Aims 2
As mentioned above, the knowledge about cohesion may assist students‘ comprehension of a reading text Therefore, the study aims to investigate the effect of cohesion competence on students‘ reading comprehension
In order to fulfill such an aim, two main objectives were set for the study
Firstly, the study was expected to provide an insight into students‘ prior knowledge about cohesion and cohesion in reading Secondly, the researcher expected to find out whether the teaching of cohesion to students could improve their reading ability.
Scope of the study 2
Although the title of the research is generally ―cohesion theory‖, this paper mainly focuses on analyzing types of cohesion that appeared in reading texts
Furthermore, the teaching of cohesion in reading does not only mean the researcher would teach cohesion theoretically but also by analyzing and guide student to analyze cohesive items in reading passages In addition, the researcher adapted the reading passages in the reading course book for B1 level namely Issue
For Today 3 combined with several further practices as homework instead of providing new out-book reading materials for in-class practice
The informants of the study were 24 non-English majored first year students
They were all of B1 level of English according to the Common European Framework of Reference The participating students were in the same class to whom the researcher was in charge of teaching reading.
Research methodology 3
The study was conducted to address the following two research questions:
1 What kind of prior knowledge did the students in the study have in terms of cohesion and cohesion in reading comprehension before the experimental teaching phase?
2 How does the teaching of cohesion improve the reading comprehension of second language learners?
To address the two research questions, action research was adopted as the research approach as it meets the aim and objectives of the study This approach is also justified to offer significant benefits for the researcher, who is also a teacher
Johnson (1995) pointed out three mains advantages of action research namely to promote personal and professional growth, to improve practice to enhance student learning, and to advance the teacher profession
The four main instruments for data collection used in the study were observation and field notes, reading comprehension tests, and survey questionnaires
An observation checklist was particularly designed to assess the students‘ participation and motivation in the reading lesson The researcher based on the observation checklist and takes notes about the students‘ performance in the class
There are two reading comprehension tests, namely a pre-test taken before the intervention and a post-test taken after the intervention Both tests were of the same level of difficulty regarding timing, number of questions, number of text, length, passage structure and vocabulary level
Two survey questionnaires were designed to gain data for the research One questionnaire was sent out before the intervention to find information about students‘ prior knowledge, experience and belief in learning cohesion The other was distributed after the intervention to collect data about students‘ attitude towards the experimental teaching
The data collection was conducted through 3 phases including pre- intervention, while-intervention and post-intervention The data collection instruments were adopted flexibly for each phase as illustrated in the timeline below:
Survey questionnaire Observation Survey questionnaire
Pre-test Field notes Post-test
The survey questionnaires and reading comprehensions tests went through three stages regarding piloting, delivering and collecting Observation and field notes were taken during the six-week experimental teaching phase to assess students‘ motivation and participation in the reading lessons
Both quantitative and qualitative methods were utilized to analyze the data collected Specifically, quantitative method was used to analyze objective data from tests and survey questionnaires Meanwhile, qualitative method was for data from field notes and open-ended questions in the survey questionnaires
Furthermore, statistical analysis was employed to analyze the data collected
Simple descriptive statistics is the most suitable method to present the finding of this study in terms of the study scope as well as the researcher‘s own capabilities.
Significance of the study 5
In general, teachers, educational administrators and researchers working on related issues could gain certain benefits from the study First, the researcher was provided a precious chance to reflect her own teaching, to investigate a new teaching strategy and raise other teachers‘ awareness of such a strategy
Besides, this research could offer references about updated and reliable information about a context of applying cohesion in teaching reading skills for second language learners to interested individual to conduct further studies
I Theoretical background 1.1 RAND Model of reading comprehension
Researchers and linguists have presented different definitions on the concept of reading, ranging from the simple to complicated ones According to Durkin (1993: 37), reading is ―intentional thinking during which meaning is constructed through interaction between text and reader‖ Similarly, Harris & Hodges (1995:
26) see reading as a process of constructing meaning of a written text through ―…a reciprocal interchange of ideas…‖ between the reader and the text
More expansively, reading is a complicated process of ―simultaneously extracting and constructing meaning through interaction and involvement with written language‖ which engages different factors as pointed out by Rand Reading Study Group (2002): the reader, the text and the activity or purpose for reading
This is one of the most comprehensive definitions of reading as it describes reading with its specific elements Reading is not the unilateral activity of readers but an active interaction between the reader and the text in which the salience of both the text (extracting meaning) and the reader (constructing reading) through interaction (the activity) with written language is emphasized
Below is the model of reading comprehension by RAND (2000)
Figure 1 The RAND model of reading comprehension From Reading for Understanding: Toward an R&D Program in Reading Comprehension, by RAND Reading Study Group (p 12), 2002, Santa Monica, CA: RAND Copyright 2002 by RAND
