GRADUATION PAPER A STUDY ON COHERENCE IN ENGLISH PARAGRAPHS WRITTEN BY THE TENTH FORM STUDENTS AT THANH LIEM A UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL

A STUDY ON COHERENCE IN ENGLISH PARAGRAPHS WRITTEN BY THE TENTH FORM STUDENTS AT THANH LIEM A UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

TAY BAC UNIVERSITY

TRAN THI TAM

GRADUATION PAPER

A STUDY ON COHERENCE IN ENGLISH PARAGRAPHS

WRITTEN BY THE TENTH FORM STUDENTS AT

THANH LIEM A UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL

Field: English Methodology

SON LA, 2013

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

TAY BAC UNIVERSITY

TRAN THI TAM

GRADUATION PAPER

A STUDY ON COHERENCE IN ENGLISH PARAGRAPHS WRITTEN BY THE TENTH FORM STUDENTS AT THANH LIEM A UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL

Field: English Methodology

Supervisor: Mrs Tran Thi Hong Le, MA

SON LA, 2013

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Mrs Tran Thi Hong Le, MA for her valuable guidance, correction, helpful suggestions and encouragements from the preparation to the completion

of this study

I also would like to express my thankfulness to the teachers and the tenth form students at Thanh Liem A upper secondary school for their help in completing my survey questionnaires as well as sharing their ideas about some aspects of my research

My gratitude also sends to the teacher in the Department of Foreign Language for their help and care for me during the time I do this study

I am also indebted to all my friends who gave me assistance, and encouragement, without whom, the study would have no such great motivation

Last but not least, the support of members in my family extended to me has been immeasurable I would like to send my gratefulness to them for their support and encourage throughout my study

Son La, 10 th May, 2013 Tran Thi Tam

K50 English Course

ABSTRACT

This study is an investigation into coherence in English paragraphs written

by the tenth form students at Thanh Liem A upper secondary school It is conducted to find out the coherence achievement in English paragraphs written

by the tenth form students, to investigate students' perceptions of coherence in English paragraphs, to identify factors affecting coherence in students' English paragraph s and to give some suggestions to improve coherence in students’ English paragraphs

According to the data from the 120 students’ writing assignments collected; from the survey questionnaires conducting 120 tenth form students of

3 different classes, the result reveals that the tenth form students at Thanh Liem

A upper secondary school face some difficulties, not only in the way of expressing ideas in their English paragraphs but also in using cohesive devices, synonyms of key nouns and consistent pronouns to make their written products coherent Besides, lacking the knowledge about a good English paragraph, the students’ habits when writing paragraphs and the influence of the mother tongue

are also factors affecting coherence in students’ English paragraphs although

students’ perceptions of the importance of coherence in English paragraph writing are rather good

From a detail discussion of the major findings, the study gives some suggestions for teacher and students to improve coherence in students’

English paragraphs

TABLES OF CONTENT ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

ABSTRACT

TABLES OF CONTENT

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Purposes of the study 2

1.3 Scope of the study 2

1.4 Research questions of the study 3

1.5 Methodology 3

1.6 Design of the study 3

CHAPTER 2: THE LITERATURE REVIEW 4

2.1 Theoretical background of writing 4

2.1.1 Definition of writing 4

2.1.2 The importance of writing 5

2.1.3 Kinds of writing 7

2.2 Theoretical background of paragraph 8

2.2.1 Definition of paragraph 8

2.2.2 Structure of an English paragraph 8

2.2.3 Elements of a standard English paragraph 9

2.3 Theoretical background of coherence 11

2.3.1 Definition of coherence 11

2.3.2 Cohesion versus coherence 12

2.3.3 The roles of coherence 12

2.3.4 Ways to achieve coherence 13

2.5 Summary 16

CHAPTER 3: DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS 17

3.1 Situation 17

3.1.1 Aim 17

3.1.2 Participants 17

3.1.3 Textbook 17

3.2 Data collection 18

3.2.1 Students’ writing assignments 18

3.2.2 The survey questionnaires 19

3.3 Data collection 19

3.3.1 Students’ writing assignments 19

3.3.1.1 Repetition of key nouns 19

3.3.1.2 Consistent pronouns 20

3.3.1.3 Transition signals 21

3.3.1.4 Logical order 24

3.3.2 The survey questionnaires……… ……… … ……….24

3.3.2.1 Students’ background information 25

3.3.2.2 Students’ perception towards coherence in English paragraphs writing 26

3.3.2.3 Some common factors affecting coherence on students’ English paragraphs 29

3.4 Summary 31

CHAPTER 4: MAJOR FINDINGS AND SUGGESTIONS 32

4.1 Major findings 32

4.1.1 Findings from analyzing students’ writing assignments 32

4.1.2 Findings from analyzing the survey questionnaire 34

4.1.2.1 Students’ difficulties in the process of writing English paragraphs 34

4.1.2.2 Students' perceptions towards coherence in English paragraphs writing 34

4.1.2.3 Some factors affecting coherence in students’ English paragraphs 35

4.2 Suggestions to improve coherence in students’ English paragraphs 36

4.2.1 Some suggestions for teachers 36

4.2.2 Suggestions for students 38

4.3 Summary 41

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 42

5.1 Summary and emphasis 42

5.2 Limitations and suggestions for further study 42 REFERENCES

APPENDICES

LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS

Table 1: Use of key nouns 19

Table 2: Use of consistent pronouns 20

Table 3: Use of transition signals 21

Table 4: Use of logical order 24

Table 5: Students’ background information 25

Figure 1.1 Students’ perceptions of the importance of coherence in English paragraphs writing 26

