding of how the teaching practice

of transition signals in IWT2 to pre-intermediate EFL learners took place at the language center under scrutiny

1.3 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

This study is worth conducting due to certain reasons First, the present study might help to fill the research gap, which was mentioned earlier in the last paragraph in section 1.1 Second, regarding the contribution of the present study to the field of ELT, especially in IWT2 training in Vietnam, this study might provide an overview of

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two following issues to IELTS trainers The first of which is how essential the teaching of transition signals to pre-intermediate EFL learners should be focused on The second of which involves how the guidance on using transition signals in IWT2 should be given insomuch that students’ awareness and their use of transition signals could be improved In general, the understanding of these two issues might be beneficial for teachers to optimize their own instruction on transition signals

More importantly, given the fact that this case study was conducted at a suburban English language center where the researcher is working, it might be worthwhile to be carried out owing to its practicality From the researcher’s observation and experience when working with pre-intermediate EFL learners following the “IELTS Basic” (IB) course at this center, this course is essential in such a way that during this course, pre-intermediate students start to get accustomed to IELTS writing tasks, especially IWT2 Moreover, only in the IB course are students’ attention drawn on the use of transition signals in IWT2, so providing comprehensive instruction on transition signals is the responsibility of teachers in charge of the IB course Hence, it is hoped that the findings from the present study would provide teachers or teachers-to-be at the research site with a more thorough view of pre-intermediate students’ use of transition signals in IWT2 as well as other teachers’ ways in teaching transition signals to students in the IB course Through which it is expected that teachers’ awareness of their own transition signal teaching practice in the IB course would be raised so that more effective instruction could be come up with in the existing or upcoming IB classes

1.4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The research was confined to discovering the teaching practice of transition signals in IWT2 conducted in the IB classes from August 2018 to April 2019 at an English language center located in a suburb in Ho Chi Minh City The researcher purposefully chose the IB course as this course is for pre-intermediate students, which is the target

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group of the present project The study drew its attention on exploring the teaching of transition signals in the IB course and quantitatively analyzing different types of transition signal employed by the students in their IWT2 papers in order to seek a more transparent view on teachers’ instruction on transition signals in the second IELTS writing task Based on the findings of the present project, certain recommendations were made to optimize the teaching of transition signals of teachers who are or will be in charge of the IB course delivered at the language center under scrutiny and those who share similar interest in the teaching practice of transition signals

1.5 ORGANIZATION OF THESIS CHAPTERS

There are five chapters in this thesis Chapter 1 begins with the first part outlining the study background by giving a brief introduction of IELTS writing tasks, specifically the second writing task Upon listing the assessment criteria for this task, the importance of using transition signals as one of the means to partly achieve the second writing assessment criterion (i.e coherence and cohesion) is emphasized In the first part of Chapter 1, previous studies on the teaching of transition signals as well as students’ use of transition signals in essay writing are also briefly summarized The rationale for the study was also provided in the last paragraph of the first section in the chapter The next part presents the aim of the research and three questions generated in parallel with such aim The third part of the first chapter presents the significance of the study This part sets out reasons why this project is worth conducting The following part presents the scope of the research Subsequently, the fifth and sixth parts in this chapter respectively present the organization of all the thesis chapters and provide the summary of the chapter itself

Chapter 2 contains five parts The first part provides more detailed information about IWT2 concerning its question types and assessment criteria The second part of this chapter provides theoretical issues on transition signals including the notion of

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coherence and cohesion, alternative terms to the term “transition signals” and reasons why the term “transition signals” was used in the present study Then, the definition and categorization of transition signals are stated The third part presents studies previously done on the teaching of transition signals and the learning (i.e students’ use) of transition signals in essay writing by EFL learners Accordingly, the conceptual framework of the present study is established in the fourth part of this chapter The last part of Chapter 2 summarizes the main content of the chapter

Chapter 3 consists of ten parts The first part restates the three research questions The second part highlights the description of the methodology adopted in the present study Next, to provide a thorough understanding of the place from which the research data were collected, the third part provides a description of the research site In the fourth part, the position of the researcher is clarified This part shows what was done

to minimize the data contamination that might result from the researcher’s position at the place under scrutiny The following part provides a description of the research participants (i.e teachers and students) In the next three parts, the instruments designed to collect data and procedures for collecting and analyzing data in the present project are described in detail The ninth part discusses the research ethics and the last part of this chapter summarizes the content of the chapter itself

