The cohesive devices in the english 7

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY M.A THESIS THE COHESIVE DEVICES IN THE ENGLISH (Phương tiện liên kết sách giáo khoa tiếng anh lớp 7) DUONG VIET LINH Field: English Language Code: 8.22.02.01 Supervisor: Dr Mai Thị Loan Hanoi, 11/2020 CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled THE COHESIVE DEVICES IN THE ENGLISH submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master in English Language Except where the reference is indicated, no other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis Hanoi, 2020 Duong Viet Linh Approved by SUPERVISOR (Signature and full name) Date:…………………… i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my special and sincere thanks to my supervisors, Dr Mai Thi Loan, who gave me enthusiastic instructions, precious support, and critical feedback on the construction of the study This has always been one of the decisive factors in the completion of this thesis I also express my profound gratitude to all doctors, lecturers and staff members of the Hanoi Open University for their valuable lectures and useful advice that are a great of help to fulfill the study I would like to send my deep sense of thanks to the teachers and the seventh-grade students at Kim My Secondary School, Ninh Binh Province for their cooperation and the valuable information they provided in my research field I would like to send my heartfelt gratitude to my family and all of my friends who have a great source of endless care and support Last but not least, I am also thankful to many writers whose important ideas and notions are exploited and developed in the study ii ABSTRACT The study aims at finding out the grammatical and lexical cohesive devices in the English “Tiếng Anh 7” for seventh-grade students In this paper, some theories of discourse and cohesion leading to the basic background for the study are discussed According to that, the theory of cohesive devices by Halliday and Hasan (1976) is the major framework Throughout investigating 12 units in the textbook, the author found out that the most prominent cohesive device is collocation, then conjunctions, reference and repetition It was suggested that during the process of teaching, teachers should instruct students in understanding and employing these cohesive devices correctly; To study about two types of cohesion, three research instruments are used in chapter two and three such as observation, test delivery for 200 seventhgrade students and interviews with 05 English teachers at Kim My Secondary School, Kim Son District, Ninh Binh Province After analyzing, the author draws a different frequency of use and teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards cohesion The research results show that lexical cohesion is used more frequently than grammatical cohesion; students and teachers basically comprehend the importance of cohesion Furthermore, most of the students often commit grammatical cohesion errors than lexical cohesion errors The research also presents some implications for teaching cohesion and certain sample cohesion exercises to upgrade the currently used book It is hoped that the results of this research would be of some use for further study in the field iii LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Table 2.1 Deictic element in nominal ellipsis Table 2.2 Enumerative elements in nominal ellipsis Table 2.3 Clausal ellipsis Table 2.4 Grammatical Cohesion Table 2.5 Lexical Cohesion Table 4.1 Percentage of different types of reference words for anaphoric ties Table 4.2 Percentage of different types of reference words for cataphoric ties Table 4.3 Percentage of different types of reference words for exophoric ties Table 4.4 Percentage of different types of lexical collocations in the English textbook (New Program) Table 4.5 Percentage of different types of grammatical collocations in the English textbook (New Program) Table 4.6 The result of multiple-choice task 10 11 12 15 16 26 29 Figure 1.1 Constant theme pattern Figure 1.2 Linear theme pattern Figure 1.3 Spilt rheme pattern Figure 4.1 The percentage of