Reader The reader factor includes:
cognitive capacities: attention, memory, critical analytic ability, inferencing, visualization ability
motivation : a purpose for reading, an interest in the content being read, self- efficacy as a reader
various types of knowledge : vocabulary, domain and topic knowledge, linguistic and discourse knowledge, and knowledge of specific comprehension strategies
Text The text features that impact comprehension, including:
Structure: the organization of the text and
the overall coherence: degree of similarity of ideas from one sentence to the next
THEORETICAL BACKGROUND and LITERATURE REVIEW I Theoretical background 1.1 RAND Model of reading comprehension 7
Previous approaches to teaching reading comprehension 9
Three teaching approaches are proposed and discussed for their respective benefits and drawbacks: bottom-up, top-down and interactive reading
Bottom-up approach focuses on the text as the convergence of encoded messages to be deciphered Instructors who uphold bottom-up processing focus on how learners extract information from the printed page, and on whether or not learners deal with letters and words in a systematic fashion Therefore, the goals of the bottom-up approach are automatic word recognition and rapid reading rate To reach the aims, explicit instruction in phonetics and spellings is crucial; students should not be ―word-bound‖ in bottom-up processing (Grabe, 1991)
This bottom-up teaching approach has been proved of its effectiveness through eye-movement experiment, and been realized in Grammar-Translation Method, in which native language may be adopted to translate the target language to make sense the whole verbal construction From the bottom-up viewpoint, therefore, reading is a process of decoding written symbols into their aural equivalents It‘s a text-centered move in which texts are the containers of rules and codes to be deciphered Specifically speaking, in this lower-level reading process (Grabe 1991), readers are passive recipients of textual information During the decoding process, understanding the hierarchal, linguistic structures of the language promises reading comprehension The focus is never the meaning of the whole text, but detailed linguistic forms—from phoneme to lexical, syntactic levels
As to top-down teaching approach, the learner‘s prior knowledge is activated, which is capable of enhancing learner‘s language learning, and making possible reading comprehension In other words, in top-down approach, content schemata, or background knowledge, are to be activated; prior knowledge plays a major role in learner‘s comprehension Carrell (1988) argued that a lack of content schemata activation would lead to insurmountable processing difficulties with second language readers Hudson (1982) has even argued that a high degree of background knowledge can overcome linguistic deficiency In addition to prior knowledge as a key point, top-down model is actually a whole-language teaching approach, in which readers focus on the context, and manage to construct meanings in the text (Treiman, 2001) In this sense, top-down reading strategies contain predicting, inferring, and focusing on meanings (Grabe 1991) Reading is actually ―a psychological guessing game‖, in the words of Goodman (1970: 45)
Kern (2000) defined reading as a dynamic, interactive process which produced meanings and derived discourse from texts Reading is an active, constructive, and meaning-making process Therefore, reading comprehension is generally associated with the ability to read, and to construct meanings as well (Fielding & Pearson, 1994)
Iser (1980) further developed the cognitive view of reading to reader- response theory In reading process, readers stand at the center; readers‘ prior knowledge and textual reading interact Meanings are thus eventually incited in this way There is a dynamic relationship between reader and text, in which reading is a creative process rather than a textual decoding only The reader is therefore granted an authorial role
Therefore, the interactive model for teaching and reading refers to the dynamic relationship between bottom-up and top-down, between decoding and interpretation, and between text and reader This approach is best applied to teaching literary works because the reading/teaching goals—interpretation and meaning construction—are likely to be reached, and the reader/learners are not excluded from the text/learning process.
Discourse and discourse analysis 12
Discourse analysis, as remarked by Brown and Yule (1983:8), ―has come to be used with a wide range of meanings which cover a range of activities at the intersection of many disciplines from sociolinguistics, philosophical linguistics to computational linguistics‖ In other words, discourse analysis is a field of study which concerns different aspects basically including three basic strands; that is text grammar, conversation analysis, and pragmatics, as pointed out by Hoa Nguyen (2000:11) He also defines discourse analysis, in the eyes of a linguist, as‖ a study of how and for what purposes language is used in a certain context of situation and the linguistic means to carry out these purposes.‖
In the study of discourse analysis, it is crucial to make a clear distinction between two terms: discourse and text
According to Brown and Yule (1983:6), text is ―the verbal record of a communicative act‖; meanwhile, discourse … ―is language in use‖…(p.1) De Beaugrande and Dressler (1981) presents an elaborate definition of text as a
―communicative occurrence which possesses seven constitute conditions of textual communication, cohesion, coherence, intentionality, acceptability, informability, situationality and intertextuality‖ In this approach, De Beaugrande and Dressler see text and discourse in the same light
The most explicit and clearest distinction is by Widowson (1984) He elaborates discourse as ―a communicative process by means of interaction Its situational outcome is a change in a state of affair: information is conveyed, intention made clear, its linguistic product is Text‖ (as cited in Hoa Nguyen, 2000, p.14) In the explanation, text is understood as simply a representation of a communicative process In other words, text is the verbal realization of discourse.