Figure 1.2 Students’ frequency in paying attention to coherence when writing English paragraphs 27

Figure 1.3 Students’ explanation to the importance of coherence in English paragraph writing 27

Figure 1.4 Students’ ways to achieve coherence 28

Figure 1.5 Students’ experience in writing English paragraphs 29

Figure 1.6 Students’ habits when writing English paragraphs 29

Figure 1.7 Students’ ways of writing English paragraphs 30

Figure 1.8 Students’ prior criteria in English paragraphs writing 31

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale

In the world today, there are 5,000 to 6,000 living languages among which English is by far the most widely used As a mother tongue, it ranks second only to Chinese, which is little used outside China English is spoken by more people than any other language, and is the native language of more than

350 million people And it is also the international language of diplomacy, business, science, technology, banking, computing, medicine, aviation, UN & NATO armed forces, engineering, tourism, Hollywood films and arguably the best pop and rock music in the world… Because of its importance in our daily life in Vietnam, English is now taught as a compulsory subject in most school from primary schools to colleges A great number of students have chosen English together with Maths and Literature or Maths and Physics as their major subjects for their entrance examinations into colleges and universities Teaching and learning English; therefore, have become so necessary

It is undeniable that the most vital purpose of learning foreign language is

to communicate successfully with foreigners Therefore, to communicate well, people need to enrich lots of skill including listening, reading, speaking and writing skill Writing is an important productive skill in language learning It can objectively reflect students’competence of thinking, organizing and expressing ideas In English teaching, writing is considered as a difficult skill for both teachers and students In recent years, there has been a growing awareness of the importance

of the English writing skill at high schools in Vietnam The writing skill is part of the English syllabus at high schools According to the curriculum in the new English 10 textbook, students have to learn a lot of writing skills, such as filling

in a form, writing letter, writing announcement, etc, among which, writing an English paragraph is one of the main focus

However, there is a fact that a number of the tenth form students in upper secondary schools in general and at Thanh Liem A upper secondary school in

particular, at present, cannot write a standard paragraph even if they have acquired a large number of vocabulary, studied a lot about English grammar and paragraph format It can be explained that in the writing lessons, teachers usually focus on grammar and vocabulary rather than teaching English as a whole; therefore, students can only be completely correct at sentence level When asked to produce a paragraph they are not well- done because a good English paragraph does not only depend on correct grammatical structures, but

it is the combination of grammar and other factors such as unity and coherence

If in writing sentences, grammar and vocabulary are the most noticeable matters, a lack of coherence in paragraphs is also one of the major problems confronted in paragraphs writing beside a lack of unity in paragraph ideas and organization Because of these reasons, I decided to carry out the study named:

“A study on coherence in English paragraphs written by the tenth form students at Thanh Liem A upper secondary school”

1.2 Purposes of the study

The main purposes of the study are as the following:

 To find out the coherence achievement in English paragraphs written by the tenth form students

 To investigate students' perceptions of coherence in English paragraphs

 To identify factors that affect coherence in students' English paragraphs

 To give some suggestions to improve coherence in students’ English

paragraphs

1.3 Scope of the study

In the curriculum, students have to learn a lot of writing skills, such as filling

in a form, writing letters, writing announcements, etc However, in this study,

the researcher only focuses on English paragraphs

A good English paragraph is made by different elements, such as organization, structure, unity, expressions; however, due to the lack of time the concentration of the study is to focus on coherence in paragraphs not on other elements

1.4 Research questions of the study

The study is carried out in order to find out the answers to these research questions:

 What is the real situation of coherence achievement in English paragraphs

of the tenth form students?

 What are students’ perceptions of coherence in English paragraphs?

 What are factors affecting the use of coherence in students’ English paragraphs?

 What are suggestions to improve coherence in students’ English

paragraphs?