conjunctions in the English textbook (New Program) Figure 4.2 The percentage of ellipsis in the English textbook (New Program) Figure 4.3 A comparison of reference, conjunction, substitution and ellipsis in the English textbook (New Program) Figure 4.4 The percentage of types of reiteration in English textbook (New Program) Figure 4.5 A comparison between lexical collocation and grammatical collocation Figure 4.6 The percentage of wrong grammatical cohesion in the test Figure 4.7 The percentage of wrong lexical cohesion in the test 7 32 iv 30 41 44 46 37 38 40 45 47 48 TABLE OF CONTENTS Certificate of originality i Acknowledgements ii Abstract iii List of tables and figures iv Table of contents v Abbreviations vii Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION .1 1.1 Rationale 1.2 Aims and objectives of the study .2 1.3 Research questions 1.4 Methods of the study 1.5 Scope of the study 1.6 Significance of the study 1.7 Structure of the study .3 Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Theoretical background of discourse .5 2.1.1 Definition of discourse 2.1.2 Modes of discourse 2.2 Theoretical background of cohesive devices 2.2.1 Topical cohesion .6 2.2.2 Logical cohesion .8 2.2.3 Grammatical cohesion .8 2.2.4 Lexical cohesion 15 2.3 Previous studies 18 2.3.1 Previous studies overseas 18 2.3.2 Previous studies in Vietnam 20 2.4 Summary 22 Chapter 3: METHODOLOGY 23 3.1 Setting of the study .23 3.2 Research approach 23 3.3 Methods of the study 24 3.4 Data collection .24 v 3.4.1 Test 24 3.4.2 Interview 25 3.5 Procedures 25 3.6 Summary 25 Chapter 4: FINDINGS AND DICUSSING 26 4.1 Lexical and grammatical cohesion in the English textbook 26 4.1.1 Grammatical cohesion .26 4.1.2 Lexical cohesion 39 4.2 Cohesion used by students .45 4.2.1 A detailed analysis of the result of test 45 4.2.2 Grammatical cohesion used by students 47 4.2.3 Lexical cohesion used by students 48 4.3 Suggestions for teaching and learning cohesion 49 4.3.1 Suggestions for teaching cohesion 51 4.3.2 Suggestions for learning cohesion 57 4.4 Summary 57 Chapter 5: CONCLUSION .58 5.1 Recapitulation 58 5.2 Concluding remarks .58 5.3 Limitation of the research 60 5.4 Suggestions for further research 60 REFERENCES APPENDICES vi ABBREVIATIONS AP Adjective phrase Adj Adjective Adv Adverb Adv P Adverb phrase N Noun No Number NP Noun phrase PP Prepositional phrase Prep Preposition Quant Quantity V Verb vii Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale Today, learning English is of great importance in the interconnected and globalized world In order to reach the world easier and to some degree improve their future life, students, particularly secondary students, need to be fashioned with the basics of English It is more critical for seventh-grade students English is not only relevant in the future, but in the nearest perspective, English is one of the main subjects in the high-school entrance exam Tracking back to high-school entrance exams recently, we can see that the high proportion of cohesive devices cannot be ignored In my view, cohesive devices, along with their usage and meaning, are valuable tools for both reading texts and other phrases such as writing, error correction and multiple-choice questions It can be said that cohesive device teaching is important for seventhgrade students Furthermore, reading is seen as a vital resource for learning the other skills of the mastery cycle in general, English in particular for high school students from the Vietnamese language Nevertheless, many secondary students not currently have adequate language skills to read and comprehend a written whole text in English During my process of teaching secondary students, I understand that one of the key reasons why students sometimes make errors at the sentencing level is because they not pay attention to the cohesive devices that are used in texts As a consequence, even though most of the words are known, students find it difficult to comprehend the text or articulate their responses in questions that they discuss Someone who is given foreign terms beforehand is often unable to understand sentences and