Cohesion and coherence 13
Basically, cohesion can be thought of as all the grammatical and lexical links that link one part of a text to another According to Linke et all (2004: 245), cohesion refers to the ―relations between sentences that are indicated by explicit syntactic or semantic ties between linguistic element‖ Halliday & Matthiessen (2004:523) provide a more comprehensive elaboration of cohesion; that is:
“set of lexico-grammatical systems that have evolved specifically as a resources for making it possible to transcend the boundaries of the clause- that is the domain of the highest-ranking grammatical unit.”
Coherence, on the other hand refers to the semantic relations that underline texts Van Dijk (1979:93) writes:
“Coherence is a semantic property of discourse formed through the interpretation of each individual sentence relative to the interpretation of other sentences, with “interpretation” implying interaction between the text and the reader”
With this definition, Van Dijk (1979) highly relates coherence with the interpretation of the text However, the text here is limited to written texts, not covering spoken texts
Palmer (1983) defines coherence as the type of rhetorical relationships terms of both written and spoken texts, that is‖ coherence refers to the rhetorical devices, to ways of writing and speaking that bring about order an unity and emphasis‖
Blum-Kulka (1986: 17) provides an elaboration which covers both the ideas of Palmer (1983) and Van Dijk (1979); that is, coherence is viewed as ―a covert potential meaning relationships among parts of a text, made overt by the reader or listener through processes of interpretation‖
Briefly put, a text has cohesion, or is cohesive if its elements are tied together with explicit linguistic marking of meaning relation Meanwhile, a text has texture, or is coherent, if it makes sense In other words, it builds up mental creation of meaning relations during text processing
1.4.1 Type of cohesion 1.4.1.1 Grammatical Cohesion 1.4.1.1.1 Reference
According to Halliday and Hasan (1976:32), reference is a semantic relation and ―since the relationship is on semantic level, the reference item is in no way constrain to match the grammatical class of the item it refers to‖ The two scholars also classify discourse reference into two types, namely exophoric and endophoric
If the reference item is endophoric, it can be either anaphoric or cataphoric
Anaphoric reference occurs when the writer refers back to someone or something that has been previously identified, to avoid repetition It points the listeners and readers backward to previous entity to understand the text In constrast, cataphoric reference lead listeners and readers forward to the text
Exophoric reference is different from these two types by describing generics or abstracts without ever being identified In this case, the interpretation is assisted by the context of the situation
Reference items in English comes into three main forms, including personal reference expressed by pronouns (he, she, it, me, mine…) and determiners (his, her, your…); demonstrative reference (this, that, there, then, etc.) and comparative reference which is expressed by adjectives and adverbs such as same, identical, equal, different, other, etc
Halliday and Hasan (1976:89) define substitution as ―a relation between linguistic items such as words or phrases and in terms of linguistic level, it is a relation on the lexico-grammar level, the level of grammar and vocabulary‖ Hoa
Nguyen (2000: 24) also sees substitution as ―a device which shows the relation between sentences, where it is derivable to avoid repetition‖
In this light, Halliday and Hasan (1976) categorized substitution into nominal, verbal and clausal substitution Nominal substitution is realized by one, ones, and same Verbal substitute in English is ―do‖ and clausal substitutes are ―so‖ and not
Clausal substitution is commonly used after verbs: think, hope, suppose, etc
In Halliday and Hasan (1976:142)‘s point of view ellipsis is ―the omission of certain elements from a sentence, allowed by context‖ It is important to make a difference between ellipsis and substitution With ellipsis, the omitted parts can be recovered based on the context but such possibility does not exist
Quirk et all (1972) discuss three conditions under which ellipsis may occur namely, repetition, expansion and replacement a Repetition: the speaker repeat what has been said by the first
Yes, I did (go there) b Expansion: the speakers adds to what has been said
Probably (he will come) c Replacement: the second speaker replaces what has been said by the first with new information
According to Cook (1989:21), ―conjunction is words or phrases which explicitly draw attention to the type of relationship between one sentence and clause and another‖ Briefly speaking, conjunctions are used to connect sentences and clauses together into one context
Halliday and Hasan (1976: 242-243) divide conjunction into four types including additive, adversative, causal and temporal a additive: the relation of adding meaning among sentences
E.g/ and, also, moreover, in addition, etc b adversative: information appears in the contradict way
E.g/ but, yet, though, however, on the contrary, etc c causal: the relation of cause and effect
E.g/ so, hence, before, consequently, as a result, etc d temporal: this relation creates unified and tied discourse
According to Van (2006:80-81), the concept of lexical cohesion was first defined in terms of collocation by Firth (1975), then developed by Halliday and Hasan (1976) Eggins (1994) and Halliday (1985) share the same idea that lexical relation analysis is a way of systematically describing how words in a text related to each other, how they cluster to build up lexical sets or lexical strings Lexical relation appears in two main types, reiteration and collocation