1.5 Methodology

In order to collect sufficient data for the anlysis the following methods were employed Theoretically, the researcher spent time reading books and materials available on coherence to get knowledge of the subject

Moreover, in order to find out the real situation of coherence achievement in students’ paragraphs, analyzing students’ written assignments was conducted

In addition, using questionnaires is also used to help the researcher collect the data The researcher can analyze and report all the collected data to help the study more realistically

1.6 Design of the study

The study is divided into 5 chapters presented below:

Chapter 1: Introduction

Chapter 2: The literature review

Chapter 3: The data collection and analysis

Chapter 4: Major findings and suggestions

Chapter 5: Conclusion

CHAPTER 2 THE LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter makes a review involving in theoretical background of writing, paragraph and coherence

2.1 Theoretical background of writing

2.1.1 Definition of writing

There are various definitions of writing by different methodologists Each definition is a reflection of underlying theories or perspective that the author assumes According to Ur (1996) “ most people acquire the spoken language intuitively, whereas the written form is in most cases deliberately taught and learned.” He added that “ writing normally requires some forms of instruction It

is not a skill that is readily picked up by exposure.” It means that writing is a productive skill we cannot acquire it without being trained

Seeing writing in a different point of view, Leki (1976) states that:

“Writing is communicating Good writing gets out of your head and into the reader’s head without loosing or distorting those ideas”

In its broadened sense, as a process Hedge (2000) described “Writing is the result of employing strategies to manage the composing process, which is one of gradually developing a text It involves a number of activities, setting goals, generating ideas, organizing information, selecting appropriate language, making a draft, reading and reviewing it, then revising and editing It is a complex process which is neither easy nor spontaneous for many second language writers

According to “Oxford Advanced learner’s Dictionary” (1989), writing is

to make letter or other symbols on a surface (usually paper), especially with a pen or pencil” Writing, in Davies’s point of view, involved two kinds of skills The first ones low- level skill such as handwriting or typing, spelling, constructing grammatical sentences, organizing and sequencing, structuring, drafting, and editing

Besides, Byrne (1988) gave a long and complex definition which can be summarized as follow: Writing is the act of forming graphic symbols which were arranged according to certain convention to form words and words which were arranged to form sentences and we produced a sequence of sentence arranged in particular order and linked together in certain way, on a flat surface

of some kind

All in all, Byrne’s definition can be considered one of the most complete definitions of writing because it covers all of the features of writing given by above mentioned authors

2.1.2 The importance of writing

Written words and the time spent practicing the art of writing are both therapeutic and an ideal manner and opportunity for the constructive self-expression that is sorely needed in modern society Writing allows an individual

to express and develop thoughts and ideas like no other pursuit Writing creatively opens new realms of ideas, particularly in students during their formative years Even during their earliest handwriting exercises, children must combine complex physical and cognitive processes to render letters precisely and fluidly From first grade on, they write nearly every day and they are asked

to do more with this skill than with any other except reading And as children progress through school, writing requirements — from homework assignments and class work to note taking and tests — increase across the curriculum As writing tasks become more difficult, students must call on an increasingly wide range of skills to not only write legibly, logically, and in an organized way but also to invoke rules of grammar and syntax This combination of requirements makes writing the most complex and difficult use of language

Precision in the use of language and the ability to use grammar and punctuation correctly is important as incorrect usage can alter the meaning of the words that you have used In pragmatic terms, during the course of our studies,

we will find that students who can write in a way that fits with the expectations and requirements of the lecturers will achieve greater success in their

coursework This is because you are assessed not solely on your legal knowledge but on your ability to write in a way that is in keeping with the formality and precision of language use within the legal profession

When we learn a second language, we learn to communicate

Ann Raimes (1983: 3) thinks “…an additional and very important reason: writing helps our students learn” She shows three ways in which students can learn through writing:

 Firstly, writing reinforces the grammatical structures, idioms and vocabulary that we have been teaching our students

 Secondly, when our students write, they also have a chance to be adventurous with the language, to go beyond that they have just learned to say, to take risk

 Thirdly, when they write, necessarily become very involved with the new language, the effort to express ideas and the constant use of eye, hand and brain

is a unique way to reinforce learning

Donn Byrne (1988) believes that “writing serves a variety of pedagogical purposes” Firstly, “the introduction and pracice of some form of writing enable

us to provide for different learning styles and needs” There can be no doubt that

in some circumstances, for some individuals, learning through oral practice alone is not a good idea Some feel more secure if they are allowed to read and write in the language In this way, they are given an opportunity to work at their own pace Secondly, “writing is often needed for formal and informal testing.” It

is the commonest way of examining students’ performance in English There it can offer tangible results to parents, students and teachers Here writing satisfies

a psychological need Thirdly, “writing provides variety in classroom activities serving as a break from oral work” It is the quieter and more relaxed time for both students and teachers At that time, writing increases the amount of language contact through work that can be set out of class