Chapter 4 comprises three parts The first part presents the findings on the teaching and learning of transition signals in IWT2 at the language center under scrutiny Noticeably, findings on the learning of transition signals were considered the supplement that could facilitate the understanding of transition signal teaching practice in IWT2 to pre-intermediate students Subsequently, in the second part of this chapter, these findings are compared and contrasted with those in the previous studies listed in Chapter 2 Finally, in the third part, the chapter summary is provided

Chapter 5 includes four parts The first of which summarizes the findings presented in Chapter 4 The second part exposes the limitations of the study The following part

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offers certain recommendations for the teaching as well as learning of transition signals in IELTS writing task 2 and suggestions for future research are then put forward The fourth part gives a summary of this chapter

1.6 SUMMARY

This chapter has provided the background to the study, starting with an overview of IELTS writing tasks, IWT2 assessment criteria as well as question types, and the importance of using transition signals in writing, specifically in IWT2 Next, authors and researchers focusing on the use of transition signals in writing were mentioned Then the rationale for the present study was provided The next part of this chapter presented the research aim Based on this aim, three research questions were developed The following sections provide the significance, the scope of the study and the organization of the five thesis chapters

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2 CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

In the previous chapter, the background to the study, the research aim and question, in accompany with the scope of the research were provided This chapter presents a brief description of IWT2, the literature which the theoretical background of the present study was based on and particular studies previously carried out on the teaching and learning of transition signals

2.1 AN OVERVIEW OF IELTS WRITING TASK 2

Between the two types of writing tasks, IWT2 appears to be more formidable for many EFL learners (Friesen, 2017) owing to three reasons First, the fact that writing task 2 needs to be completed within 40 minutes and is worth twice as much as writing task 1 puts IELTS test takers under great pressure Second, the need to meet four writing assessment criteria including “task response”, “coherence and cohesion”,

“lexical resource”, “grammatical range and accuracy” in IWT2 also makes many test takers stressed (Cullen et al., 2014) Third, it is the appropriacy of writing style that makes IWT2 more challenging to many IELTS test takers With regard to the writing

convention, it was stated in Teaching IELTS (2012) that upon taking any modules of

the IELTS writing test, the writing style should be paid close attention to The group

of authors from Teaching IELTS (2012) emphasized that in the IELTS academic

writing test, the conventions of academic writing style should be followed To be more specific, since IELTS academic writing is “formal and impersonal”, the writer

or test taker is advised to focus on providing relevant facts or the argument, rather

than embed their personal feelings of the writer (Teaching IELTS, 2012, p 33)

2.1.1 Question types in IELTS writing task 2

In terms of the question types, as mentioned in 1.1, for both general and academic modules, test takers are obliged to write an essay with a minimum of 250 words in which they have to perform a number of tasks These tasks involve responding to an

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opinion, problem or issue, providing a solution, evaluating a problem or comparing and contrasting different ideas (Cullen et al., 2014) Such requirements are what shape the questions frequently asked in IWT2

In total, there are five types of IWT2 questions normally seen in the writing test The first of which is “opinion” question signaled by typical interrogative sentences such as

“What is your opinion?”, “Do you agree or disagree?”, “To what extent do you agree

or disagree” The second type is known as “advantages and disadvantages” question with its common interrogative sentences such as “What are the advantages and disadvantages of this issue?” or “Discuss the advantages and disadvantages and give your own opinion” (Aish, Short, Snelling, Tomlinson & Geyte, 2016; Pell, 2017) The third IWT2 question type is “discuss both views” (Pell, 2017) The fourth type is called “problem and solution” question which requires test takers to mention the cause and solution or effect and solution of the issue being discussed (Aish et al., 2016; Pell, 2017) The fifth type of question which may be asked in IWT2 is “two-part question” inquiring learners to give answers to separate questions on a particular issue An example for this is as follows: “As most people spend a major part of their adult life at work, job satisfaction is as an important element of individual wellbeing What factors contribute to job satisfaction? and how realistic is the expectation of job satisfaction for all workers?” (Pell, 2017)

2.1.2 Assessment criteria of IELTS writing task 2

To measure test takers’ writing ability in IWT2, four assessment criteria (see Appendix A) including “task achievement”, “coherence and cohesion”, “lexical resource” and “grammatical range and accuracy” are taken into consideration