Literature Review 19
Within the recent decades, there have been numerous researches on cohesion, coherence and EFL reading worldwide, in which many have shown the important role played by cohesion and coherence in facilitating reading comprehension
Chapman (1983) finds a relationship between reading ability and the ability to complete anaphoric relation in a cloze test, and he concludes that the masters of such textual features- including cohesive ties (Halliday and Hasan, 1976)- is a central factor in fluent reading and reading comprehension Mackay (1979) and Cowan (1976) similarly argue that the recognition of conjunctions and other intersentential linguistic devices is crucial to the information gathering skills of second language readers As a result, the teaching of reading should include classroom instruction on the cohesive devices of English, and their function across sentences and paragraphs
William (1983) not only discusses the importance of recognizing cohesive ties in reading in a foreign language, but also suggests teaching materials and methods to bring this about Specifically, he proposes a system of symbols and textual markings that teach foreign readers how to use cohesive signals in order to increase their reading comprehension and its relationships to reading development
In the study ―Cohesion and the teaching of EFL reading‖, Fulcher (1987) determines the roles of cohesion in assisting reading comprehension The scholar also states that cohesion plays a crucial role on the interpretation of a text
Muto, Keiko (2007) in his study named ―The Use of Lexical Cohesion in Reading and Writing‖ provokes the considerable effect that the knowledge of lexical cohesion has on their understanding of the story The necessary information, which authors hint at in the text, could be exposed by paying attention to the cohesive ties among words There were, however, occasions when
L2 learners needed to improve in order to make the general knowledge of lexical cohesion more useful for reading: acquiring cultural knowledge, expanding the area of lexical cohesion to the whole text, creating original
Many researchers have come to the conclusion that all types of textual cohesive conjunctions facilitate reading comprehension in the same way (Cooper (1984); Chung (2000); Degand & Sanders 2002)
Overall, it can be seen clearly that these aforementioned findings are inarguably illuminating and valuable in the world However, as far as concerned, such researches have remained limited in the context of Vietnam
First, cohesion and coherence have been widely studied as an aspect of linguistics field by Vietnamese researchers To be more specific, almost studies related to cohesion are associated with analyzing cohesive items in well-known texts or contrasting the use of cohesion in Vietnamese and English written texts In other word, most studies on cohesion and coherence belong to linguistics and contrastive analysis Little has been done in the field of teaching methodology
Second, in terms of cohesion and coherence, Vietnamese researchers have given considerable attention to EFL writing rather than EFL reading as one of essential criteria for assessing writing, coherence and cohesion
All these aforementioned conditions have motivated the researcher to conduct an action study on the cohesion and EFL reading teaching in the context of Vietnam.
Methodology 2.1 Research questions 21
Research approach 21
Action research was adopted as the research approach to firstly answer the two research questions and finally achieve the aim and objectives of the study
According to Ferrance (2000), action research is a suitable method for teachers who want to make appropriate changes to student learning and measure the possible effects Ferrance (2000:27) demonstrates ―Action research is used to chart the effects of implementation of a curriculum or strategy, to study student learning and responses.‖ This method is also justified to offer significant benefits for the researcher, who is also a teacher Johnson (1995) pointed out three mains advantages of action research namely to promote personal and professional growth, to improve practice to enhance student learning, and to advance the teacher profession.
Data collection methods 21
Since the study was designed to assess the effectiveness of applying teaching cohesion in teaching reading comprehension, students‘ role was put into great consideration Therefore, 24 students from a class were chosen as the subjects of the study They were homogeneous regarding their time of having English education in school and L1 background Furthermore, at the time of the study, they were all first-year non-English majored students from the International Standard Programme (ISP) who were studying to reach B1 level according to the Common European Framework of Reference The homogeneity in terms of language proficiency of the participating students was established thanks to a placement test at the beginning of the course These students were selected because they all belonged to one class to whom the researcher was in charge of teaching reading
As a result, effects from other factors on students‘ reading were limited to the minimum
The data to be analyzed principally came from four main sources, namely observation, field notes, reading comprehension tests and survey questionnaires
According to Dornyei (2003), questionnaires are ―easy to construct, extremely versatile, and uniquely capable of gathering a large amount of information quickly in a form that is readily processible‖.
