A study of reiteration in the latest IELTS reading passages

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING QUY NHON UNIVERSITY U ỌC TÚ DUYÊN A STUDY OF REITERATION IN THE LATEST IELTS READING PASSAGES Field Study: English Linguistics Code: 8.22.02.01 Supervisor: Assoc., Prof., Dr NGUY N QUANG NGOẠN BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO TRƯỜ ĐẠI HỌC QU HƠ NGUY N NGỌC TÚ DUYÊN H TRO C U H CÁC BÀ ĐỌC H ỂU E TS MỚ HẤT C M 8.22.02.01 S TS U N QUANG NGOẠN i STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I hereby declare that I am the sole author of the MA thesis entitled “A study of reiteration in the latest IELTS Reading Passages” The thesis contains no material published elsewhere or written by other people except where reference is made in the text of the thesis This thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in any other tertiary institution Binh Dinh, 2021 Nguyễn Ngọc Tú Duyên ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Assoc Prof Dr N uy n Qu n N o n w o s v n m lp ul v us ul r r n s and constant encouragement throughout this study I am greatly indebted to all the lecturers for their valuable teaching that has enlightened my research path My particular thanks go to my colleagues at Le Quy Don High School and my family for their whole-hearted help and sympathy during my study Binh Dinh, 2021 NGUY N NGỌC TÚ DUYÊN iii ABSTRACT The research focuses on the types of reiteration, and the lexical and syntactical realization of reiteration in the latest IELTS reading passages Based on the theory of cohesion, 30 IELTS reading passages collected from the latest five IELTS Practice Test books were investigated in the light of Halliday and Hasan’s (2014) framework of cohesion The findings show that in terms of reiteration, repetition is the most frequently used device in all reading texts to make the reading semantically related As a result, students will benefit greatly from such lexical cohesion in terms of grasping the meaning of the reading texts, and boosting their reading comprehension and theme-based vocabulary Hopefully, this thesis is a preliminary study for further research on applying lexical cohesion in teaching and learning reading comprehension skills, thereby providing grounds for students to find out strategies for answering various question types used in IELTS Reading Passages iv TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP i ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv LIST OF CONVENTIONS AND ABBREVIATIONS vii LIST OF TABLES viii LIST OF FIGURES ix CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale 1.2 Aim and objectives 1.2.1 Aim of the study 1.2.2 Objectives 1.3 Research Questions 1.4 Scope of the study 1.5 Significance of the study 1.6 Definition of terms 1.7 Structure of the thesis CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 2.1 Review of previous relevant studies 2.2 Theoretical background 13 2.2.1 Reading 13 2.2.2 Discourse and cohesion in discourse 14 2.2.3 Cohesion and Coherence 18 2.2.4 Cohesive Devices 19 v 2.2.5 Grammatical Cohesive Devices 20 2.2.6 Lexical Cohesive Devices 23 2.2.7 Reiteration 24 2.3 Summary 27 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY AND PROCEDURE 28 3.1 Research Design 28 3.2 Data Collection 30 3.3 Data analysis 32 3.4 Steps of collecting and analyzing data 33 3.5 Validity and Reliability 33 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 34 4.1 Types of reiteration used in IELTS Reading Passages 34 4.2 Lexical realizations of reiteration in the latest IELTS reading passages37 4.2.1 Verbs and Verb Phrases 38 4.2.2 Nouns and Noun Phrases 42 4.2.3 Adjectives and Adjective Phrases 47 4.2.4 Lexical realizations of each type of reiteration used in IELTS reading passages 51 4.3 Syntactic Realizations of Reiteration 59 4.3.1 Verbs 60 4.3.2 Nouns 60 4.3.3 Adjectives 62 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS 64 5.1 Summary of the Development of the study 64 5.2 Summary of the Findings 64 5.2.1 Summary of the types of reiteration in the chosen IELTS reading passages 65 vi 5.2.2 Summary of lexical and syntactic realization of reiteration in the chosen IELTS reading passages 65 5.3 Implications 67 5.4 Limitations of the Study 69 5.5 Suggestion for further Research 69 REFERENCES 72 vii LIST OF CONVENTIONS AND ABBREVIATIONS R Repetition S Synonym or Near Synonym Sup Superordinate G A general word CAM Cambridge viii LIST OF TABLES N0 Tables Page 1.1 Structure of an IELTS Reading Test 3.1 Source and topics of the IELTS reading passages 31 3.2 Framework for the analysis of reiteration types 33 4.1 Syntactic Realizations of Reiteration in the five latest IELTS Reading passages 59 59 them into separate semantic entities at the same time which then as a whole get cohesively linked into a whole semantically united structure With regard to types of reiteration, syntactically, they are parts of speech Particularly, they are verbs, nouns and adjectives The syntactic functions of reiteration are predicative, subject or object, premodifier, respectively Semantically, the diversification in the use of reiteration provides semantic harmony to IELTS reading passages The types of reiteration help to form their complete semantic circles, highlight their significant place in the texts