The first criterion - “task achievement”, is fulfilled once the writer fully answers the essay question within the required word count The second criterion - “coherence and cohesion”, is satisfied if the organization or unity (i.e coherence) of the essay is guaranteed and if ideas in that essay are connected with one another by a number of

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linking devices (i.e cohesion) The third criterion - “lexical resource”, is met if the writer could use vocabulary with accuracy and appropriacy The fourth criterion -

“grammatical range and accuracy”, is fulfilled if the writer could use a wide range of

sentence structures which are grammatically correctly (Teaching IELTS, 2012, p 33)

Among the aforementioned criteria, coherence and cohesion are the two important elements as their existence helps create a well-structured essay in IWT2 It is believed that coherence and cohesion are interrelated in such a way that in order to guarantee the coherence of a paragraph, cohesive devices are what should be highly considered According to Cullen et al (2014), “cohesion means linking your ideas together clearly; without cohesion, you will have a list of sentences, rather than a connected paragraph or essay” (p 124) Due to the scope of the present study, only the use of transition signals (i.e one of the grammatical cohesive devices) was examined

2.1.3 Transition signals usage in IELTS writing task 2

Prior to discussing the importance of transition signals in the second IELTS writing task, it is essential to have a general overview of the use of transition signals in EFL essay writing in general

Upon confirming the importance of using transition signals in essay construction, Hyland (2004) stated that skilled writers’ regular use of “signposts” (i.e transition signals”) contributes to the clarity of a written text In other words, Hyland (2004) asserted that in order to make readers clearly understand the arguments, the task of a writer is to “provide appropriate transition statements when moving from one idea to the next and to regularly place signals in the text” (p 48)

In particular, when referring to the importance of transition signals in IWT2, Ferguson (2018), a popular IELTS trainer, stated that the appropriate, accurate and flexible use

of transition signals is one of the elements helping test takers to meet the second writing assessment criterion, namely “coherence and cohesion”

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To provide evidence on the indispensable role of transition signals in IWT2, one of the IWT2 papers written by Corcoran (2018), a well-known IELTS trainer, was examined (see Appendix C) From the analysis of this trainer’s IWT2 paper, it is apparent that transition signals come into existence in almost every part of the essay (i.e introduction, body and conclusion paragraphs) Below is a body paragraph written by Corcoran (2018) with response to an opinion question type:

“There are several reasons why I believe that schools should focus on teaching national literature and history Firstly, children enjoy learning about where they live, and by studying the ideas, culture and history of their own countries they begin to develop a sense of identity At the same time, this approach is appealing to parents, who studied the same books and historical events and can therefore help their children with school work English children, for example, read Shakespeare and learn about the Battle of Hastings just as their parents did, and there is educational continuity across the generations Finally, an emphasis on national literature and history gives educators a narrower teaching scope, making curriculum design an easier task.”

(An extract taken from one of Corcoran’s band-9 IWT2 papers, see Appendix C)

From the above extract in Corcoran’s (2018) IWT2 paper, it could be seen that there are a number of transition signals used with different purposes To present different supporting sentences, Corcoran used some transition signals indicating sequence such

as “firstly” and “finally” Within certain sentences, “and” – a transition signal introducing additional information, was also used Transition signals used to introduce

a result (i.e “therefore”) and an example (i.e “for example”) were also identifiable in Corcoran’s written text

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2.2 THEORETICAL ISSUES ON TRANSITION SIGNALS

The following parts provide the three theoretical issues on transition signals including (1) the alternatives to the term “transition signals”, (2) the definition of transition signals and (3) the classification of different types of transition signals in terms of their grammatical forms and functions

2.2.1 Coherence and cohesion

Prior to discussing a variety of terms used to refer to the connecting devices and different categories of transition signals, the notion of coherence and cohesion should

be taken into account

According to Celce-Murcia and Olshtain (2000), in order to produce an effective discourse, coherence and cohesion are the two elements that are of paramount Coherence refers to the unity of a piece of discourse (i.e written and spoken texts) and such unity is formed if sentences or utterances within that discourse are well connected with each other (Celce-Murcia and Olshtain, 2000, p 235) To put it simply, good coherence means that “a text is well-organized and clear in what it is

saying” (Teach IELTS, 2000, p 32)