To sum up, writing takes an important role in language acquisition and becomes a valuable part of any language course In addition, the teachers should

be very clear about our purpose in teaching writing

2.1.3 Kinds of writing

According to Syed Hunbbel Meer on the Website

http://hunbbel-meer.hubpages.com, there are four types of writing that are generally used The

first type is Expository Writing Expository writing is a subject-oriented writing

style, in which the main focus of the author is to tell about a given topic or

subject, and leave out his personal opinions The second one is Descriptive

Writing Descriptive writing often focuses on describing a character, an event or

a place in great details It is sometimes poetic in nature in which the author is specifying the details of the event rather than just the information of that event

happened Persuasive Writing is considered as the next kind of writing It is a

type of writing which contains justifications and reasons to make someone believe on the point the writer is talking about Persuasive writing is for persuading and convincing on your point of view It is often used in complaint letters, when you provide reasons and justifications for your complaint; other copywriting texts, T.V commercials, affiliate marketing pitches etc are all different types of persuasive writing, where author is persuading and convincing

you on something he wants you to do and/or believe Besides, Narrative

Writing is also one of the four types of writing Narrative writing is a type of

writing in which the author places himself as the character and narrates you to the story Novels, short stories, novellas, poetry, biographies can all fall in the narrative writing style Simply, narrative writing is an art to describe a story

The opinion of Amanda Morin about kinds of writing on the website

http://childparenting.about.com also has the same idea with Syed Hunbbel Meer’s point of view In addition, Melly gives another way to divide the kinds

of writing is from a target audience, or purpose point of view So kinds of writing can be: academic writing , professional writing, business, copying, journalists, columnists, article writers - these writers write for newspapers and magazines either news articles, commentary or articles which focus on a certain subject, novelists, screenwriters, playwrights, short stories writers, poets, etc

2.2 Theoretical background of paragraph

2.2.1 Definition of paragraph

Up to now, several definitions of what is paragraph have been made For some people, a paragraph is simply a course of idention that is beginning a line a little to the right of the margin In other situations paragraphing is indicated by a skipped line and a new sentence beginning at the left- hand margin ( Robert and Willson 1980) In a word, these definitions of paragraph tend to focus on them

in terms of their punctuation

There is another trend to define paragraph Rooks (1998) say that “A paragraph is a group of sentences which develops logically one subject” Hall (1985) and Roy & Roy (1993) also share the view with Rooks They insist on the fact that all the sentences in a paragraph are written to develop only one single thought Richard Larson explains the three categories of paragraph theory: paragraphs as expanded sentences, governed by comparable syntactical forces; as self-contained units of writing with their own unique principles; and as parts of the overall discourse, informed by the strategies a writer chooses for the overall piece Galperin shows that “a paragraph is a graphical term used to name a group of sentences marked off by indentation at the beginning and break in the dot

at the end” Meanwhile, Oshima and Hogue (2006) state “a paragraph is a basic unit of organization in writing in which a group of related sentences develops one main idea”

From the above definitions, a paragraph can be understood: A paragraph is a self-contained unit of a discourse in writing dealing with a particular point or a single idea It consists of one or series of sentences closely related to one another and devoted to the development of one topic It is marked off by indentation at the beginning, pauses of various lengths and a break in the dot at the end

2.2.2 Structure of an English paragraph

Professor Karin S Alderfer said that just as a sentence has essential parts,

a subject and a verb, a paragraph has essential parts The first is a topic Every paragraph is about something The topic, or subject, is what the paragraph tells

about Every paragraph also needs a main idea This is the general and most important idea that the paragraph discusses about the topic Supporting details are sentences that prove, support, or give more information about the main idea

According to Jennifer Duncan (1992) structure of an English paragraph includes three main parts A paragraph has a beginning that introduces the reader to the subject at hand, a middle that develops the point by further explication and supporting details, and an end that emphasizes the significance

of the insight you have arrived at or provides a transition to the next paragraph

Ann Hogue (2008) and also indicates that an English paragraph has three

major parts A good paragraph should have a topic sentence, several supporting sentences and a concluding sentence The topic sentence is the first sentence in a paragraph It not only names the topic of the paragraph, but it also limits the topic to one or two areas that can be discussed completely in the space

of a single paragraph The middle sentences in a paragraph are called the supporting sentences That is, they explain the topic sentence by giving reasons, examples, facts, statistics, and quotations The concluding sentence signals the end of the paragraph It often repeats the topic sentence in different words or summarizes the main points F Scott Walters (2000) also has the same point of view with Ann Hogue

It can be concluded that a Standard English paragraph should contain three main parts: a topic sentence, supporting sentences and a concluding sentence

2.2.3 Elements of a standard English paragraph

Oshima and Hogue (1998) gave Peer editing checklist in Writing Academic English including: assignment format, structure, unity, coherence, development, expression and grammar, punctuation, spelling, etc

Assignment Format consists of these following criteria:

 Paper: 2.5cm margin on right and 2.5cm margin on left

 Title: the title of the paragraph is in the center on the top line of the first page

 Body: The paragraph begins on the third line after skipping a line; indent the first line of every paragraph about 2.5cm from the margin, write on every other line