and renovate their meaningful part in illustrating the look of the texts There are approaches to identifying the right answer to the questions The IELTS Reading passages employ four types of reiteration; however, they make sentences cohesive and coherent 4.3 Syntactic Realizations of Reiteration Following is a table of syntactic realizations of reiteration in the five latest IELTS Reading passages Table 4.1: Syntactic Realizations of Reiteration in the five latest IELTS Reading passages Part of speech of reiteration Syntactic Functions Verb Predicative Noun Subject Object Adjective Premodifier Table 4.1 indicates how reiteration function syntactically in IELTS reading passages They are parts of speech namely verbs, nouns, adjectives, which serve as predicative, subject or object and premodifiers in the passages, respectively 60 4.3.1 Verbs According to Quirk et al., Verbs serve as a predicative in the sentence Let us consider the following example in IELTS reading passages Example 4.38: ―T syst m woul r tly reduce the incidence of many infectious diseases that are acquired at the intercultural interface Although the system would consume energy, it would return energy to the grid via methane generation from composting non-edible parts of plants It would also dramatically reduce fossil fuel use, by cutting out the need for tractors, plou s n s pp n ‖ (CAM 11 p19) As can be seen from the texts that the repetition is one of the cohesive devices the writer uses to connect ideas among sentences Those are the repetitions of the word ―r u ‖ ―R u ‖ serve as predicative in each sentence they belong to Example 4.39: ―T y flourish in warm, sunny climates where there is a minimum of 400 millimetres of rain per year, and not more than 800 millimetres Like grape vines, the trees thrive in poor soil, putting down deep roots in search of mo stur n nutr nts ‖ (CAM 12 p16) As can be seen from the texts that two verbs ― lour s ‖ and ―t r v ‖ which are synonymous serve as predicative in each sentence they belong to 4.3.2 Nouns According to Quirk et al., nouns are words that modify verbs They mostly play the role of the subject or an object • Noun as Subject Quirk et al state that syntactic function of nouns is the subject in a sentence Following is an example in IELTS reading texts 61 Example 4.40: ―A or n to ts propon nts geo-engineering is the equivalent of a backup generators: if Plan A – reducing our dependency on fossil fuels – fail, we require a Plan B, employing grand schemes to slow down or reverse the process of global warming Geo-engineering has been shown to work, at least on a sm ll lo l s s l ‖ (CAM 11, p.25) It is obvious that the word “geo-engineering” is a noun and repeated twice Therefore this is a case of repetition, one type of reiteration Geoengineering serves as the subject in two sentences in the chosen passage • Noun as Object According to Quirk et al., nouns serve as objects in sentences Let us consider the following example in IELTS reading texts Example 4.41: ―A m jor r wb k o v rt l rm n ow v r s t t t pl nts would require artificial lighting Without it, those plants nearest the windows would be exposed to more sunlight and grow more quickly, reducing the efficiency of the system Single-storey greenhouses have the benefit of natural overhead light: even so, many still need artificial lighting ‖(CAM 11, p 18) The above example includes the repetition of the word “artificial lighting” They are nouns and function as objects 62 40% Subject 60% Object Figure 4.11: Percentage of syntactic realizations of reiteration of Nouns in the latest IELTS reading passages Figure 4.11 illustrates the proportion of syntactic realizations of reiteration as Nouns including Subjects and Objects As can be seen from the chart, 60% cases of reiteration which have syntactic realization as Nouns play the role as Subjects while the proportion of reiteration of Nouns as Objects is 40% 4.3.3 Adjectives Quirk et al state that adjectives function as premodifiers in noun phrases Below is an example Example 4.42: ―T y un ortun t ly s ttl cool and too remote to b prop rly The collapse of their isolated on n xtr m ly r rt l s l sl n – dry, by w n blown vol n v l s t on D mon wr t s s s … ―worst-case scenario for what may lie ahead of us in our own future The moai, he thinks, accelerated the self-destruction Diamond interprets them as power displays by rival chieftains who, trapped on a remote little sl n ‖ (CAM 11, p.46) 63 In the text above, readers can recognize synonymy through the words remote and isolated These words help to show the cohesion in the text 4.4 Summary So far, this chapter has presented the findings and discussion of reiteration in chosen IELTS reading passages The reiteration types and the lexical and syntactic realization of reiteration are all examined and presented in detail with the illustration of tables and charts In the next chapter, conclusions are systematically drawn and implications are logically suggested 64 CHAPTER CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS This chapter ends up the thesis It begins with the conclusions drawn out from the findings Then, it continues with some relevant implications Finally, it discusses the limitations of the study and makes some suggestions for further research 5.1 