Cohesion In Students’ English Writing:Problems And Solutions

As a basic language skill, English writing is a must as well as a greatest difficulty for English learners to master. For most English learners, writing a high-quality English composition is a huge challenge. Low-quality English writing is due to lack of cohesion devices and poor coherence of discourse in drafting process turns to be a main problem which many students face when writing in English. Therefore, how to guide students to use cohesion devices correctly, strengthen cohesion in wording and improve the quality of writing in English writing process is a worthy subject of study.In Cohesion in English, Halliday and Hasan (1976) point out that cohesion is the basis of coherence of discourse and coherence is the prerequisite for the formation of discourse, and that cohesion and coherence are both core contents of discourse study as well as important concepts of discourse analysis, which are mutually dependent.In recent years, many English language researchers and learners continue to attach importance to the study of cohesion theory. They pay more attention to theoretical study on cohesion theory, but less attention on how to guide students to conduct cohesion devices effectively in English writing process to improve the overall quality of English writing.The study takes Halliday and Hasan’s cohesion theory as the theoretical basis to analyze the cohesion problems in students’writing and factors for the problems. It attempts to prove the correlation between cohesion devices and writing quality and explore effective methods to apply cohesion theory to improve the quality of English Majors’writing.Firstly, the background, the purpose and the organization of the study are discussed in the present paper. Later the dialectical relationship between coherence and cohesion is analyzed. In the paper, it is pointed that the effective use of cohesion is an important prerequisite to ensure the textual coherence. Halliday and Hasans’s taxonomy of cohesive devices is also introduced. What’s more, previous researches and studies abroad and at home on the relationship between cohesion and writing quality are also reviewed.Secondly,30undergraduate English majors from Handan College were randomly selected as the research subjects for the16-week teaching experiment. In experimental process, experiment on textual level is focused and students are guided on the proper use of cohesion devices.30pre-test compositions (without any guidance or training) and30posttest compositions (with focused guidance or training) are comparatively analyzed. Through empirical research and experimental analysis, the research points out the variously problems of the students’application of cohesion devices in English writing and analyzes the common features of these problems. The research shows that the quality of the students’English writing after the experiment are significantly better than that before the experiment, and in the writing and revision process the students can consciously make use of cohesion devices to make their writings more fluent and coherent.Thirdly, the thesis comes to findings and discussion of the study. The findings of the study shows that students’writing quality has positive correlation with effectiveness of cohesive devices, but no correlation with frequency of cohesive devices. The thesis also analyzes the main factors for cohesion problems from language difference, language transfer and language proficiency. Besides, the thesis also proves that purposeful training for English majors on application of cohesive devices in English writing can effectively improve the quality of students’English writing. And this paper further brings out methods and suggestions on how to guide students to use cohesion theory to improve the quality of English writing. In addition, the study also provides a number of important implications for English writing teaching and studying.Finally, the thesis comes to a conclusion. The author summarizes the contents and results of the study and points out the limitations of the study. Additionally, the author puts forward suggestions and researching focus for future studies.