Regarding cohesion, Celce-Murcia and Olshtain (2000) stated that “cohesion is the grammatical and/ or lexical relationships between the different elements of a text which hold across sentences or clauses” (p 235) Apart from these authors’ definition

of cohesion, Teaching IELTS (2012) briefly defined that “cohesion involves linking

ideas together within a paragraph or a text” (p 32) Mentioning how cohesion is formed, Celce-Murcia and Olshtain (2000) confirmed that “cohesion results from the use of various cohesive devices (e.g reference, repetition, substitution) to explicitly link together all the propositions in a text.” (p 235), which was also shortly stated in

Teaching IELTS (2012) that the improvement of cohesion might rely on the use of

linking words or phrases (p 32)

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Because Celce-Murcia and Olshtain’s (2000) initiation of the definition of coherence and cohesion is primarily used in discourse analysis, their definition is necessary to help understand the vital role of coherence and cohesion not only in written texts but also in spoken texts However, the focus of the present study was on the teaching of transition signals (i.e the term used to indicate connecting devices in writing) in IWT2 to pre-intermediate EFL learners Hence, the definition of coherence initiated

by Oshima and Hogue (1998, 2006, 2007) seemed to be much more appropriate as it

is specifically defined in academic writing

According to Oshima and Hogue (1998, 2006, 2007), coherence is one of the critical elements of a good paragraph A piece of writing is coherent if all the sentences in that writing are held together in such a way that there should not be a “sudden jump” but there should be a logical and smooth movement from sentences to sentences within a paragraph and from paragraphs to paragraphs within the whole written text (Oshima and Hogue, 1998, 2006, 2007) If a text is coherent, readers can understand the main points with ease (Zemach and Rumisek, 2005, p 82), so in order to maintain coherence of a written text, Oshima and Hogue (1998, 2006, 2007) suggested four ways: repeating key nouns, using pronouns that refer back to key nouns, arranging sentences in logical order and using transition signals

Although Oshima and Hogue (1998, 2006, 2007) did not mention the notion of cohesion, they did mention that the coherence of a written text could be strengthened with the use of repetitive key nouns, the use of pronouns which refer back to key nouns and the use of transition signals All of which indeed refer to the use of cohesive devices Therefore, it could be said that coherence and cohesion are interrelated to one another in such a way that the coherence of a written text could be achieved with the aid of cohesive devices (as stated in 2.1.2) Owing to their interrelationship, coherence and cohesion are grouped together as one of the IWT2 assessment criteria To obtain a certain band score for “coherence and cohesion” criterion, test takers need to meet certain requirements (see Appendix B)

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2.2.2 Alternative terms to “transition signals”

There are different terms to indicate the devices which are used to connect the ideas from one sentence to another and from paragraphs to paragraphs These include

“linking words”, “signposts”, “conjunctions” and “transition signals” Regardless of such variation, these terms all refer to the devices which serve to connect ideas from sentences to sentences and from paragraphs to paragraphs with particular functions such as adding extra information, comparing and contrasting ideas, clarifying an idea, giving examples and giving a reason or conclusion Among these terms, “transition signals” was used in the present study In 2.2.3, the reasons why this term was chosen will be pointed out

The first commonly used term that indicates connecting devices is “linking words”

In the their book - Official Guide to IELTS, Cullen et al (2014) used the term “linking

words” to indicate the connecting devices that should be used in IELTS writing tasks However, Cullen et al (2014) did not give any definitions on linking words but only briefly provided two exercises The first exercise requires learners to match the linking words and phrases with their correct functions (e.g connecting similar ideas, connecting different ideas, clarifying an idea, giving examples and giving a reason or conclusion) The other exercise asks learners to choose appropriate linking words or phrases for a given sentence (Cullen et al., 2014, p 124) Even though those two exercises could somehow implicitly instruct students how to use linking words, these exercises might not work for students at lower level as they would need more explicit guidance on linking words Overall, despite the lack of definition and the grammatical forms of linking words, certain functions of linking words such as connecting similar

or different ideas, clarifying an idea and giving a reason or conclusion are put forward

in the two exercises in Official Guide to IELTS written by Cullen et al (2014)

Also, upon mentioning the term “linking words”, in another IELTS teaching material

named Teaching IELTS (2012) officially published by Cambridge University Press, it

