A Study On High School Students’ English Writing Coherence

In the past thirty years, people have paid more and more attention to the theory ofcoherence and cohesion. Linguistic scholars from different schools gave differentinterpretations on coherence based on their own aspects of theories, which made thecategories of coherence broader and deeper. The theory has also aroused the interest amongChinese linguistic scholars. However, it is not well-received in high schools and theapplication of this theory in English teaching is still very poor, especially in the field ofEnglish writing. The majority of English teachers do not lay enough stress on the cultivationof students’ sense on coherence, and how to change this problem has been the principle issuemost of English teachers faced. In this case, the thesis plans to do a study to analyze thewritings of high school students, which aim to explore the application of coherence andcohesion theory in English writing. The thesis devotes itself to improving the proficiency ofhigh school students based on Halliday and Hasan’s theories.First, the thesis states the importance and significance of improving the levels ofstudents’ English writing.Secondly, the thesis reports the researches on coherence and cohesion at home andabroad, especially the application and academic results of the theory of coherence andcohesion in English writing and related fields. It gives a detailed introduction of Halliday andHasan’s theories, including cohesion, coherence and thematic structure.Then, the thesis introduces and analyzes the application of the related theories inShijiazhuang Foreign Language School. Through the research the author finds that thesituation of high school students’ English writing is not satisfactory. Either the teachers or thestudents have some problems. The students’ writings lack of materials and contents, useexpression of chinglish to make sentences, grammatical errors and so on. Though the teachershave noticed the importance of coherence, they do little in the practical drills of writing. Dueto the urgent time and heavy tasks, English teachers lay few stresses on the systemic teachingof writing coherence.According to the present situation and the existing problems, the author analyzes thestudents’ writings using the theories. At last, the author draws a conclusion to the research results and the means to improve students’ English writing proficiency.