A study of grammatical and lexical cohesive devices in some written discourses from the course book “english for chemistry”

Moreover, the author would like to describe and analyze grammatical and lexical cohesive devices in the course book of English for Chemistry for second year students in Faculty of Chemis

course book “english for chemistry”

Phạm Thị Vân Annh

Trường Đại học KHXH&NV Luận văn ThS Chuyên ngành: Enlish Linguistics; Mã số: 60 22 15

Người hướng dẫn: Dr Trần Xuân Điệp

Năm bảo vệ: 2009

Abstract: The aim of this study is to give an overview of theoretical background of discourse

and discourse analysis; cohesion, coherence and cohesive devices; concept of ESP and ESP discourse Moreover, the author would like to describe and analyze grammatical and lexical cohesive devices in the course book of English for Chemistry for second year students in Faculty

of Chemistry at Hanoi University of Education The author wishes that the findings of the study will be applied to the teaching and learning of English for Chemistry.The study consists of three main parts of which the first part presents the rationales, scope, methodology The following part with two main chapters Chapter one gives the theoretical background of the studies with theories related to discourse and discourse analysis, cohesion and coherence, ESP Chapter two provides an analysis of grammatical and lexical cohesive devices in some written discourses taken from the textbook of EC used for second year students in Faculty of Chemistry at HNUE

In the final part, recapitulation, implications, limitations of the study and suggestions for further research are presented

Keywords: Tiếng Anh; Ngữ pháp; Từ vựng; Hóa học

Content:

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

List of tables

List of abbreviations

Part A: INTRODUCTION……… 1

1 Rationale……… 1

2 Aims of the study……… … 2

3 Scope of the study……… … 2

4 Methods of the study……… … 2

5 Design of the study……… 2

Part B: DEVELOPMENT……… 4

Chapter 1: Literature review and theoretical background ……… 4

1.1 Literature review……… … 4

1.2 Theoretical background……….… 4

1.2 1 Discourse and discourse analysis……… … 5

1.2.1.1 Concept of discourse……….… 5

1.2.1.2 Discourse and text……….… 5

1.2.1.3 Spoken and written discourse……… 5

1.2 1 4 Discourse analysis……….… 6

1.2.1.4.1 Context in discourse analysis……… 6

1.2.1.4.2 Register and Genre in discourse analysis……….… 7

1.2 2 Cohesion and Coherence……… 8

1.2 2.1 Cohesion vs Coherence……… 8

1.2 2.2 Aspects of Coherence……… 8

1.2 2 2.1 Topical Coherence……… … 8

1.2 2 2 2 Logical Coherence……….… 9

1.2 2 3 Types of Cohesion……….… 9

1.2 2 3 1 Grammatical Cohesion……… … 9

1.2 2 3 2 Lexical Cohesion……… … 12

1.2 3 English for Specific Purposes (ESP)……… 13

1.2 3 1 Concept of ESP……….… 13

1.2 3 2 Characteristics of ESP discourse……… … 14

1.2.4 Summary……… 14

Chapter 2: Analysis of Grammatical and Lexical Cohesive Devices in some written discourses from the course book “English for Chemistry”………

16 2.1 An overview of the analysis……… 16

2.2 Analysis of Grammatical and Lexical Cohesive Devices in some written discourses from the course book “English for Chemistry”………

