Cohesion in the Essays of Final Year Senior High School Students in Accra Academy
Date
2014-12
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Publisher
University of Ghana
Abstract
This study investigated cohesion in the texts of final-year senior high school
students. The purpose was to determine the types of cohesive devices that the
students use, with emphasis on inter-sentential cohesion, as well as the ones
they have problems with. In addition, the study aimed at ascertaining the
extent to which students' problems with the use of cohesive devices can be
attributed to the strategies teachers employ in teaching cohesion. Forty-five
essays written by final-year students were analyzed based on Halliday and
Hasan's (1976) classification of cohesion which are reference, substitution,
ellipsis, conjunction and lexical cohesion. The findings showed that students
have problems using reference, conjunction and lexical cohesion that they
depend on to write cohesive texts. Learners either misuse or overuse these
linguistic tools in trying to achieve cohesion. This confirmed the results of
previous studies. Also, eight teachers of English were made to answer
questionnaires and also identify cohesive devices in a short paragraph, to
determine whether the way cohesion is taught contributes to students’
difficulty in using cohesive devices. It was found out that, they were able to
identify all the intra-sentential ties, but failed to identify the inter-sentential
ones which were the focus of this study. Another revelation was that the
teacher-centered methodology employed in teaching cohesion did not offer
learners the opportunity to actively participate in the learning process. This
study concludes that, students' problems with writing cohesive texts are
attributed to their limited knowledge about the use of cohesive devices, lack
of vocabulary and the way teachers teach cohesion. It is recommended that
teachers of English should pay more attention to the teaching of vocabulary
particularly, synonyms, collocation and superordinate terms to increase
students’ vocabulary stock. Active learner strategies which ensure students’
active participation in the learning process, coupled with adequate practice
work will enable learners master the skill of writing cohesive texts.
Description
Thesis (MPhil) - University of Ghana, 2014