 The space between lines must be 1.5cm

An English paragraph must have three major parts A good paragraph should have a topic sentence, several related supporting details and a concluding sentence A good topic sentence should contain a topic, a main idea, and the controlling idea Supporting details are sentences used to support the main idea stated in the topic sentence A concluding sentence should review the topic sentence and give some final thought about the subject

Unity means that you discuss only one main idea in a paragraph The main idea is stated in the topic sentence, and the each and every supporting sentence develops that idea

Coherence means that your paragraph is easy to read and understand because your supporting sentences are in some kinds of logical order and your ideas are connected by the use of appropriate transition signals

A paragraph is adequately developed when it describes, explains and supports the topic sentence A paragraph which consists of only two or three sentences is under-developed A good rule of thumb to follow is to make sure that a paragraph contains at least four sentences which explain and elaborate on the topic sentence

A good paragraph will conclude the standard sentences with different lengths It means that simple sentences, compound, complex; compound -complex sentences are used flexibly in the paragraph In addition, the paragraph must not have some mistakes like choppy sentence, stringy sentences, etc

Grammar, punctuation and spelling are also necessary elements to make a good paragraph

All in all, to produce a good paragraph, it is necessary for the writer to pay attention to such elements as assignment format, unity, structure, development, expression, etc And coherence is also one of them which needs students to keep

an eye on when they wrote a paragraph respectively

2.3 Theoretical background of coherence

2.3.1 Definition of coherence

“Co” is a Latin prefix that means “together” or “with” The verb “cohere” means hold together” Traditional definitions of coherence focus on the idea that the product of the process of writing, namely, a text, should hang together in

a way that makes its content have some arrangement of order or sequence Such

an order or sequence is thought to be largely related to the connectedness between sentences or through using cohesive devices at the paragraph level As Bamberg (1983:417) stated, the first analysis on coherence was carried out in the nineteenth century by Alexander Bain, who work on paragraph structure, stating in his first rule that “the bearing of each sentence upon what precedes shall be explicit and unmistakable” Halliday and Hasan (1976: 13) defined the term as “the property of signalling that the interpretation of the passage in question depends on something else” On the other hand, Bander (1983: 6) only focuses on how the main ideas of a text are structured, without paying any attention to other aspects implied by coherence, saying that a paragraph is coherent “when its ideas are clearly related to each other in orderly sequence”

Although coherence has been accorded the increasing interest by the teachers and researchers around the world, such as Enkvist (1990), Witt and Faigley (1981), it is still an illusive concept Therefore, it is essential to have a clear understanding of the concept of coherence

Law Davies (1993) and Pilus (1996) agree that the definition of coherence

is best viewed through two essential criteria: textbased coherence and reader based coherence The former refers to the internal structure of the text itself while the latter is connected to the process of writer- reader interaction

-Coherence in a paragraph according to Oshima & Hogue (1996) means that the paragraph is easy to read and understand because your supporting sentences are in some kind of logical order and your ideas are connected by the use of appropriate transition signals In other word, it means that one sentence follows another in clear, logical sequence Coherence allows the readers to move

from one idea to the next, seeing the connection between ideas, and the connection of the ideas to the topic sentence Coherence is the factor that decides whether a language product is a text or not and is the semantic, implicit relation inside the text itself Coherence is built upon the semantic ties in discourse (Yule, 90) Coherence is “the relationships which link the sense of utterances in a discourse or of sentences in a text” (Richard, 74)

According to Palmer (1999), coherence refers to the rhetorical devices, the ways of writing and speaking that bring about order and unity and emphasis”

To sum up, among above mentioned definitions Oshima & Hogue’s definition about is considered as the most complete definition of coherence It brings a clear, full sight about coherence and makes sense to every reader

2.3.2 Cohesion versus coherence

According to McCarthy (1991) cohesion is only a guide to coherence and coherence is something created by the reader in the act of the text He insists that coherence is the feeling that a text hangs together to make sense Obviously, cohesion involves formal linguistic links between sections of a text These are things that can be listed pointed at and classified Coherence is more difficult to define or analyze since it refers to the way we know a text holds together by continuity of theme, cause and effect relations and others Cohesion is a surface structure, so we recognize it immediately Coherence especially when cohesive

features are rare in a text, may only emerge slowly

Thompson (1996) states: “Coherence is in the mind of the writer and reader: it is a mental phenomenon and can not be identified or quantified in the same way as cohesion” Cohesion and coherence are in most cases linked in the way that a text which exploits the cohesive resources of the language effectively

is normally perceived as coherent That is why cohesion is crucial linguistic resource in the expression of coherent meanings

2.3.3 The roles of coherence

In language teaching, coherence is a component of the writing skill which plays a crucial part in writing quality Hatch (1992) said, “Without

coherence, a text is not properly a text”

