2023_The Use of Grammatical Cohesion Devices in the Academic Writing of the EFL Jordanian Undergraduate Students

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date 2023-03-13
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person Khaled Salem Amayreh
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spelling 16048 https://intelek.unisza.edu.my/intelek/pages/view.php?ref=16048 https://intelek.unisza.edu.my/intelek/pages/search.php?search=!collection3 General Document Malaysia Library Staff (Top Management) Library Staff (Management) Library Staff (Support) Terengganu Faculty of Languages & Communication English application/pdf 1.5 Server storage Scanned document Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin UniSZA Private Access UNIVERSITI SULTAN ZAINAL ABIDIN SAMBox 2.4.24; modified using iTextSharp™ 5.5.10 ©2000-2016 iText Group NV (AGPL-version) 292 Copyright©PWB2025 16048_1248ab1c8b41ae5.pdf 2023_The Use of Grammatical Cohesion Devices in the Academic Writing of the EFL Jordanian Undergraduate Students Khaled Salem Amayreh English language—Grammar—Study and teaching—Jordan Grammatical cohesion in EFL writing Cohesive devices in academic writing Cohesion and coherence in second language writing Academic writing is produced in the larger academic and local contexts as a distinct genre discourse in the linguistic and socio-cultural fields. Professional writers perform more than just connect well-formed sentences; they frequently use connections between sentences. Writing an essay remains a significant challenge for most EFL undergraduate students since they are still unable to build links between sentences to build good cohesion thus resulting in them producing less connected sentences in their paragraphs and the whole essay content. Hence, this study aims to investigate grammatical cohesion in the academic writing of English as a foreign language among Jordanian undergraduate students at the Department of Language and Literature, Hashemite University in Jordan. The study employed a mixed-methods research approach by using the following research instruments: expository essay writing, questionnaires, and semi-structured interviews. 30 pieces of expository essay writing scripts were collected from the respondents, 100 questionnaires were administered and 2 EFL instructors were involved in semi-structured interviews. For analysis purposes, this study employed the theory of cohesion analysis by refining the grammatical cohesive devices proposed by Halliday and Hasan's (1976) taxonomy of cohesion. The questionnaires were analyzed by using descriptive analysis generated from the SPSS version 25. Additionally, the interview responses were analyzed using Braun and Clark’s thematic analysis approach. The findings showed that Jordanian students depended on using reference cohesion, mainly demonstrative reference. The findings also revealed that grammatical cohesive devices were statistically significant in terms of appropriate/inappropriate use by EFL students. Specifically, it was found that reference (68.9%) was the most frequent type employed by the students, followed by conjunction (30.5%). Meanwhile, substitution and ellipsis were very rarely used by the students, and were scattered in the texts at (0.3%) each. Also, most of the grammatical cohesion errors in the students' texts were caused by Interlingual (52%) and Intralingual Transfer (48%). Moreover, the surveys' findings indicated that the students should be exposed to a wide variety of important skills, topics and strategies to enhance their writing. Based on interviews, respondents confirmed that students’ deficient use of cohesive devices in their writing was due to various factors, namely, negative learning habits, lack of reading, and lack of practice. The research concludes that effective implementation of grammatical cohesion is crucial for improving students’ ability in academic writing. English language practitioners, curriculum developers, and instructors must assess coexisting curricula, textbooks, and teaching techniques for the benefit of students. The present study may contribute significantly and conclusively to the body of knowledge in terms of grammatical cohesion theory and pedagogy. 2023-03-13 Dissertations, Academic Thesis
spellingShingle 2023_The Use of Grammatical Cohesion Devices in the Academic Writing of the EFL Jordanian Undergraduate Students
state Terengganu
subject English language—Grammar—Study and teaching—Jordan
Dissertations, Academic
summary Academic writing is produced in the larger academic and local contexts as a distinct genre discourse in the linguistic and socio-cultural fields. Professional writers perform more than just connect well-formed sentences; they frequently use connections between sentences. Writing an essay remains a significant challenge for most EFL undergraduate students since they are still unable to build links between sentences to build good cohesion thus resulting in them producing less connected sentences in their paragraphs and the whole essay content. Hence, this study aims to investigate grammatical cohesion in the academic writing of English as a foreign language among Jordanian undergraduate students at the Department of Language and Literature, Hashemite University in Jordan. The study employed a mixed-methods research approach by using the following research instruments: expository essay writing, questionnaires, and semi-structured interviews. 30 pieces of expository essay writing scripts were collected from the respondents, 100 questionnaires were administered and 2 EFL instructors were involved in semi-structured interviews. For analysis purposes, this study employed the theory of cohesion analysis by refining the grammatical cohesive devices proposed by Halliday and Hasan's (1976) taxonomy of cohesion. The questionnaires were analyzed by using descriptive analysis generated from the SPSS version 25. Additionally, the interview responses were analyzed using Braun and Clark’s thematic analysis approach. The findings showed that Jordanian students depended on using reference cohesion, mainly demonstrative reference. The findings also revealed that grammatical cohesive devices were statistically significant in terms of appropriate/inappropriate use by EFL students. Specifically, it was found that reference (68.9%) was the most frequent type employed by the students, followed by conjunction (30.5%). Meanwhile, substitution and ellipsis were very rarely used by the students, and were scattered in the texts at (0.3%) each. Also, most of the grammatical cohesion errors in the students' texts were caused by Interlingual (52%) and Intralingual Transfer (48%). Moreover, the surveys' findings indicated that the students should be exposed to a wide variety of important skills, topics and strategies to enhance their writing. Based on interviews, respondents confirmed that students’ deficient use of cohesive devices in their writing was due to various factors, namely, negative learning habits, lack of reading, and lack of practice. The research concludes that effective implementation of grammatical cohesion is crucial for improving students’ ability in academic writing. English language practitioners, curriculum developers, and instructors must assess coexisting curricula, textbooks, and teaching techniques for the benefit of students. The present study may contribute significantly and conclusively to the body of knowledge in terms of grammatical cohesion theory and pedagogy.
title 2023_The Use of Grammatical Cohesion Devices in the Academic Writing of the EFL Jordanian Undergraduate Students
title_full 2023_The Use of Grammatical Cohesion Devices in the Academic Writing of the EFL Jordanian Undergraduate Students
title_fullStr 2023_The Use of Grammatical Cohesion Devices in the Academic Writing of the EFL Jordanian Undergraduate Students
title_full_unstemmed 2023_The Use of Grammatical Cohesion Devices in the Academic Writing of the EFL Jordanian Undergraduate Students
title_short 2023_The Use of Grammatical Cohesion Devices in the Academic Writing of the EFL Jordanian Undergraduate Students
title_sort 2023_the use of grammatical cohesion devices in the academic writing of the efl jordanian undergraduate students