word associations, which contribute to the misinterpretation of the context of texts or misinterpretation Moreover, according to my previous experience of being a secondary student and my observation at my place of work, several teachers, both my former and present colleagues, not teach students how to create word connections through unified tools In addition to a number of items listed, a lot of people studied linguistics and examined discourses; however, high school professors and students were not given suggestions to work more effectively with regard to cohesion Consequently, the main impetus in carrying out this work is the critical role of coherence in the text, as well as the difficulties of my students who are incapable of properly understanding coherent devices in their written texts This study focuses primarily on the grammatical and lexical cohesive tools used in the textbook for seventh-grade students in general for their frequency of occurrence according to the theory of cohesion by Halliday and Hasan (1976) 1.2 Aims and objectives of the study The study aims to clarify cohesive devices in the English textbook for seventh-grade students in general in aspects of grammar and lexis To achieve the above aim the study focuses on the following objectives: - To clarify grammatical and lexical cohesion in the English textbook - To find out how students use cohesion in the English textbook - To give suggestions for teaching and learning cohesion 1.3 Research questions To achieve the above aim and objectives, the thesis focuses on clarifying the following questions: - What are the cohesive devices used in English 7? - How students use cohesion in the English textbook? - What are the positive results teachers and students achieve? 1.4 Methods of the study To accomplish this thesis, we will, firstly, go through a number of materials on discourse analysis and grammar to build up a theoretical background for the research The study takes the theory of discourse analysis as a base on which the most noticeable cohesive devices of reading texts on the English are examined In order to achieve the objectives of the study, we have to follow both qualitative and quantitative approaches, which are strategic methods in the study The tackling methods are statistic (getting the statistics from texts on the English as mentioned in the scope of the study, finding the students’ cohesive errors through the test, analytical (examining in detail the statistics and also analyzing the data obtained from the textbook, synthetically (drawing striking features from the course book observation, the test and the interview analysis) Data will be collected, analyzed and based on the English Test for students is extremely important data collection instruments in the way that based mainly on Collocation No Unit Item Types 498 Modern times Adj+N + 499 Big success Adj+N + 500 Based on V+prep 501 Really tired Adv+adj + 502 Good film Adj+N + 503 A lot of difficulties Quant+N + 504 Good reviews Adj+V + 505 Many people (2) Quant+N + 506 Millions of dollars (2) Quant+N + 507 A bit frightening Quant+N + 508 Really enjoyed Adv+V + 509 Really like Adv+V + 510 Good actor Adj+N + 511 Watched film V+N + 512 Performed excellently (2) V+Adv + 513 Film directors N+N + 514 Many films Quant+N + 515 Terrible disaster Adj+N + 516 Happy ending Adj+N + 517 Went to see V+V + 518 Silly story Adj+N + 519 Amount of money Quant+N + 520 Great success Adj+N + 521 A few questions Quant+N + 522 Favorite actor Adj+N + 523 Different social classes Adj+N + 524 Sad ending Adj+N + 525 A thousand people Quant+N + Lexical Grammatical + Collocation No Unit Item Types 526 Special effect (4) Adj+N + 527 Sad film Adj+N + 528 Main characters Adj+N + 529 Take control of V+prep 530 Take place V+N + 531 School teacher N+N + 532 Interested in Adj+prep 533 Really surprising Adv+adj + 534 Selling well V+adv + 535 High prices Adj+N + 536 Public protests Adj+N + 537 Decided to put V+V 538 Go to cinema V+N + 539 Sounds good V+adj + 540 Extremely funny Adv+adj + 541 Poor night Adj+N + 542 Club dancer N+N + 543 Rick prince Adj+N + 544 Festival activities