The notion of coherence in discourse is so important that if any two utterances or sentences are produced in a sequence , a semantic relation

or logical connection between them will be assumed A coherent text, therefore, is one where interpreter can readily reconstruct the speaker’s plan with reasonable certainty, by inferring the relations among the sentences and their individual relations to the various sub-goals in the inferred plan for the entire to be understood at hand Coherence contributes to the unity of a piece of discourse such that the individual sentences or utterances hand together and relate to each other That means, for any text or discourse to be coherent, it must make sense and also have unity and so be well - informed

Coherence is the verbal thread that binds one sentence to another when a paragraph is coherent the reader can see a continuous line of thought passing from one sentence to the next When a paragraph is incoherent, the sentences are discontinuous, and readers may lose their ways (Hefferman & Lincohn, 1990)

Coherence helps a writer generate a good piece of writing because all of the ideas are developed step-by-step Thus a reader can follow the ideas

of a writer easily Bates (1998) explains that if the production of thought in writing has no coherence, a reader will become confused about the ideas presented A paragraph with poor coherence affects the understanding of the message because the paragraph may contain mixed up ideas or a sudden change in focus from one idea to the next

2.3.4 Ways to achieve coherence

Agree & Kline (1985) insisit that in revising for coherence the writer needs

to use for specific writing techniques to show the relationship between ideas The

first technique is sentence combining In fact, it is one of the most useful tools in

achieving coherence because it employs the most common devices in the

language for bringing out the relationship between ideas Secondly, transition

signals also need to be appropriately used This technique is closely related to

sentence combining Transiton signals also help the reader follow more easily

the pattern of the writer’s thinking Thirdly, parallelism is another key to

achieve coherence in a paragraph When the writer wishes to show that two sentences do the same work or hold the same relationship to the topic sentence,

he should arrange them in the same pattern If two sentences are doing the same work, presenting theory about the same event, but their structure is not parallel, the reader is not helped to see the similarity of their function The last technique

is the repetition of key words This technique focuses the reader’s attention on

the threads- the important ideas, as they move through the paragraph to make up the fabric of the discussion

Hall (1985) also proposes a number of ways to maintain coherence in the paragraph They are:

Using transition signals

According to Hall “transitions are essential to the coherence of paragraph and paper”

Creating parallel structures

Parallel constructions, as stated by Hall can fulfill a need for transition that is not only structural and logical, but also emotional Parallel structure requires that sentences elements- words, phrases, and clauses- that are alike in functions be alike in structures as well

Avoiding changes in verb tense

In order to maintain coherence in a paragraph, Hall strongly advises the writer to stick to one verb tense in describing one action For him, “It is not choosing past or present that matters most; it matters most that we stick to the tense we start with”

Placing modifiers properly

Placing modifiers properly is essential to coherence in a paragraph Misplaced modifiers often lead to the lack of coherence in a paragraph because they result in misreferences

To achieve coherence, Oshima and Hogue (2006) suggest four basic

ways as follows: Repetition of Key nouns, Consistent Pronouns, Transition

Signals, Logical Order

* Repetition of Key Nouns

Key noun means the important nouns in a paragraph Repetition of key nouns means repeating key nouns or key words frequently in your paragraph The repetition of important words in a paragraph helps the readers to grasp the main idea of a paragraph There is no fix rule about how often to repeat key nouns or when to substitute pronouns At the very least, you need to repeat a key noun instead of using a pronoun when the meaning is not clear

Pronouns must be consistent with the nouns they replace in number, gender, and person As explained by Katsura (2010), each pronoun refers to a single noun, called its “antecedent” A pronoun must refer clearly to its antecedent or anaphora “a generic word may be used in definite sense, to refer

to a thing, event, or attribute that has been discussed or mentioned in the text.” A pronoun must agree with its antecedent in person, number, and gender As such, the antecedent or anaphoric word must always be clear

Transition signals are words such as: first, second, next, finally, therefore and however, or phrases such as in conclusion, on the other hand, and as a result Transition signals tell the reader when you are giving a similar idea, an opposite idea, an example, a result, or a conclusion, etc Using transitions in a paragraph makes it easier for the readers to follow the writer’s ideas because they create smooth transitions between sentences.They give your paragraph coherence Transitions are also used at the inter-paragraph level to smoothly move from one paragraph to the next paragraph

Transition signals can be categorized into three groups by grammatical function They are: sentence connectors include transition phrases and conjunctive adverbs, clause connectors including coordinating conjunctions and subordinating conjunction and the transition signals in this group include adjectives, prepositions, and nouns

 Logical division of ideas/ Order of importance

When we use logical division means that we group related ideas together and discuss each group, one after another If the groups are all more or less equally important in the mind of the writer, they can be discussed in order of importance

Through what have been mentioned in this chapter, it is very important to reconfirm that understanding about coherence and mastering ways to achieve coherence will help to increase the quality of students’ English paragraphs In the next chapters, the researcher will find out the real situation of coherence achievement in English paragraphs written by students, students’ perceptions of coherence in paragraphs, factors affecting coherence in students’ paragraphs as well as give suggestions for the teaching and learning English paragraphs to improve coherence

