A Corpus-based Analysis of the Use of Cohesive Device in Senior High School English Letters of Request for Help

Liting Li; Huaqing He

doi:10.63313/ESW.9150

Authors

Liting Li School of Foreign Languages, China West Normal University, Nanchong, China Author
Huaqing He School of Foreign Languages, China West Normal University, Nanchong, China Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.63313/ESW.9150

Keywords:

Cohesive Devices, English Practical Writing, Letters of Request For Help, Senior High School English

Abstract

This study investigates the use of cohesive devices in senior high school English letters of request for help, based on Halliday and Hasan‘s (1976) cohesion theory. From a corpus of 90 examination papers, 15 high-scoring and 15 low-scoring papers were selected for detailed analysis. The findings reveal that all 15 high-scoring papers (100%) demonstrated correct use of cohesive devices, while 13 out of 15 low-scoring papers (86.7%) were also free of cohesion-related problems. Only 2 low-scoring papers contained 3 conjunction errors, all involving conjunctions used as separate sentences. No problems were found in reference, substitution, ellipsis, or lexical cohesion in either group. These findings suggest that low-scoring students‘ difficulties cannot be primarily attributed to a lack of cohesive device knowledge; rather, their low scores are more likely due to weak basic language proficiency. Pedagogical implications for English writing instruction are discussed.

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