Research On The Application Of Discourse Cohesion In Senior High School English Writing

Writing has always been regarded as the embodiment of students’ comprehensive English ability,which can enable learners to initiate language knowledge and skills and fully exploit their creativity and imagination.However,previous researches show that senior high school students have some problems in English as second language writing,such as ambiguousnesss of expressing,unadequateness of vocabulary,lack of writing skills,particularly poor consciousness of discourse cohesiveness.This study,based on Hanlliday and Hasan’s discourse cohesion theory,builds up the conceptual framework to analyze cohesion devices including references,substitution,omission,conjunction and lexical cohesion,and applies discourse cohesion theory to the teaching of English writing in high school,to explore the applying impacts on high school students’ English writing,specifically to answer the following three questions:RQ 1.What are the differences in the application of cohesive devices by students of different English writing levels?RQ 2.What is the effect of English writing teaching based on discourse cohesion theory on the students’ writing performance of different levels?RQ 3.What is the impact of writing teaching based on discourse cohesion theory on students’ awareness of cohesiveness?The research conducted a ten-week teaching program based on the notion of discourse cohesion theory with 96 students from two parallel classes,Grade 2(3)and Grade 2(4)in a senior high school in Fuyang City.Tests and questionnaires before and after experiment were used to collect data,and the data were processed by SPSS20.0 for quantitative analysis.The research findings indicate that: 1.students of different writing levels employ cohesive devises differently.1)Significant differences exist among the three groups in terms of the application of references cohesion,among which,the students of the high-level group use the reference better than the medium-level and low-level group;2)In terms of the application of conjunction use,there exist significant differences in the three groups,among which students of the high-level group behave better than the medium-level group and the low-level group;3)In the terms of the application omission and substitution,there is no significant difference in the three groups;4)There are notable disparities in the use of lexical cohesive devices between students in the high-level group and those in the medium-and low-level groups,but no significant difference exist between those of the medium-and low-level groups.2.The application of discourse cohesion theory to high school English writing teaching is helpful to improve the writing ability of students of different levels,but the degree of influence vary in different writing levels: the greatest impact on the high-level group,followed by the medium-level group and the low-level group.3.The use of discourse cohesion theory in the teaching of high school English writing is beneficial to changing high school students’ attitudes towards writing and enhancing their awareness of discourse cohesiveness.The pedagogical implications from this study can be reached as followings:firstly,teachers should systematically explain various cohesive devices to inform the students of the discourse cohesion knowledge;secondly,students should carry out more cohesive writing training,to use cohesive means correctly to improve the writing quality;finally,students should improve their consciousness of cohesion and cultivate their cohesive ability in writing.Of course,there are some limitations in this study,due to the researcher’s limited theoretical knowledge and cognitive level,and the limited research time and scope caused by the COVID-19 epidemic.It is hoped that the discourse cohesion mechanism and application can be further studied more systematically in the future.