CHAPTER 3 DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS

This chapter includes two parts The first part focuses on the situation of the study which will give the description of aim, the participants and the textbook The second one is the results of analyzing data collected from the students’ assignments and the survey questionnaires

3.1 Situation

3.1.1 Aim

The major purpose of carrying out this study is to investigate the present situation of coherence achievement in English paragraphs written by the tenth form

students at Thanh Liem A upper secondary school Besides, the researcher wants to

identify students' perceptions of coherence in English paragraphs In addition, the study also helps to identify factors affecting coherence in students' English paragraphs Basing on the results collected, the researcher would like to give some

recommendations which can improve the present situation

The Writing program at Thanh Liem A upper secondary school follows the syllabus with the aim of improving students’ ability in writing skills In the

English 10 textbook, there are ranges of types to practice writing, such as filling

in a form, writing about people background, writing a letter, describing information from a table, writing a profile, etc and writing an English paragraph

is one of the main focuses In the curriculum, students learn to write a narrative

in Unit 1, write about advantages and disadvantages of the mass media in Unit 7, describe a film in Unit 12, describe a city in Unit 15, etc

3.2 Data collection

3.2.1 Students’ writing assignments

Collecting the students’ writing assignments is an effective and more realistical way to find out the real situation of coherence achievement in English paragraphs written by the tenth form students 120 tenth form students from three different classes (class 10A1, 10A6 and 10A9) took part in the study Students of each class were asked to write about different topics on their own (without discussing with their friends) The length of each paragraph is approximately 100 to 150 words The time allocating for writing a paragraph for each topic was about 40 minutes

Paragraphs written by the tenth form students are compared and contrasted in detail with the standard English paragraph However, in this study the researcher just focuses on criteria of coherence in students’ English

paragraphs according to Oshima and Hogue (1998) including Repetition of Key

Nouns, Consistent Pronouns, Transition Signals, Logical Order Students’

paragraphs are analyzed in order to examine whether the use of criteria of coherence in their assignments are appropriate or inappropriate Each aspect will be divided into sub-types The use of key nouns is determined basing on using the same key nouns and using synonyms The use of consistent pronouns

is subcategorized to include pronoun reference and pronoun agreement With transition signals meaning, types, punctuation associated, frequency and position

of transition signals are considered to decide if they are good used Logical order focuses on ideas arrangement consisting of arranging ideas logically and relavance of ideas

Three topics for writing a paragraph are:

Topic 1: Writing a paragraph to tell about your first day at high school

Topic 2: Writing a paragraph about the advantages or disadvantages of one of the mass media

Topic 3: Writing a paragraph to describe a film you have seen

3.2.2 The survey questionnaires

To some extent, using questionnaires helps the researcher collect the data needed in quantity form Besides, the researcher can analyze and report all the collected data to help the study realistically

The questionnaire consisting of 12 questions was carefully prepared and delivered to 120 tenth form students from class 10A1, 10A6 and 10A9 All questions were written in Vietnamese to make it understandable for the students

as well as to avoid misunderstanding

The background information of students and their attitudes towards writing skill would be found out with 4 questions (1, 2, 3 and 4) Questions number 5, 6, 7 and 8 aimed at investigating the students' perceptions of coherence in English paragraph The rest questions (9, 10, 11 and 12) exploiting factors affecting coherence in students' English paragraph These questions were collected 30 minutes after delivering; therefore, students had enough time

to think of the questions carefully before giving their answers

3.3.1 Students’ writing assignments

3.3.1.1 Repetition of key nouns

Use of key nouns Appropriate Inappropriate

Use the synonyms of key nouns 13.3% 86.7%

Table 1: Use of key nouns

According to the table above, students’ use of the same key nouns in their writings are quite good With 90.8% all paragraphs are appropriate However, repetition of keys noun through synonyms, which is considered as a good point

of mature writings is not applied effectively by students 86.7% of the collected paragraphs failed to use synonyms; only a small number of them (13.3%) contain one or two similar meaning words to convey ideas

In fact, when repetition is used inappropriately, the text will certainly become boring Let’s take a look at the following example:

“Cell phones have made communication easier and more convenient In fact, cell phones are now the most efficient way of communication Most of us use

cell phones for daily conversations Moreover, with the help of cell phones,

booking a ticket, arranging a trip or calling an ambulance, etc… can be done in a

few seconds Cell phones, therefore, save us so much time and energy.”

It can be seen from the above excerpt that the words cell phones appeared in

almost every sentence The repetition of this word so many times made the excerpt sound clumsy It will be better if this example can be rewritten with the use of the

synonyms, such as “mobile phone” or “cellular phone”

3.3.1.2 Consistent pronouns

Use of consistent pronouns Appropriate Inappropriate

Table 2: Use of consistent pronouns

As can be seen from Table 2, the most common problematic issue in using consistent pronoun was pronoun agreement which is not done well in 72.5% of all writngs Similarly, 96 ones of 120 writing assignments are inappropriate in using pronoun reference (accounting for 80%)

The followings are some detailed examples found in the students’ writing assignments:

Example 1:

“In addition, listening to music on the radio helps you reduce stress after

a busy day You are tired of working all day and you get stress, it is a good way

to get rid of stress.”