N+N + 545 Answering questions V+N + 546 Describing festivals V+N + 547 Fascinating animals Adj+N + 548 Religious festival Adj+N + 549 Love fireworks V+N + 550 Lots of both Quant+N + 551 Great choice Adj+N + 552 Small town (2) Adj+N + 553 Seasonal festivals (3) Adj+N + 554 Tomato harvest N+N + 555 Get to throw V+V + 556 Make a camp V+N + Lexical Grammatical + + Collocation No Unit Item Types 557 Have a party V+N + 558 Elephant racing N+N + 559 Art festival N+N 560 Many countries Quant+N + 561 Different way Adj+N + 562 Samba music N+N + 563 Going to discuss V+V + 564 Music festival N+N + 565 Festival project N+N + 566 Used to V+prep 567 Used to answer V+V + 568 Different questions Adj+N + 569 Take place (2) V+N + 570 A lot of people Quant+N + 571 Special way Adj+N + 572 Busy tourist city Adj+N + 573 Tourist city N+N + 574 Very serious Adj+adj + 575 Serious way Adj+N + 575 Award prizes V+N + 576 Really important Adv+adj + 577 Have to reach V+V + 578 Have to V+prep 579 Local people Adj+N + 580 Peach blossoms N+N + 581 Think of V+prep + 582 Find out V+prep + 583 Pumpkin lanterns N+N + 584 Special animal Adj+N + 585 Board games N+N + 586 Traditional dishes Adj+N + Lexical Grammatical + + Collocation No Unit Item Types 587 Thousand of people Quant+N 588 Got up V+prep 589 Some people Quant+N + 590 Many people (2) Quant+N + 591 Began throwing V+V + 592 Had to wear V+V + 593 Get injured V+adj + 594 Local monkeys Adj+N + 595 Attended the festival V+N + 596 Pray for V+prep 597 Ethnic minorities Adj+N + 598 Voluntarily contribute Adv+V + 599 Play drums V+N + 600 Sing songs V+N + 601 Drink rice wine V+N + 602 Rice wine N+N + 603 Bamboo tube N+N + 604 Some other activities Quant+N + 605 Cultural shows Adj+N + 606 Buffalo race N+N + 607 Traditional games Adj+N + 608 Festive atmosphere Adj+N + 609 Re Pronounced differently V+adv + 610 Re Underlined part Adj+N + 611 Re Important holiday Adj+N + 612 Re Light candles V+N + 613 Re Open the doors V+N + 614 Re Beautiful floats Adj+N + 615 Re Very strong Adv+Adj + Lexical Grammatical + + + Collocation No Unit Item Types 616 Re Popular festival Adj+N + 617 Re Love flowers V+N + 618 Re Take this photos V+N + 619 Re Important thing Adj+N + 620 Re New animation Adj+N + 621 Re Remember to buy V+V + 622 Re Named after V+prep 623 Re Some pictures Quant+N + 624 Re Going to cycle V+V + 625 Re Visit my grandmother V+N + 626 Re Want to travel V+V + 627 10 Energy sources (9) N+N + 628 10 Save energy (3) V+N + 629 10 Footprint (8) N+N + 630 10 Negative effect Adj+N + 631 10 Natural gas (2) Adj+N + 632 10 Recycled the products V+N + 633 10 Solar panels (4) Adj+N + 634 10 Big shoes Adj+N + 635 10 Non-renewable energy (5) Adj+N + 636 10 Carbon footprint (8) N+N + 637 10 Developing countries Adj+N + 638 10 Classroom N+N + 639 10 Save electricity V+N + 640 10 Air pollution N+N + 641 10 Environmentally friendly (3) Adv+adj + 642 10 Wind turbines N+N + Lexical Grammatical + Collocation No Unit Item Types 643 10 Energy consumption (3) N+N + 644 10 Solar energy Adj+N + 645 10 Solve the problem V+N + 646 10 Cause pollution V+N + 647 10 Solar power (5) Adj+N + 648 10 Provide for (2) V+prep 649 10 Used to heat V+V 650 10 Used to (3) V+prep 651 10 Keep cool V+adj + 652 10 Hand fan N+N + 653 10 Turn off (3) V+prep 654 10 Go to school V+N + 655 10 Remember to care V+V + 656 10 Care about V+prep 657 10 Used to create V+V + 658 10 Increasingly used Adv+V + 659 10 Nuclear power Adj+N + 660 10 Safe electricity Adj+N + 661 10 Used to power V+V + 662 10 Many poor people Quant+N + 663 10 Poor people Adj+N + 664 10 Have to gather V+V + 665 10 Electricity bills N+N + 666 10 Going to bed V+N + 667 10 A lot of money Quant+N + 668 10 Intend to marry V+V + 669 10 Different sources Adj+N + 670 10 Going out V+prep 671 10 Take showers V+N + 672 11 Driverless cars (8) Adj+N + Lexical Grammatical + + + + + + Collocation No Unit Item Types 673 11 Look cool V+Adj + 674 11 Traffic jams (3) N+N + 675 11 Safety system (2) N+N + 676 11 Prefer to have V+V + 677 11 Lots of space (3) Quant+N + 678 11 Bad weather (2) Adj+N + 679 11 Really imaginative Adv+adj + 680 11 Worry about V+prep 681 11 Solar