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is stated that “linking words” are considered to be the ones which act like “signposts”

to guide readers through and the ones that mark the text logical development (p 22) Although the definition of “linking words” is provided, it is only mentioned as what should be noticed in the IELTS reading test To put it differently, it is not in the writing practice section but in the reading practice section was the notion of “linking words” provided

Another term preferably used to refer to connecting devices is “conjunction”

According to Halliday and Hassan (1976), conjunction is one of the types of cohesive relation found in grammar (p 226) These two authors claimed that “conjunctive elements are cohesive not in themselves but indirectly, by virtue of their specific meanings; they are not primarily devices for reaching out into the preceding (or following) text, but they express certain meanings which presuppose the presence of other components in the discourse” (Halliday and Hassan, 1976, p 226) In essence, what Halliday and Hassan (1976) wanted to emphasize is that conjunction is different from other cohesive relations because it is not used as a means to seek for the preceding or following information in a written text Indeed, conjunction helps to build up the cohesion of a piece of writing based on the specific meanings (i.e additive, adversative, causal and temporal) that it conveys in the writing piece Regarding grammatical forms, conjunctions – as stated in the grammar sections on

“dictionary.cambridge.org” and “en.oxforddictionaries.com”, are categorized into two types, namely “coordinating conjunctions” and “subordinating conjunctions” and are used to link or connect phrases, clauses and sentences

Despite the expertise of Halliday and Hassan (1976) and Halliday (1985) in cohesion and in classifying different types of conjunction, their work was not based on in the present study because it appears that the ways that “conjunction” is defined and categorized are complicated in its nature, which might not be suitable to teach students at pre-intermediate level

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2.2.3 Transition signals

Transition signals can be expressions or phrases, subordinators, coordinators, adjectives, prepositions Transition signals are means for a piece of writing to achieve its coherence (Oshima and Hogue, 1998, 2006, 2007) as they help maintain the flow and establish clear relationships between ideas (Swales and Feak, 2012)

As stated earlier, there are different terms which can be used interchangeably with the term “transition signals” Such alternative terms are “linking words”, “signposts” and

“conjunction” In comparison with the term “transition signals”, these terms are more commonly used not only in IWT2 but also in English essay writing practice Despite the fact that the term “transition signals” might not be widely used in IELTS training,

it was chosen in the present study due to two reasons

First, in the materials where the above-mentioned alternative terms (i.e “linking words”, “signposts” and “conjunction”) are introduced, it is seen that such terms are not distinctively proposed in writing alone but in other skills as well, which might question whether connecting devices used in written texts are different from those used in spoken or listening texts Meanwhile, the term “transition signals” is the one officially presented by Oshima and Hogue (1998, 2006, 2007) in their book (i.e

“Academic writing”) with the sole focus on writing Hence, this seemed to be

reasonable enough for the term “transition signals” to be chosen in the present study whose focus is on IWT2 (i.e a 250-word essay)

Second, the reason why the work of Oshima and Hogue (1998, 2006, 2007) (i.e the use of transition signals to achieve coherence) was based on was that these two authors have provided a clear definition and detailed categorization of transition signals compared to many other authors

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2.2.4 The categorization of transition signals

The definitions and categorization of transition signals of some authors such as Oshima and Hogue (1998, 2006, 2007), Swales and Feak (2012), Aish and Tomlinson (2012), Hopkins and Cullen (2007) needs taking into account because of their detailed explanation towards the use of transition signals in writing This is especially true in the case of Oshima and Hogue (1998, 2006, 2007) or Swales and Feak (2012) The other two groups of authors (i.e Aish and Tomlinson, 2012 and Hopkins and Cullen, 2007) are mentioned as they are the experts in writing IELTS materials

Initially, upon mentioning transition signals in IELTS writing tasks, particularly IWT2, Aish and Tomlinson (2012) as well as Hopkins and Cullen (2007), whose expertise is in writing IELTS training materials, listed five different types of transition signals or linking words and phrases based on their function use These include linking words used to show “addition”, “contrast”, “reason”, “result” and “example” Although these authors provided the function use of transition signals, they did not fully clarify the grammatical forms of these transition signal types Moreover, the transition signals listed in these authors’ books are limited in number As a result, it is believed that the work of Oshima and Hogue (1998, 2006, 2007) in association with that of Swales and Feak (2012) should be looked into