In this example, the pronoun “it” does not refer to specific noun

Example 2:

“Everyone has their own unforgettable memory at high school For me,

the first day at my high school is the most memorable.”

Example 2 contains the antecedent ‘everyone’ and a pronoun ‘their’ The antecedent, ‘everyone’, is third person, singular The pronoun ‘their’ should also be third person, singular The pronoun, ‘their’ is third person, plural and

Table 3: Use of transition signals

Table 3 reflects that the most frequent error with transition signals is the use of t ypes of transition signals (68.3%) Punctuation associated stands at the second rank with 65%, whereas there are 62.5% paragraphs containing mistake with meaning of transition signals Students make mistakes in overusing transition signals and Paragraphs without Transitions accounted for 15.8% Meanwhile, the position of transitional signals is used appropriatedly by students (97.5%); however, it easy to realize that all of the use here is at the beginning of the sentences

 Meaning

Using transition signals without understanding their meanings lead to inappropriate use of transition signals

“Television helps us to learn more about the world and to see many new

things However, it can make things memorable because it presents information

in an effective way.”

The transition ‘however’ is used to show contradiction of ideas In this

example the ideas are not contradictory, so a more appropriate transitional

device or the conjunction ‘and’ should be used

In the other example “ Besides some advantages, a computer also brings

us some disadvantages ” instead of using the transitional word besides to give

an additional idea which means “ngoài ra”, Vietnamese students use it as “bên

cạnh” to show the contrast or opposition of the ideas

 Types

Example 3:

“Although there were a lot of bad things happening to me on the first day

at my high school, however, up to now it has been a memorable day.”

The conjunctions ‘although’ and ‘however’ share similar meanings—to

introduce an opposite idea In Example these two conjunctions appear in different position of the same sentence which is grammatically incorrect

The conjunction ‘however’ is used as a conjunctive adverb to combine two sentences, while the conjunction ‘although’ is used as a subordinate

conjunction to combine two clauses

 Punctuation associated

Some transitions can be moved to other places in a sentence The punctuation rules also change when you move the transition However, many students did not pay attention to the position of the transition signal leading to punctuation error

Taking a look at the following example:

“…In the film “Bong Dung Muon Khoc”, Thanh Truc is very poor and gentle, Bao Nam; however, is very rich and bumptious ”

In this example, if the student places the transition somewhere in the

middle of a clause rather than at the beginning of the clause, he/ she must include a comma in front of it and after it in stead of using semi-colon infront of and a comon after it

 Frequency

 Overusing transitions

Looking at this example:

“Firstly, cell phone helps us communicate everyone more easily For instance, we can talk with everyone who stays everywhere we like In addition, using cell phone help we chat with our friends who live away from

hundreds of kilometers Besides, if you are too busy to turn back your company,

you may make a call in order to solve some work, such as arranging a meeting, canceling a meeting, informing news, etc.”

In this example the transition “In addition” “besides” should be deleted

because the next sentences discuss similar ideas, to the idea in the previous sentence

 Paragraphs without transitions

Below is an example of a paragraph without any elements of coherence:

“The first and the most important reason of using cell phones is they can

be used everywhere You can communicate with anyone whenever you want and wherever you are If there is an emergency situation, cell phones can also be useful You can get access to the Internet to get every information you need with a cell phone Listening to music, playing games on the cell phone anywhere help us relax after a busy hours.”

The paragraph above is, somewhat, not coherent enough due to the lack of transitions Although the topic sentence is clear-cut since it focuses only on one advantage out of the two mentioned in the paragraph, the supporting ideas do not contain any signs of connecting Therefore, the

sentences are disconnected from each other, making it difficult for the readers to follow the writer’s train of thought

Table 4: Use of logical order

It can be seen from the result in the Table 4, the major of students knew

how to organize their ideas in chronological order with the topic about “your

first day at high school”, and order of importance when they were asked to write

about “the advantages or disadvantages of one of the mass media” 22.5%

arranged their ideas illogically

Table 4 also reflects that students’ use of relevant ideas is not quite good Using related ideas of over a half of students is inappropriate (56.6%) Instead of giving reasonable ideas for the topic many students supported irrelevant information As a result, ideas organization of the paragraph became incoherent

3.3.2 The survey questionnaires

Twelve questions were put out for 120 students at 3 classes to realize some difficulties students face in the process of writing paragraph, the students' perceptions of coherence in paragraph, and factors affecting the use of coherence in students' English paragraphs All information collected helps the researcher give some useful suggestions to change students’ perceptions, reduce factors affecting coherence and raise their awareness of problems they often face

in the process of writing paragraph