The Use of Cohesive Devices in the Writings of Students of Adamu Augie College of Education, Argungu, Nigeria: Pedagogical Implication

The Use of Cohesive Devices in the Writings of Students of Adamu Augie College of Education, Argungu, Nigeria: Pedagogical Implication.

ABSTRACT  

The of cohesive devices has been identified as a problem faced by students of institutions. Students find it to have a coherent ; this may be a result of a lack of knowledge of cohesive devices.

This study focused on the use of cohesive devices in the writings of students of Adamu Augie College of , Argungu. The study also focused on some research objectives: finding out the type of cohesive devices used in students writing of narrative, expository and argumentative.

The research also seeks to answer some research questions: what type of cohesive devices do students used in the writings of argumentative, expository, and narrative essays, and the problems do they encounter in the use of cohesive devices in their writing?

Hypotheses were drawn to include there is no significant difference in the use of cohesive devices across the departments and in the three types of writing. An identification test was used as an instrument for data collection.

The statistical tools employed for this research were frequency count and percentages to analyze the data collected in relation to research questions while Chi-square was used to test the hypotheses.

The study shows significant differences in the use of cohesive devices in the three types of writing and across the departments. The findings show that there is a significant difference in the use of cohesive devices in the three types of writing. It is recommended that students should be given writing skills to allow them to write qualitatively. 

INTRODUCTION  

Students often present their writings with lots of problems especially in the use of cohesive devices which most of the time serves as a barrier to the understanding of the essays written by students, especially in academia.

They need to be encouraged to ensure text flow through a sequence of sentences, as this is a criterion in the evaluation of academic writing. Writers should be directed to the ideas they wish to express, as well as the sentences they use to express those ideas (Holloway, 1981&Supong, 2010, Smith, 1988).

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English defines cohesive as an adjective, connected or related in a reasonable way to form a whole.

Akindele (2011), Halliday and Hassan (1976), van Dijk (1992) are of the view that “cohesive devices are concerned with the principles of connectivity which bind a text together and force co-interpretation.

Akindele (2011) added that linguistic analysis is interested in analyzing sentence sequences in order to understand how meanings reflect mutual dependence in a text.

It is generally believed that a text whether written or spoken is only meaningful when the various segments are brought together to make a unified whole.”

This research work is aimed at evaluating a second language user’s ability in the use of the English language to select appropriate grammatical and lexical devices for effective communication and the formation of coherent text.

Halliday and Hassan (1976) identified three functions of language. These are ideational, interpersonal, and textual functions. 

REFERENCES

Adas D. (201), The Effect of Applying the Theory of Cohesion to the Teaching of Writing to
EFL learners: Journal of Al-Qudus Open University for Research and Studies 27 (1)
Adel, E and Saeid, E. Awareness of Lexical Cohesive Devices in Text and Reading
Comprehension.. IIhechi, Iran.
Akindele J. (2011), Cohesive Devices in Selected ESL Academic Papers. African Nebula issue 3
(100)
Alice, H. (2003) Readerble Writing : The Role of Cohesion and Redundancy.JAC 2 (1)
Alobo, J. O. (2008). Advanced English Grammar for Schools and Colleges .Kano: Afomat De
Printers
Ballard, K. (2009). The Frameworks of English (2nded) Chi Great Brattain Palgrave: Macmillan.
Bamberge, B. (1984). Assessing Coherence: A Reanalysis of Essays Written for National
Assessment of Education Progress. Research on the Teaching of English Teachers. 18,
305-319
Bex, T. (1996) Variety in Written English Texts in Society. Routledge : London and New York.

StudentsandScholarship Team.