A Survey On The Use Of Cohesive Devices In English Writing Of Senior High School Students

Language acquisition requires a combination of input and output.As an effective output skill,English writing is of great importance.In recent years,The National English Curriculum Standards for Senior High School(2017 Edition,revised in 2020)sets higher requirements for students’ English writing ability,with more emphasis on cohesion and coherence of discourse.Besides,it clearly points out that in the process of writing,the proper use of cohesive devices can promote students to sort out the text structure,arrange the logic of the text and express their ideas fluently,thus improving the quality of writing.Based on the above,this study analyzes and discusses the use of cohesive devices in English writing of senior high school students,hoping to provide some instructive suggestions for teaching and learning of writing.In this study,questionnaires and semi-structured interviews are conducted respectively with 276 students and 5 English teachers in the second grade of a senior high school in S City,and 200 English writing samples are included for text analysis,aiming to explore the following questions:(1)What is the situation of the use of cohesive devices in English writing of senior high school students?(2)Are there significant differences in the use of cohesive devices by senior high school students in different genres of compositions?(3)Are there significant differences in the use of cohesive devices between the high-level group and the low-level group?The results show that:(1)The use of cohesive devices in English writing of senior high school students is generally at a moderate level.In terms of frequency of cohesive devices used,students use reference,conjunction and lexical cohesion more frequently than substitution and ellipsis.In terms of incorrect use of cohesive devices,students’ errors mainly include misuse,omission,redundancy and confusion of reference;misuse of substitution and non-substitution;misuse of ellipsis and non-ellipsis;improper,repeated and missing conjunction;improper collocation.(2)In compositions of different genres,there are significant differences in the use of lexical cohesion in senior high school students,while no significant differences in the use of reference and conjunction.Moreover,students use conjunction and lexical cohesion more frequently in practical writing than narration,while the use of reference is the opposite.(3)In practical writing and narration,there are significant differences in the use of reference,conjunction and lexical cohesion between the high-level group and the low-level group.Moreover,students in the high-level group use each cohesive device more frequently than those in the low-level group.Based on the above research results,this thesis,from the perspectives of teachers and students,puts forward specific suggestions on the use of cohesive devices in English writing of senior high school students,expecting to provide corresponding reference for future studies.