According to Oshima and Hogue (1998, 2006, 2007) as well as Swales and Feak (2012), in general, transition signals are categorized in accordance with their grammatical forms and functions In Oshima and Hogue’s (1998, 2006, 2007) work, with reference to grammatical forms, there are three groups of transition signals including “sentence connectors” (including transition phrases and conjunctive adverbs), “clause connectors” (including coordinating conjunctions and subordinating conjunctions), and a mixed group called “others” This “others” group is referred to as

“phrase linkers” in Swales and Feak’s (2012) In terms of their functions, there are

to their grammatical forms and functions

When comparing the work of the aforementioned authors, it appeared that the way Oshima and Hogue (1998, 2006, 2007) initiated the classification of transition signals seems to outstand that of the other authors in terms of its detailed listing of the grammatical forms and functions of different transition signals However, one shortcoming in Oshima and Hogue’s (1998, 2006, 2007) work is that the naming of certain transition signal functions was not as concise as in the other authors’ (i.e Hopkins and Cullen, 2007; Aish and Tomlinson, 2012; Swales and Feak, 2012) work Therefore, in the present study, the classification of transition signal, particularly the categorization of transition signals in terms of their grammatical forms, was based on the work of Oshima and Hogue’s (1998, 2006, 2007) The naming of certain transition signal functions, on the other hand, was taken from the work of Hopkins and Cullen (2007), Aish and Tomlinson (2012) as well as Swales and Feak (2012) The categorization of transition signals according to their grammatical forms and functions

is presented in Figure 2.1

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Figure 2.1 Categorization of transition signals

Note Extracted from the work of Oshima and Hogue (1998, 2006, 2007), Swales and Feak (2012), Hopkins and Cullen (2007), Aish and Tomlinson (2012)

Figure 2.1 presents the classification of transition signals regarding their grammatical forms and functions In terms of the grammatical forms, transition signals are categorized into three groups, namely “sentence connectors” (including “transition phrases” and “conjunctive adverbs”), “clause connectors” (including “coordinating conjunctions” and “subordinating conjunctions”) and “others” With reference to their functions, transition signals are classified into nine groups which are “sequence”,

“addition”, “contrast”, “alternative”, “clarification”, “cause”, “result”, “example” and

“conclusion”

Since IWT2 requires test takers to give concrete evidence throughout the whole piece

of writing to clearly express their own viewpoints, it is essential for different functions of transition signals to be employed appropriately in the written products

First, to present the main ideas, transition signals that indicate sequence including

transition phrases such as “first/ second/ third/ next/ last/ finally” are highly considered These sequence transition signals could also act as adjectives preceded by

Transition

signals

Forms

Sentence connectors Clause connectors

ADJ/ N/ Prep phrase + N

Transition phrases &

Conjunctive adverbs

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article “the” and followed by a noun or noun phrases For instance, in order to list the first main idea in a paragraph, writers could use “the first reason is that (+clause)” (Oshima and Hogue, 1998, 2006, 2007)

Second, according to Oshima and Hogue (1998, 2006, 2007) as well as Swales and Feak (2012), to introduce an additional or extra idea, writers could use transition

signals indicating addition such as “in addition/ furthermore/ moreover/ besides/ also/

so/ and” They could also use adjectives such as “another” and “additional” followed

by a noun or noun phrase to provide an extra idea in the written text (e.g “pollution is another issue worth putting into consideration”)

Third, regarding transition signals which could be used to introduce an opposite idea

or contrast, Oshima and Hogue (1998, 2006, 2007) listed some common words and

phrases such as “on the other hand/ in contrast/ however/ nevertheless/ instead/ still/ nonetheless/ but/ yet/ although/ though/ even though/ whereas/ while” or “in spite of/ despite (+noun)”

Fourth, in Oshima and Hogue (1998, 2006, 2007), the suggested transition signals

introducing a choice or an alternative appeared the least with only three words, namely “otherwise/ or/ if/ unless” Similarly, transition signals indicating clarification

(the fifth function) also appeared the least (i.e only “in fact/ indeed/ that is” were provided) (Oshima and Hogue, 1998, 2006, 2007; Swales and Feak, 2012)