Before the intervention, or the experimental teaching phase, students filled out one survey questionnaire in order to provide insightful information regarding their prior experiences as well as their general knowledge about cohesion in English
The questionnaire covers 6 questions in two themes, namely Students’ experience with cohesion in reading lessons and Students’ belief/ knowledge about cohesion in a text
After the intervention, the students were asked to complete another six- question survey questionnaire to express their thoughts about their level of understanding and the knowledge and skills they grasp after the learning process
Since the questionnaires were designed for collecting factual, behavioral and attitudinal data so that it uses various types of questions regarding yes- no question, multiple-choice items, open-ended questions, and likert-scale However, most of the questions do belong to the two main kinds multiple-choice and likert scale The survey questionnaires are in Appendix A (p.I) and Appendix B (p.III)
Tests of reading comprehension in English:
The tests of reading comprehension in English (one pre-test and one post-test) were designed by the researcher The time allowed was 40 minutes with 30 items and 3 reading passages The pre-test and the post-test were designed to have the same level of difficulty regarding the number of questions, question types, the length of the text, the text structure Regarding vocabulary range, a software named Lexical tutor was used to make sure the passages in the pre-test and post- test have similar lexical level
The reading passages used in this study was carefully selected from the TOELF reading practice passages and contained a general content, which were of interest to the students The questions used in the tests were all objective with the main type of multiple choice questions The two reading comprehension tests are in Appendix F (p.XIV.) and Appendix G (p XX)
Direct Observation and Field Notes:
Observations and field notes on the student‘s performance were taken in order to keep records of relevant information used in data analysis The observation and note taking was conducted with two key themes in terms of students‘ motivation and participation The criteria for students‘ motivation and participation were listed out in detail in the comprehension checklist (see Appendix C, p.V)
The data for the research results came from the information collected throughout three main phases, namely pre-intervention, while intervention and post-intervention With each stage, different data collection instruments were utilized in order to gain the most valid and reliable information The use of the instrument in the data collection process was primarily illustrated in the following timeline
Survey questionnaire Observation Survey questionnaire
Pre-test Field notes Post-test
The purpose of the first phase - pre-intervention, or before the experimental teaching phase, is find out the answer for the first research question, ―What kind of prior knowledge did students in the study have in terms of cohesion and cohesion in reading before the experimental teaching phase?” Therefore, one survey questionnaire and a test of reading comprehension were used as the data collection instruments for this stage
The procedure of data collection for the two instruments was carried out through 3 stages including piloting, delivering and collecting
This stage was carried out in order to assess the reliability of the reading comprehension test and the survey questionnaire The reading comprehension tests were pre-tested with a sample group of 24 students having characteristics similar to the target group Then after interpreting the collected data, weak, malfunctioning and non-functioning items were removed from the whole test, and some were modified
As to the questionnaires, ten volunteer students were chosen randomly from the sample group to complete the questionnaires They were encouraged to mark any items that they considered unnecessary, unclear and unsuitable Suggestions for improvement were welcome and highly appreciated Once the first versions were reviewed and completed, printed handouts were made for the researched participants
At the first stage, the pre-test was administered to all the students before the intervention The students were told that the result of the test was counted in their final learning result; therefore, all the students did the test to the best of their ability
The survey questionnaire was delivered at the break time of the class All the key terms related to cohesion were explained and exemplified in Vietnamese for students to easily understand and know what they are asked about The students were asked to spend some time reading the questionnaire to grasp the nature of the topic and the key terms Questions were exchanged frequently between the students and the researcher to ensure the comprehension of the questions and the accuracy of the collected data.
After all, the researcher collected the data After all the questionnaire papers and tests were collected, the researcher checked whether all the given items had been collected or not Additionally, the participants got the researcher‘s feedback for their questions about the questionnaires and the tests
After doing the pre-test and the survey questionnaire, the students took part in a 6-week experimental teaching phase, in which they had 12 reading lessons delivered by the researcher During the phase, the researcher taught and raised students‘ awareness about cohesion in a written text as well as oriented and guided them to apply their knowledge and understanding about cohesion during the reading process to enhance comprehension
Data Analysis: Results, Discussions and Recommendations
Results and discussions 31
Taking into account the surveys, twenty two out of twenty four students claimed that they had not learnt or read about cohesion before One of the other two students explained that they noticed the existence of cohesion when translating reading texts and referring to Vietnamese language The other said he knew about cohesion in written text through the feedback of a teacher in one of his writing task As a result, when answering the question of “What do you think can make a text coherent?” the answer of most of the students was limited to primarily two factors, namely linking words and repetition Several students mentioned synonyms The options of ellipsis, substitution and collocation were rarely chosen
More noticeably, all the students stated that they had never done any exercises related to analyzing cohesion in reading lessons
As to the result of the pre-test, it was shown that the students did poorly with questions related to cohesion or cohesive devices, even those who got quite good marks
Figure 3.1 Number of students who have learnt and have not leant about cohesion
Students’ belief about the role of cohesion and the study of cohesion in reading lessons
According to the survey, although the students had poor knowledge about cohesion in English, most of them considered cohesion important in a written text
The students‘ rate of the importance is illustrated in figure 2 below:
Figure 3.2: Importance of cohesion in a written text 0
Not important Little important Quite important Important
Figure 3.3: Necessity of understanding cohesion in comprehending a text?