16 2.2.1 Grammatical cohesive devices……… 17

2.2.1.1 References……….… 18

2.2.1.1.1 Anaphoric reference……….… 18

2.2.1.1.2 Cataphoric reference……….… 21

2.2.1.1.3 Exophoric reference……… 23

2.2.1.1.4 A comparison of anaphoric, cataphoric and exophoric reference……… 23

2.2.1.2 Conjunction……… 24

2.2.1.3 Substitution……… …… 27

2.2.1.4 Ellipsis……….… 28

2.2.1.4.1 Nominal Ellipsis……… … 28

2.2.1.4.2 Verbal Ellipsis……… … 29

2.2.1.4.3 Clausal Ellipsis……….… 30

2.2.2 Lexical cohesive devices……… 31

2.2.2.1 Reiteration……… … 31

2.2.2.1.1.Repetition……… … 32

2.2.2.1.2.Synonym……… … 35

2.2.2.1.3.Super-ordinate and general……….… 35

2.2.2.2 Collocation……… 37

2.2.2.2.1 Lexical collocation 2.2.2.2.2 Grammatical collocation 2.2.3 Summary……… 41

PART C: CONCLUSION……… 42

1 Recapitulation……… 42

2 Implications……… 43

2.1 Implications for teachers and students of EC……… 43

2.2 Suggestions for materials design……… 44

3 Limitations of the study……… 44

4 Suggestions for further research……… 44

REFERENCES……… 45

Appendix I

Appendix II

Appendix III

Appendix IV

Appendix V

Appendix VI

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 RATIONALE

Cohesion plays an important role in the comprehension of a written discourse This

is due to the fact that comprehension is a process that occurs within the reader and is at least partially dependent on cohesion and coherence Cohesion is used to show how sentences which are structurally independent of one another may be linked together Cohesion exists within a text and is not the same as coherence, which is something the reader establishes in the process of reading The importance of cohesion in text is major since it provides semantic continuity and permits coherence and comprehensibility The more explicit cohesive relationships are, the easier a text is to understand The coherence

of a text can be created through lexical and grammatical cohesive links and other cohesive factors When a reader is able to see how these cohesive factors contribute to the linking of sentences and ideas in a text, he not only can understand the text but can produce the text more easily as well

However, recognizing the relations within the text to obtain coherence is not easy for learners of English, especially non-English major students Most of them find it difficult to understand and produce a text This is because of the insufficient awareness of both teachers and learners in teaching and learning English, i.e learning English is learning vocabulary and grammar Moreover, students often learn words in isolation, not in combinations Meanwhile, in order to understand a reading text, the readers need to pay attention to not only vocabulary and grammar but also other factors that create links between the ideas in the text, i.e cohesive devices

Since a better understanding of cohesion undoubtedly helps teachers and students improve their teaching and learning As a teacher of English in general and of EC in particular, I decided to study some discourse features of EC texts to help improve the effectiveness of teaching and learning of EC at HNUE Due to the limitation of time and knowledge, my study just focuses on grammatical and lexical cohesive devices which are used in written discourses of EC

The texts used for this study are taken from the EC course book used for second year students in Faculty of Chemistry at HNUE The course book was designed by our ESP teachers and was confirmed in 2008 It contains six units, from unit 1 to unit 6 We take six reading texts from these six units as written discourses of EC from which we analyze grammatical and lexical cohesive devices

2 AIMS OF THE STUDY

The aims of the study are:

- giving an overview of theoretical background of discourse and discourse analysis; cohesion, coherence and cohesive devices; concept of ESP and ESP discourse

- describing and analyzing grammatical and lexical cohesive devices in the course book of EC for second year students in Faculty of Chemistry at HNUE The findings are expected to be applied to the teaching and learning of EC

3 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

Within the framework of a minor M.A thesis, the study just mainly focuses on grammatical and lexical cohesive devices, their frequency of occurrence, in the six reading texts of EC taken from the textbook used for second year students in Faculty of Chemistry

at HNUE

4 METHODS OF THE STUDY

Description, analysis, statistics are the principal methods used in this study to identify grammatical and lexical cohesive devices, their frequency of occurrence in some written discourses of EC

5 DESIGN OF THE STUDY

The study includes three main parts: Introduction, Development, and Conclusion

Introduction presents the rationale, the scope, the methodology and the design of the

study

Development consists of two chapters:

- Chapter 1: gives the theoretical background of the study with the theories related to

three main sections: discourse and discourse analysis, cohesion and coherence, ESP

- Chapter 2: provides an analysis of grammatical and lexical cohesive devices in some

written discourses taken from the textbook of EC used for second year students in Faculty of Chemistry at HNUE

Conclusion provides a recapitulation of the study, implications to teachers and students in

improving the teaching and learning of EC, limitations of the study and suggestions for further research

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