Summary of the Development of the study As stated in the previous chapter, this thesis focuses on the types of reiteration in the latest IELTS Reading Passages and how they are realized in the latest IELTS Reading Passages as well as the frequency of types of reiteration in the latest IELTS Reading Passages In order to carry out the research successfully, the theoretical background of cohesion, grammatical and lexical devices, reiteration and types of reiteration as well as related issues are stated in the literature review An outline is also made to specify the steps of the study As the data collection is concerned, 30 passages in the latest Cambridge IELTS books were taken and analyzed basing on the qualitative and quantitative methods to investigate the reiteration types, the parts of speech of reiteration’s occurrence and the frequency of these types, and the realization of syntactic functions expressed in the passages The issues under investigation have resulted in the findings and discussions which are summarized next 5.2 Summary of the Findings The summary of the findings in this study can be reviewed in the two main aspects The first aspect is the analysis of reiteration in the chosen 65 IELTS passages in terms of reiteration types The second is the lexical and syntactic realizations of reiteration in the surveyed IELTS passages 5.2.1 Summary of the types of reiteration in the chosen IELTS reading passages The data analysis shows that a variety of reiteration types are used in the chosen IELTS passages in the latest Cambridge IELTS books such as repetition, synonym or near synonym, superordinate and a general word Among the reiteration types presented in the IELTS passages, repetition and synonym or near synonym are more frequently used than the other types 5.2.2 Summary of lexical and syntactic realizations of reiteration in the chosen IELTS reading passages a Lexically, the category of Adjectives accounts for only a small number; whereas, cases of reiteration as Nouns is the highest Additionally, the proportion of Verbs is half as high as that of Nouns Especially, the reiteration’s occurrence as adverbs is not found in the chosen IELTS reading passages In details, in terms of Verbs and Verbs phrases, the figure for cases of reiteration as Verbs outnumbers that as Verb Phrases It is evident that most of the cases of reiteration are found as Verbs; whereas only a small proportion belongs to Verb Phrases; as a result, the proportion of reiteration occurring as Verbs dominates over that as Verb phrases Moreover, as for types of Verbs in the cases of reiteration in the latest IELTS reading passages, it is obvious that the figure for lexical verbs is nearly twice as high as that for auxiliary verbs As for Nouns and Noun Phrases, it can be concluded that the percentage of reiteration as Nouns is three times as high as that as Noun Phrases In the aspect of types of Nouns in the cases of reiteration in the latest IELTS reading passages, it is clear that common nouns is the most frequent, 66 followed by proper nouns Other types of Nouns are arranged from the most common to the least one ranging from countable nouns, uncountable nouns, compound nouns, concrete nouns, abstract nouns to collective nouns respectively With regard to Adjectives and Adjective Phrases, the proportion of the former is much higher than that of the latter In addition to this, among 11 types of adjectives, the percentage of descriptive adjectives is the highest while the least belongs to proper adjectives Other types of adjectives are not found in the chosen IELTS passages b Syntactically, verbs serve as a predicative in the sentence Moreover, nouns are words that modify verbs They mostly play the role of the subject or an object Obviously, it can be concluded from the proportion of syntactic realizations of reiteration as Nouns including Subjects and Objects, a great many of cases of reiteration which have syntactic realization as Nouns play the role as Subjects while the proportion of reiteration of Nouns as Objects is lower Furthermore, adjectives function as premodifiers in noun phrases In short, the study results show that repetition - a type of reiteration is densely used throughout all of the chosen IELTS reading passages Not only does this provide a semantic unit of the text but such lexical cohesion also generates a marked cohesive effect across sentence boundaries Added to this, it can be safely assumed that reiteration is an essential tool to aid students’ reading comprehension with regard to understanding texts at ease It is unnecessary for them to grasp the meaning of every single word, but they can use the surrounding words and the link among sentences and ideas as reading guides As a result, students are likely to manage the reading tasks effectively and their lexical resources are boosted significantly In this study, an attempt has been made to find out how often the types 67 of reiteration are used in IELTS reading passages as well as the lexical and syntactic features, thereby highlighting the important role of the realizations of reiteration in Reading Passages of IELTS tests In terms of parts of speech, the reiteration comes in the forms of verbs, nouns and adjectives Their syntactic functions include predicative, subject or