Not necessary Little necessary Quite necessary Necessary
As can be seen clearly, above a half of the surveyed students stated that cohesion played an important role in reading passages Cohesion was perceived as
―quite important‖ by nearly third of the students Meanwhile, only three students said that cohesion had little to do with the development of a written text
Although the students attached different levels of importance to the role of cohesion, all of them agreed that cohesive devices had a significant role in a written text Therefore, all the students stated that it was necessary to understand about cohesion when comprehending a reading passage with two students said
―little necessary‖, five ―quite necessary‖ and seventeen ―necessary‖ because understanding about cohesion helped them to follow the reading text more easily, as responded by the majority of the students
Overall, it can be seen that the students had strong motivation to learn about cohesion since they all believed this would help them improve their reading ability
3.1.2 Students’ level of improvement in reading comprehension
The improvement in reading performance was strikingly illustrated through the difference in their reading results in the pre-test and post-test In order to examine the effect of the , SPSS software, more specifically the Paired Sample T- tests, was employed to analyze and compare the students‘ results in the pre-test and the post-test Bellow is the result of the analysis process
Descriptive Statistics for the group’s performance in the pre-test and post-test
As can be clearly seen, there was a significant rise in the average score of the whole students In the pre-test, the mean stood at 5.8750 After 6 week training, this figure rose to 6.3125, which is an indicator of the students‘ general
Mean N Std Deviation Std Error Mean
Table 3.2: Results of the Paired-Sample T-tests
As the level of significant shows, it was smaller than 05 in the results of the groups Therefore, the experimental teaching phase did have positive effects on the studied students‘ awareness and reading ability
The data gathered from the direct observation and field notes revealed that students were actively interested in the practice of analyzing cohesion in class
The students were eager to scan the reading passages to find out cohesive devices, especially when this task was designed in the form of competitive group activities
All the homework assigned was accomplished successfully
The success of the experimental teaching phase was also revealed in the students‘ answer in the survey questionnaire after the intervention In fact, all the students stated that the experimental teaching phase was effective for their study with twenty students choosing ―effective‖ and four choosing ―quite effective‖ The evaluation of the students was illustrated in the pie chart below:
95% Confidence Interval of the Difference Lower Upper
Figure 3.4: Effectiveness level of the experimental teaching course
Not effective Little effective Quite effective Effective
The majority of the students confessed that they were satisfied with the six- week learning session as through it they gained considerable knowledge about cohesion that they had never learnt about before Fifty students felt excited when they had the chance to experience a new way of analyzing reading passages and practicing reading skills Twelve students could realize the improvement in their reading performance
In short, the students‘ improvement was evidently shown, which demonstrated the necessity and effectiveness of teaching cohesion to enhance students‘ reading ability.
Recommendations 35
With the so far success of the experimental teaching phase, several suggestions are put forward to enhance the effectiveness of the model teaching as well as to make a step toward a new way of teaching reading comprehension
First, it is important to raise teachers‘ awareness of the application of cohesion teaching in reading lessons This can be achieved by holding seminars and professional meetings, in which teachers share their experience in working with cohesion and reading teaching Creative techniques together with difficulties during the exploitation will be exchanged and; therefore pedagogical suggestions will be raised in order to better the new method Besides, competitions on designing and teaching reading lessons based on cohesion instructions among teachers should be encouraged In such competitions, different teaching techniques will be introduced and shortcomings will be detected, thus providing helpful guides for teachers to better apply the new method
Second, one of the difficulties in teaching cohesion to improve students‘ reading comprehension was the source of materials, especially reading texts
Therefore, one way to enhance the application of this method is to form cohesion- reading materials banks Teachers of the same professional groups should share their reading materials in which they focus on analyzing one types of cohesive devices that appears the most evident in the passages with one another and build up a bank Once the materials in such banks are regularly revised and updated, they can be reused for a long time Furthermore, for better exploitation, teachers are advised to run workshops in which they look at and reflect on samples of cohesion-reading materials with references to classes they teach In addition, serious studies should be conducted to have deeper insights into the use of the materials as well as to provide theoretical base and references for better exploitation
These are the two recommendations which provide great incentives for educational administrations and teachers to expand the teaching of cohesion to improve reading ability
With regard to material selections and question design, In case of improving the reading text, one can suggest adopting Nuttal (1982:32)‘s advice to ―preserve whatever in the original will appeal to the intelligence of… students‖ and to
―retain as much as possible of the textual quality and discourse structure of the original‖ Accordingly, cohesive devices should be retained in the texts and the students‘ attention should be drawn to these devices as feature of discourse in real life In addition, exercises and questions should activate all the students‘ reading comprehension skills Therefore, we should make them varied and extended to cover all students‘ skills taking into account the fact that reading is an active skill, it constantly involves guessing , predicting , checking and asking oneself question
I Major findings of the research
From the thorough analysis and discussions of the data collected from the survey questionnaires, score analysis and field notes, significant findings were identified
Firstly, the study revealed that before the experimental teaching phase, students had poor knowledge and understanding of cohesion and coherence To be specific, the majority of the students said that they had no learning experience with cohesion Although some of them said they had notice the existence of cohesive devices However, such awareness of cohesion was unsystematic and instinctively
Secondly, it was discovered that students are highly motivated to learn about cohesive devices in reading lessons The evidences of such great motivation came from the results of the survey questionnaires, the test scores and the direct observation of the researcher Despite the limited understanding of cohesion in reading, all the students admitted that cohesive devices played a crucial role in a written passage and it was necessary to learn about cohesive devices while practising reading skills As a matter of fact, after the experimental teaching phase about cohesion, the students‘ scores in the reading test improved remarkably compared with the scores in the test they did before Besides, students were observed to have high interest in the lessons with active in-class participation and significant accomplishment of homework
Finally, the study detected students‘ desires for better learning Although, all the students stated they were satisfied with the course, it is revealed that students expected to have more time practicing with cohesive devices analysis in reading lessons They would like to have longer learning sessions with cohesion and reading rather than 6- week practice.