energy Adj+N + 682 11 Avoid traffic V+N + 683 11 Favorite colour Adj+N + 684 11 Underwater bus N+N + 685 11 Sounds great V+adj + 686 11 Prefer to go V+V + 687 11 Like to drink V+V + 688 11 Skytrain N+N + 689 11 Getting gridlocked V+adj + 690 11 Serious pollution problems Adj+N + 691 11 Pollution problems N+N + 692 11 Become quicker V+adj + 693 11 Many interesting transport inventions Quant+N + 694 11 Interesting transport inventions Adj+N + 695 11 Transport inventions N+N + 696 11 Become popular V+adj + 697 11 Go back (2) V+prep 698 11 Handle to go V+V + 699 11 New inventions Adj+N + 700 11 Go forward V+prep Lexical Grammatical + + + Collocation No Unit Item Types 701 11 Learning to drive V+V + 702 11 Need a driver V+N + 703 11 Travels fast V+adv + 704 11 Airplane N+N + 705 11 High speed Adj+N + 706 11 Signal words Adj+N + 707 11 Giving opinions V+V + 708 12 Overcrowded places Adj+N + 709 12 Living standard N+N + 710 12 Major problem Adj+N + 711 12 Visit the slums V+N + 712 12 Good time Adj+N + 713 12 Real experience Adj+N + 714 12 Very interesting Adv+adj + 715 12 Bad condition Adj+N + 716 12 Bad action Adj+N + 717 12 Native village Adj+N + 718 12 Peaceful atmosphere Adj+N + 719 12 Overcrowded area (2) Adj+N + 720 12 Healthcare N+N + 721 12 Stay healthy V+adj + 722 12 Live longer V+adj + 723 12 Need money V+N + 724 12 Major cause Adj+N + 725 12 Many wealthy people Quant+N + 726 12 Wealthy people Adj+N + 727 12 Spreads quickly V+adv + 728 12 Clean water (2) Adj+N + 729 12 Air pollution (2) N+N + 730 12 Wealthy areas Adj+N + 731 12 Fewer problems Quant+N + Lexical Grammatical Collocation No Unit Item Types 732 12 Average earnings (2) Adj+N + 733 12 Fewer people Quant+N + 734 12 Find a solution V+N + 735 12 Population growth N+N + 736 12 Serious problem Adj+N + 737 12 Big cities Adj+N + 738 12 Homeless people Adj+N + 739 12 Deserted house Adj+N + 740 12 Bought the ticket V+N + 741 12 Death rate N+N + 742 12 Considered beautiful V+adj + 743 12 Healthcare system N+N + 744 12 Reading the article V+N + 745 12 Countryside N+N + 746 12 Relatively small Adv+adj + 747 12 Big problem Adj+N + 748 12 Have homes V+N + 749 12 Want to go out V+V + 750 12 Go out (3) V+prep 751 12 Growing slowly V+adv + 752 12 Growing quickly V+Adv + 753 12 Some problem Quant+N + 754 12 Smaller cities Adj+N + 755 12 A few thousand people Quant+N + 756 12 Many people Quant+N + 757 12 Little money Quant+N + 758 12 A lot of things Quant+N + 759 12 Less space Quant+N + 760 12 Reduce poverty V+N + 761 12 Suffer from V+prep Lexical Grammatical + + Collocation No Unit Item Types 762 12 Small population Adj+N + 763 Re Single wheel Adj+N + 764 Re Take adventures V+N + 765 Re Natural sources Adj+N + 766 Re Math problem N+N + 767 Re Need a driver V+N + 768 Re Some daily products Quant+N + 769 Re Daily products Adj+N + 770 Re Green future Adj+N + 771 Re Clean water Adj+N + 772 Re Produce energy V+N + 773 Re Housework N+N + 774 Re Save energy V+N + 775 Re Go to school V+N + 776 Re Crowded bus Adj+N + 777 Re Small wooden house Adj+N + 778 Re Sound unrealistic V+adj + 779 Re Serious problem Adj+N 780 Re Many parts Quant+N + 781 Re Fast growth Adj+N + 782 Re Growing food V+N + 783 Re Heavily destroy Adv+V + 784 Re Running away V+prep 785 Re Help solve V+V + 786 Re Warning system N+N + 787 Re Natural disasters Adj+N + 788 Re Used to carry V+V + 789 Re Carry food V+N + 790 Re Used to V+prep 791 Re Human activities N+N + 792 Re Buy food V+N + Lexical Grammatical + + Collocation No Unit Item Types 793 Re Produce food (2) V+N 794 Re Searching for V+prep + 795 Re Take care of V+prep + Lexical Grammatical + APPENDIX 7: TEST FOR 200 STUDENTS AT SEVENTHGRADE AT KIM MY SECONDARY SCHOOL, NINH BINH PROVINCE Exercise 1: Complete the following sentence by choosing one most suitable answer People use many sources of energy Ancient people used only their arms, hands and simple tools until they discovered fire Later, people learned to use the energy of the wind to sail ships …………… they learned to use animals to work In the 18th and 19th centuries, people began to use machines A so B then C or D but Do more exercise …………… eat more fruit