A Study On The Use Of Cohesive Devices In English Writings By Senior High School Students

For EFL learners,writing is usually believed to be the most difficult part of four English skills(listening,speaking,reading and writing).Nowadays,the National English Curriculum Standards for Ordinary Senior High School puts forward higher English writing requirements and pays greater attention to cohesion and coherence.Cohesion is of great importance in writing quality.Therefore,based on Halliday and Hasan’s theory of cohesion and coherence,this study analyzes English writings by senior high school students and tries to help teachers and students understand the importance of cohesive devices used in English writings.Based on some cohesion theories and researches on cohesive devices at home and abroad,with 120 writing samples written by Ding Yuan senior high school students and with the help of the interview,this study aims to address the following three questions:1.What is the overall situation of the use of cohesive devices in English writings by senior high school students?2.What errors exist in the use of cohesive devices in English writing by senior high school students?3.What are the causes of these errors?Through the analyses of the writing samples and qualitative data from the interview,findings of the present study can be concluded as follows:Firstly,reference,lexical cohesions and conjunction are the most frequently used in students’ writings,while substitution and ellipsis are used quite less.The sequence of the frequency of grammatical and lexical cohesion is listed as this: reference,lexical cohesion,conjunction,substitution,and ellipsis.Secondly,errors existing in the use of cohesive devices in students’ writings are overuse of simple repetition and comparative reference;misuse of personal pronouns;not skillfully used lexical items and conjunction.Thirdly,the causes of these problems can be concluded as lack of language input,negative language transfer,awareness of lexical cohesion and inadequate training of using cohesive devices.According to the findings,there are some implications for improving senior high school students’ writing quality.From teachers’ angles,firstly,when teaching a new word,teachers can encourage students to think about its synonym and explain with the words which have been learned.Secondly,comparing the differences in cohesive devices between English and Chinese will help students to avoid the negative language transfer.Thirdly,put more emphases on writing methods and change the evaluation of writing.Lastly,teachers should emphasize the training of cohesive devices in teaching.From students’ angles,they are supposed to do more practice to develop their abilities in English writing.Secondly,it is necessary for students to learn different means of cohesion and raise their awareness of using them.Lastly,students should read more to increase their language input,which will not only help enrich their vocabulary but also develop their interest in English writing.