object, premodifier, respectively Typically, the diversification in the use of reiteration provides the harmony to IELTS reading passages The repetition of the same lexical items also highlights their significance in the overall lexical stock of the texts and renovates their meaningful part in portraying the thematic outlook of the texts Moreover, the reiteration of key people, objects and concepts using alterate words and phrases creates lexical chains, which not only serve to bind the sentences and paragraphs together but also reinforce the main messages of passages 5.3 Implications This study is carried out in an attempt to analyse reiteration in terms of types of reiteration, the frequency of types of reiteration as well as their lexical and syntactic features Therefore, the findings have some important implications for learning and teaching the reading skill, and particularly for those who intend to take the IELTS test As Fabiana (2007, p 78) states, ―S n sv l x tor tn stu nts‘ l o s on t ory to t t l n u v m nts w tr n n o t proficiency is the n try to stu nts‘ r n pply t b l ty T more repeated information points in two sentences of the same text, the closer their relations are.‖ + Implications for learners First of all, with a view to gaining the effectiveness in taking IELTS 68 reading texts, it is advisable that test takers should pay attention to reading requirements on specific assessment tasks and perceive similarities and differences in reading requirements They are also asked to speculate on how useful they think the sample IELTS tasks are likely to be prepared for the reading demands Secondly, the types of reiteration are used for the vast majority of items in the IELTS reading passages with many tasks which mainly require basic comprehension of relatively small textual units (sentences inter- sentences, paragraphs) Such tasks within the academic fields should be set as weekly exercises or on exams and tests, and regard the need for students to understand certain discipline-based concepts as the focus + Implications for teachers Additionally, in teaching reading comprehension in general and IELTS reading skills in particular, it is imperative that teachers should give instructions to students to find out key words Usually, students must skim or scan the text first to find the right section and then, having found the relevant section, they are to read for details When students read for details, they read every word in a text and think carefully about the meaning of every sentence It is often necessary in IELTS Academic Reading to read a certain section of a text in detail in order to answer a question correctly For test takers reading quickly is preferred because they need to find answers to the question as quickly as possible without needing to understand and remember the reading texts deeply Hence, the reiteration makes a major contribution to provide an effective solving method Based on the types of reiteration, readers can select the sentences to process the key words The following step is to find the relevant sentences in text At least two linked sentences must have some shared information Therefore, when teaching reading, teachers must guide 69 students to find relevant sentences in texts and determine the correct answer It is when teachers analyze the application of types of reiteration in IELTS reading texts Finally, it is essential that teachers should base on types of reiteration to find referring expressions and explain reference Then, they can give explanation to the words in the contexts in the form of repetition, synonyms and near synonyms, superordinate or general words which appear in the IELTS reading passages 5.4 Limitations of the Study Although a great deal of effort has been made in collecting and analyzing the data, limitations are unavoidable due to the lack of time and materials for finding samples as well as the limited knowledge and research skills of the writer In fact, the study investigates only reiteration – a type of lexical cohesive devices without analyzing other lexical and grammatical ones The research would have been of more importance if there had been analysis of both grammatical cohesion and lexical cohesion so that it offers deeper insights into the use of cohesion in the latest IELTS reading books 5.5 Suggestion for further Research It is suggested that further investigation be made into the following areas: + Grammatical cohesion in High School students’ essays: A case study + Lexical cohesion in High School students’ oral presentation: A case study 70 REFERENCES Adel, E., & Saeide, E (2013) Awareness of lexical cohesive devices in text and reading comprehension International Journal of Educational Research & Technology, 4(2), 63-65 Armaya, D R (2013) Reiteration and collocation in Suzanne Collins's Catching Fire, (Unpublished BA thesis) Universitas Islam Negeri Alauddin Makassar Bo, T L (2018) The impacts of explicit instructions on cohesive devices on improving reading comprehension VNU Journal of Foreign Studies, 34 (4), 155-163 Brown, G & Yule, G (1983) Discourse analysis Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Bui, T N (2011) Co s v v s nr n t xts n t book T ến An 12 B n (Unpublished MA thesis) 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