and vegetables A and B then C or D but Abroad they ……………… with the local people, and they return in England with great understanding of other people in other parts of the world A live happy B live happiness C live happily D live unhappy ……………… they spent a lot of money on the film, it wasn’t a big success A However B But C Even D Although The new restaurant looks good ……………… seems to have few customers A They B There C It D One Postal stamps are a source of interesting facts and important dates about every country in the ………… It makes stamp collecting become very popular A Vietnam B world C country D nation I have donated blood twice, and have given presents to …………… in the hospital recently A sick children B sickness children C sick child D sickness child ……………… can become a business If you are lucky in finding a special stamp, it will bring you some money besides knowledge and pleasure A Collecting stamp B Collected stamps C Collect stamp D Collecting stamps Last term she tried to start a club for model-making …………… but the teachers and other children weren’t interested A in school B at school C at schools D in schools 10 My brother has made two CDs already He made the first ………… two years ago A things B thing C ones D one 11 Now more than 20,000 people from England have worked abroad as volunteers, ……………… are young, others are old A one B most C many D some 12 Last night, I went to bed early ……………… being very tired A despite of B in spite of C because of D although 13 Children in the ……………… have more diseases than those in wealthy areas A slums B rural C urban D house 14 Chu Van An was …………… “Seven Beheaded Petition”, a symbol of the courageous attitude of the real intellectuals A famous B famous in C famous for D famous of 15 Scientists will find solutions to reduce ………… in our city A pollution B pollute C polluted D polluting Exercise 2: Join the two sentences to make ONE sentence, using AND, SO, BECAUSE, BUT or OR Get up early more exercise Eat less junk food eat more fruit and vegetables The weather is very cold today I should put on a coat Watch less television you can protect your eyes If you spend less time on computer games television programmes, you will have more time for outdoor activities I have a lot of homework to this evening I don’t have time to watch the football match Take up a new hobby you’ll have some new friends He has toothache he still eats a lot of sweets and cakes Exercise 3: Complete the short story with appropriate cohesive devices Mary could not go out with me …………… I invited Anne instead Anne was very happy to accept my invitation …………… the film was very popular Anne and I had a good time …………… next day Mary was very angry “Do you love me …………… you love Anne?” she asked me “I like both you …………… Anne,” I answered “Look!” said Mary “Either you go out with me …………… you go out with Anne You can’t love both me …………… Anne at the same time” “Why not?” I answered, “…………… it’s not fair” I asked Mary if she would go out with me tonight …………… she said that she had a new boyfriend …………… didn't want to see me again …………… I didn’t really love her I phone Anne …………… she said she was busy …………… now I’m alone APPENDIX 8: INTERVIEW 05 ENGLISH TECHERS AT KIM MY SECONDARY SCHOOL, NINH BINH PROVINCE What is the importance of cohesion teaching? How often you teach cohesion? Which types of cohesion should you teach? Which stage is suitable for teaching cohesion? Which methods you often use for teaching cohesion? Are there many cohesion exercises in the Tiếng Anh 7? ... Jeong-Ah Shin (2014), Cohesive Devices in English Writing Textbooks and Korean Learners’ English Writings, English Teaching The purpose of this study is to examine cohesive devices in English writing... on clarifying use of cohesive devices in English for students at the secondary school in Ninh Binh Accordingly, the research finds out occurrence frequency of cohesive devices in the English textbook... methods in the study The tackling methods are statistic (getting the statistics from texts on the English as mentioned in the scope of the study, finding the students’ cohesive errors through the