Application Of Cohesion And Coherence Theory To English Writing In Senior High School

The rapid development of the global economy and the increasing international trade both demand cultivating high-level English talents, especially the talents with a mastery of English writing. With this, Chinese education raises its requirements for English writing competence.Take Jiangsu Province for example, the English writing score in the National Matriculation English Test (NMET) accounts for 21% of the total score. Therefore, cultivating students'English writing ability becomes more important than ever to high school English teaching.English writing ability is the embodiment of a person's comprehensive qualities in organizing ideas and knowing how to use the language. Among the qualities are the knowledge and competence in the discursive cohesion and coherence, which are important contributing factors.However,little attention has been paid to them on the part of students as well as on the part of their teachers. Besides, there is little research on the application of the cohesion and coherence theory of the text to the teaching of high school English writing. How to apply the cohesive coherence theory effectively to the teaching of high school English writing so as to enhance the students' writing ability is still a very difficult problem.Against this background, the author applies cohesion and coherence theory into senior high school writing teaching, in an attempt to improve the learner's writing competence and arouse their interest in writing. Cohesion and coherence refer to the links that hold chunks of text together. The importance of cohesion and coherence lies in the continuity it expresses between one part of the text and another and this continuity can make the writing coherence, on top of smooth and natural. According to the descriptive framework developed by Halliday and Hasan(2001), cohesion includes cohesive ties like reference, substitution, ellipsis, conjunction,reiteration and collocation, all of which help learners to realize the linguistic form in text and use them in the writing better.The current study investigates three questions:1 ) What are the reasons for improper cohesion and incoherence in high school students'English writing?2 ) To what extent have the students changed their attitude to English writing after applying text cohesion and coherence?3 ) To what extent have teachers changed their concept of writing teaching after applying text cohesion and coherence?80 senior high students from two classes (Senior 3) of Wuxi Xidong high school in Jiangsu Province, attended this 3-month study. Both Pre-test and Post-test methods were acquired to ensure study's validity and reliability. The pre-test suggests there is no significant difference between the experimental class (EC) and the controlled class (CC) in writing proficiency, The post-test carried out by the end of the experiment indicates that students in EC got their writing ability improved. Besides, the analyses from questionnaires before and after the experiment, as well as the interviews confirm that the cohesion and coherence theory adopted in the present study increase interest and improve the writing ability especially for the medium achievers in the class in senior high school.There are six chapters in the present thesis. Chapter One gives a brief introduction to the background, present situation, purpose and significance of the current study. The framework of the whole thesis will also be included. Chapter Two gives a review of content and the current development of the cohesion theory both at home and abroad, and the relationship between cohesion and coherence and English writing. The concept of text, and the connotation of texal cohesion and coherence, apart from the relationship between them and the significance in English writing are mentioned in Chapter Three. Chapter Four deals with the methodology of the research, including research questions, instruments, participants and the detailed research procedures. The elaborative analyses and discussions of the data collected from the tests,questionnaires and interview will be presented in Chapter Five. Chapter Six is a concluding part,in which major findings, implications and limitations will be related.