Limitations of the study 39
Despite the researcher‘s considerable effort, the study has certain limitations due to the time constraint and the researcher‘s limited ability
First, the number of students and classes involved in the study as the main participants was relatively low in comparison with the number of learners of English as second language However, this study was conducted in the familiar context with researcher‘s own class and the participants being the researcher‘s student, which offers relevance and validity for the research itself
Second, the application of the cohesion teaching was not conducted with specialized materials designed for teaching cohesion but in the form of adapting reading passages in a course book due to the limited authority of the researcher who was just a normal language teacher However, this limitation was compensated by assigning students with homework, with which students analyzed cohesive devices in more details
In sum, due to the researcher‘s inexperience, time constraint and limited authority, limitations in the study are unavoidable However, the serious work and the great efforts of the researcher in selecting and justifying the methodology of the study well ensure the reliability and validity of the results.
Suggestions for further studies 39
As mentioned above, the application of cohesion in teaching reading comprehension remains novel in English learning and teaching context, it offers great chance for other researchers to carry out further studies
First, in terms of population, since there were only twenty four students from one class involved in the study as the main participants, other researchers can further the research by expanding and varying the sampling of participants More students and classes will provide more thorough data for analysis
Second, another comprehensive study in the form of an experimental research with a control group and experimental group would bring more precise comparison and valid results
Finally, as the study was conducted on reading class of ISP students Other researcher can conducted study on different populations This would provide comprehensive pictures and data for the application of the new teaching strategy
IV Contribution of the study
In general, the research could be helpful for teachers, educational administrators and researchers working on related issues
First, this study was a golden opportunity for the researcher to reflect her own teaching and at the same time investigate a new way to enhance students‘ reading comprehension Besides, the study raises teachers‘ awareness of the application of teaching cohesion in improving reading comprehension In addition, teachers who wish to adopt this new strategy can take the experimental teaching phase as a model to adapt and improve to best suit their own teaching contexts
Besides, as mentioned above, there has been little study on teaching cohesion to improve reading skills, this research, once successfully conducted, could offer references about updated and reliable information about a context of applying cohesion in teaching reading skills for second language learners to interested individual to conduct further studies
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This survey questionnaire is designed for the study on the application of cohesion theory to the teaching of reading comprehension to second language learners To have data for my study, I am badly in need of your sincere and precise information about your experience in and knowledge about cohesion in reading In completing these questions, please choose the answer by circling the letter next to your choice or expressing your ideas in the blank For some questions, more than one answer is acceptable
A text has cohesion, or is cohesive if its elements are tied together with explicit linguistic marking of meaning relation
I Students’ experience with cohesion in reading lessons
1 Have you ever learnt or read about cohesion? a Yes b No
1.2 If yes, where did you get the knowledge about cohesion? a from grammar books b from cohesion lectures by teachers c by reading English texts c other (please specify)………
2 Have you ever done any exercises related to analyzing cohesion in reading lessons?
II Students’ belief/ knowledge about cohesion in a text
3 What do you think can make a text coherent? a repetition of words b linking works c determiners d ellipsis e reference f synonyms g collocation h substitution
4 How do you value the role of cohesion in a written text?
Not important Little important Quite important Important Very important
5 What do you think is the role of cohesion in a reading passage? a It makes the reading texts easy to follow b It help readers to have an overview of the text c It is a part of the reading questions d others (please specify)………
6 How do you value the necessity of understanding cohesion to the comprehension of a text?
Not necessary Little necessary Quite necessary Necessary Very necessary
This survey questionnaire is designed for the study on the application of cohesion theory to the teaching of reading comprehension to second language learners To have data for my study, I am badly in need of your sincere and precise information about your experience in and knowledge about cohesion in reading In completing these questions, please choose the answer by circling the letter next to your choice or expressing your ideas in the blank For some questions, more than one answer is acceptable
A text has cohesion, or is cohesive if its elements are tied together with explicit linguistic marking of meaning relation