Although transition signals used to introduce cause (i.e the sixth function of

transition signal) were not identifiable in Oshima and Hogue (1998, 2006, 2007), these were listed in the work of other authors Typical examples of transition signal indicating cause are “because/ since/ as/ because of/ due to/ owing to” (Swales and Feak, 2012; Hopkins, 2007)

Next, concerning transition signals used to introduce a result (i.e the seventh function

of transition signals), Oshima and Hogue (1998, 2006, 2007) recommended words

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like “accordingly/ as a result/ as a consequence/ therefore/ consequently/ hence/ thus/ so” as the ones commonly used within this function category

Next, to introduce example (i.e the eighth function of transition signals), “for

example/ for instance/ an example of (+noun)/ such as (+noun)” are those provided in

Oshima and Hogue’s (1998, 2006, 2007) Last but not least, a piece of writing is often completed with transition signals indicating a conclusion or summary (i.e the ninth

function of transition signals) such as “in brief/ in conclusion/ in short/ in summary” (Oshima and Hogue, 1998, 2006, 2007)

2.3 TRANSITION SIGNALS IN EFL TEACHING AND LEARNING

This section presents a number of studies focusing on transition signals in EFL teaching and learning Based on the direction of the present research, the studies which are about to be listed below are divided into two parts The first part comprises research papers focusing on the teaching of transition signals in essay writing The second part consists of studies emphasizing how EFL learners use transition signals when writing essays Upon reviewing studies on EFL learners’ use of transition signals, it was commonly found that the analyses of transition signals in those studies were mostly based on Oshima and Hogue (1998, 2006, 2007) as well as Halliday and Hasan (1976, cited in Khelifii, 2014)

2.3.1 The teaching of transition signals

In response to how transition signals should be taught, the Induction” language awareness model (McCarthy and Carter, 1995; McCarthy, 1998, cited in Yin, 2017) is put into consideration

“Illustration-Interaction-2.3.1.1 Illustration

“Illustration” involves teachers giving “real chunks of language” for students to look

at (Baocale, 2017) To illustrate how transition signals are used in a particular context, Crosson and Lesaux (2013) and Yin (2017) recommended that teachers should

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provide “data-driven learning” activity in which students are given a number of written texts selected from a corpora Based on such written texts, students would have a closer look at the ways transition signals are used Crosson and Lesaux (2013) and Yin (2017) emphasized that sample written texts could raise students’ awareness

of using transition signals and help students use transition signals more effectively

2.3.1.2 Interaction

“Interaction” refers to the way teachers use particular activities to help students form views on how a specific discourse pattern (i.e transition signals, in this case) is employed in the written products (Baocale, 2017) It is also noteworthy that in the interaction stage, teachers should not take students’ ability to use transition signals for granted because not all students are able to use the grammatical forms and functions

of transition signals correctly (Mahendra and Dewi, 2017) In order to guarantee that students have already understood the use of each type of transition signal, pedagogic task whose aim is to “promote learners” discrete skills should be put into consideration (Hyland, 2004, p 113) There are three typical examples of such pedagogic tasks including “paragraph writing”, “cloze test” and “judging”

In the first task (i.e “paragraph writing”), students are asked to write a short paragraph in response to a particular topic When writing the paragraph, students are required to use a range of transition signals suitably to make their written texts coherent and cohesive (Crosson and Lesaux, 2013; Mahendra and Dewi, 2017) Another variation of “paragraph writing” involves having students generate example sentences with some given transition signals (Hyland, 2004, p 114)

To design the second task (i.e “cloze test”), a model text with transition signals being omitted is provided There is one gap for each “cut-out” transition signal in the model text and students are required to think of appropriate transition signals to fill the given gaps This task type is also recommended by Hyland (2004, p 114) but with a different name (i.e “completing gapped paragraph”)

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The third type of task is known as “judging task” In this task, students are provided with a written text in which some transition signals are used correctly and some are not Students are then asked to judge whether different categories of transition signals are used properly in that text or not For the transition signals used incorrectly in the given text, students are requested to replace them with others that are more appropriate (Crosson and Lesaux, 2013; Rassouli and Abbasvandi, 2013; Mahendra and Dewi, 2017; Yin, 2017) Another variation of “judging task”, mentioned in Hyland’s (2004, p 114) involves students judging or analyzing how transition signals are used in a particular text Based on the analysis of the use of transition signals in the sample text, students would learn how to employ the grammatical forms and functions of specific transition signals accurately in their own written products One more version of “judging task” involves teachers providing two written texts One of the texts contains transition signals and the other lacks transition signals The purpose

of this version is to help students realize the importance of using transition signals in a writing piece (Rassouli and Abbasvandi, 2013)

