Functions Of Cohesion And Coherence In PEC

Proofreading and error correction can frequently be seen in China in nearly all kinds of English proficiency tests, on which part the EFL testees usually have poor performance and the EFL teachers also find it difficult to improve the learners' performance with effective instructions in their teaching. It is especially true of the Graduation Proficiency Test for the self-taught students majoring in English.This study focuses on the application of the theory of cohesion and coherence, namely about the function of cohesion and coherence over the performance of proofreading and error correction part in Graduation Proficiency Test. It is targeted at the self-taught students in China with English major and it intends to confirm whether the English learners' awareness about cohesion and coherence of the discourse could be cultivated through teaching, and whether it is possible to improve the testees' performance on proofreading and error correction by means of raising their related awareness.As the essential part of this study, an experiment is conducted with the subjects from two intact classes who are juniors majoring in English in Open College of Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, and they are identified as Control Class and Experiment Class. The experiment consists of three stages -pre-test, treatment and post-test and the data collected from the tests are analyzed with the help of SPPS. The results of pre-test indicate that there is no statistically significant difference between the two classes. After Experiment Class receives a treatment of ten-class-period training about the knowledge of cohesion and coherence, expectantly the post test results show statistically significant difference has occurred between the two classes. So the conclusion can be drawn that the knowledge about cohesion and coherence is conducive to improving the test takers' performance on proofreading and error correction, and it is mainly because their related awareness has been greatly raised, and accordingly they are able to spot the errors and make the right correction.