I Students’ satisfaction level after the 6 – week experimental teaching
1 Are you satisfied with the 6-week learning course? a Yes b No
2 Is you reading ability improved throughout the learning sessions? a Yes b No
3 How do you value the effectiveness of this learning approach to the improvement of your reading ability?
Not effective Little effective Quite effective Effective Very effective
If the answer to question 1 is “No”, please continue with question 4
If the answer to question 1 is “Yes”, please continue with question 5
4 Why are you not satisfied with the outcome of the course? a I did not learn much b My reading ability is not improved c I see nothing new in the course It is just the same as other reading sessions I have learnt d I do not care about it at all e I pay to much attention to cohesive devices, which slow down my reading f others (please specify)………
5 What makes you satisfied with the learning session? a My reading ability is improved b I learnt a new strategy in practicing reading comprehension c I gained knowledge about cohesion which I did not know about before d I experienced a new way of learning reading comprehension, which is interesting e other (please specify)………
II Students ‘suggestions for improvement
6 What suggestions can you make to better the six- week teaching and learning session?
Students’ behaviour Viewed Not viewed
4 Joining pair work/ group work
5 Finish all in-class tasks
2 Students maintain eye contact with the teacher
3 Raising hands to answer questions
6 Students showing signs of enjoyment during the lessons
7 Students showing signs of depression or resentment during the lesson
Overall comments about the lessons:
The goal of this course is to provide students with the reading skills necessary, to be a confident and independent reader, and to help students improve comprehension of written texts Specifically, the course aims at providing students with knowledge about cohesion and cohesive devices in reading texts as well as guiding them to apply the knowledge to better their reading ability
Smith, Lorraine and Maire, Nancy (2004) Issue for Today:Third Edition
Additional materials provided by the teacher
Course Skills on which we will focus:
• guessing the meaning of new words in context
Lesson Content Cohesion items focus
1 Chapter 1: A culture difference: Being on time
2 Chapter 2: Changing lifestyle and new eating habits
3 Chapter 3: Dreams: Making them work for us
4 Chapter 4: Language: Is it always spoken? Synonyms
5 Chapter 5: Loneliness: How can we overcome it?
7 Chapter 7: Innocent until proven guilty Conjunction (temporal and causual)
8 Chapter 8: The reliability of eyewitnesses Conjunction (additive and adversative)
9 Chapter 9: Solving crimes with modern technology
10 Chapter 10: Ancient artifacts and ancient air
11 Chapter 11: How lunar eclipses have changed history
12 Chapter 12: Mars: our neighbour in space Overall practice
Level and number of students: 24 intermediate students
After the lesson, the students are expected to
- Recognize and understand about reference as a cohesive device in written texts
- Apply the understanding into class practice to develop reading comprehension skills
3 Name of lesson: Chapter 1: A cultural difference: Being on time
- Get the students to look at Task 1 in the handout and answer the question
- Ask students to continue with task 2 This time, students were required to do the task in pair
- Teacher lectures and explains about reference in written texts to the students with more specific examples
- Students do Task 3 in the handout individually then the teacher checks the answers
- After that, students work in group of six and complete task 4 The four groups will then go to the board to write their answers
- After Phase 1, students continue to complete reading comprehension exercises in the textbook, specifically the Fact Finding, Reading Analysis and Information Recall
- Students finish the rest of the reading comprehension exercises in the course book and the further practice in handout 2
Student handout 1 Task 1: Look at the picture and read the caption
1 What is the function of the word in the box?
2 What does it refer to?
Task 2: Read the sentences below i What do the underlined words refer to? How do you know? ii What do you need to make the reference clear?
2 They are so nice to help us
3 The problem needs more concerns from the authority
4 Which do you prefer, this or that?
5 This is the only one that I can understand
Task 3: Read the following sentence and underline reference words then explain what does it refer to
1 Americans today have different eating habits than they had in the past
2 Although all students greeted the professors as they arrived, few apologized for their lateness
3 We could also try to remember an important word or picture from the dream This image makes the dreams easier to remember
4 Weather is created by the heat of the sun When the sun shines on the earth, the air close to the surface heats up, expands and rises The higher it rises, the cooler it becomes
Task 4: Find out all reference words in the reading text List and catergorise them according to the table below
Types of reference words Reference words/ phrases Referent
Personal pronouns Relative pronouns Demonstrative pronouns Quantifiers
I Reading the following text, underline all the reference and draw a table to explain the referents of all the reference words
Most people can remember a phone number for up to thirty seconds When this short amount of time elapses, however, the numbers are erased from the memory How did the information get there in the first place? Information that makes its way to the short term memory (STM) does so via the sensory storage area The brain has a filter which only allows stimuli that is of immediate interest to pass on to the STM, also known as the working memory
There is much debate about the capacity and duration of the short term memory The most accepted theory comes from George A Miller, a cognitive psychologist who suggested that humans can remember approximately seven chunks of information A chunk is defined as a meaningful unit of information, such as a word or name rather than just a letter or number
Modern theorists suggest that one can increase the capacity of the short term memory by chunking, or classifying similar information together By organizing information, one can optimize the STM, and improve the chances of a memory being passed on to long term storage