2.3.1.3 Induction

The last element in the language awareness model proposed by McCarthy and Carter’s (1995) and McCarthy (1998) is “Induction” which involves teachers drawing conclusions of the significant features of the subject under examined (Baocale, 2017) The conclusions of transition signal usage could be drawn from teachers’ feedback and detailed explanation concerning the use of each type of transition signals According to Sugita (2012), students are likely to use transition signals more effectively in their papers as long as teachers could provide useful feedback on their students’ use of transition signals

Apart from that, Ahmed (2010), Rassouli and Abbasvandi (2013), Anderson (2014), Mahendra and Dewi (2017) as well as Yin (2017) made it clear that learners tended to understand the use of transition signals when they received detailed explanation on

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the use of different kinds of transition signal Especially, students need to be explicitly explained on the appropriate and inappropriate use of different types of transition signal and only when they have understood the usage of such transition signals would they be given authentic examples on how these transition signals are employed or incorporated into academic writing (Anderson, 2014; Mahendra and Dewi, 2017; Yin, 2017)

Emphasizing the role of teachers’ explicit instruction on transition signals, Rassouli and Abbasvandi (2013) stated that the range of transition signals would vary depending on how thorough teachers’ guidance on the usage of transition signals is Regarding the extent of teachers’ thoroughness in providing instruction on transition signals, Anderson (2014) also recommended that to better students’ use of transition signals, teachers should provide additional instruction on the differences of transition signals that have relatively similar meaning such as “but”, “yet” or “however” For instance, although “yet” and “however” both indicate the contradiction between the two opposing ideas, “yet” seems to have a stronger level of contrariness in comparison to “however”

2.3.2 The learning of transition signals

The discussion of EFL learners’ usage of different types of transition signals in their writing pieces in this section includes two parts While the first part provides some researchers’ findings of the most frequently used transition signals in students’ papers, the second part presents issues arising from students’ use of transition signals

2.3.2.1 Commonly-used transition signals

It was realized that researches into EFL learners’ use of transition signals are mostly based on the classification of transition signals introduced by Halliday and Hassan (1976) and by Oshima and Hogue (1998, 2006, 2007)

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For instance, Bolton, Nelson and Hung (2002), Narita, Sato and Suigura (2004), Rahimi (2011) in accompany with Khelifii (2014) took Halliday and Hassan’s (1976) categorization of conjunction (i.e an alternative term to “transition signals”) into consideration when discussing the use of transition signals in EFL learners’ papers Apart from Halliday and Hassan’s (1976) classification framework, Oshima and Hogue’s (1998, 2006, 2007) categorization of transition signals was chosen by some other researchers such as Mahendra and Dewi (2017) as well as Lam (2013) Irrespective of which classification framework is used, the types of transition signals are in common

First, regarding transition signals indicating sequence, even though it is stated in

Khelifii’s (2014) study that “firstly/ secondly” were used the most in learners’ papers,

it is found in the studies of Bolton et al (2002), Narita et al (2004), Lam (2013), and Mahendra and Dewi (2017) that “first/ second” were spotted in a great number of papers

Second, regarding transition signals indicating addition, while Bolton et al (2002),

Rahimi (2011), Lam (2013), Khelifii (2014) found that “and” was mostly used, Mahendra and Dewi (2017) explored that it was “also” that was used the most in students’ papers Although Lam (2013) and Khelifii (2014) both concurred that

“also”, “moreover” and “furthermore” were tended to be used widely in students’ papers, Bolton et al (2002) and Rahimi (2011) claimed that “also” and “moreover” were few in number in students’ papers

Third, in terms of transition signals indicating contrast, it comes as no surprise that

“but” was used densely in learners’ papers in comparison with other transition signals indicating contrast (Bolton et al., 2002; Narita et al., 2004; Rahimi, 2011; Lam, 2013; Khelifii, 2014; Mahendra and Dewi, 2017) In addition to using “but”, the student participants in the studies of Bolton et al (2002), Narita et al (2004) and Lam (2013) also favored “however” Khelifii (2014) also put “although” in the list of the most