Patterns of lexical cohesion in EFL texts

The aim of this research is to investigate lexical cohesion patterns in expository texts written by Arabic speaking students of English in the EFL Program at the Lebanese American University. Specifically, it investigates whether such patterns are an indicator of writing quality and whether there ar...

وصف كامل

محفوظ في:
التفاصيل البيبلوغرافية
المؤلف الرئيسي: El-Bacha, Nahla Nola Shalhoub (author)
التنسيق: masterThesis
منشور في: 1997
الوصول للمادة أونلاين:http://hdl.handle.net/10725/8008
http://libraries.lau.edu.lb/research/laur/terms-of-use/articles.php
https://lra.le.ac.uk/handle/2381/30933
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author El-Bacha, Nahla Nola Shalhoub
author_facet El-Bacha, Nahla Nola Shalhoub
author_role author
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv El-Bacha, Nahla Nola Shalhoub
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 1997
2018-06-06T07:01:35Z
2018-06-06T07:01:35Z
2018-06-06
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv http://hdl.handle.net/10725/8008
El-Bacha, N. N. S. (1997). Patterns of lexical cohesion in EFL texts: A study of the compositions of students at the Lebanese American University (Doctoral dissertation, Education).
http://libraries.lau.edu.lb/research/laur/terms-of-use/articles.php
https://lra.le.ac.uk/handle/2381/30933
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv en
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv University of Leicester
dc.rights.*.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Patterns of lexical cohesion in EFL texts
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv Thesis
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
info:eu-repo/semantics/masterThesis
description The aim of this research is to investigate lexical cohesion patterns in expository texts written by Arabic speaking students of English in the EFL Program at the Lebanese American University. Specifically, it investigates whether such patterns are an indicator of writing quality and whether there are differences between high and low holistically rated texts and study language (English and French) at the same level.;The procedure entailed selecting a random sample of 40 texts, 20 rated high and 20 rated low, from a corpus of 202 texts written at the beginning of the academic year 1993-94 (Diagnostic Test 1) and the same students' re-writing on the same topic at the end of the semester after three months of regular instruction (Diagnostic Test 2).;The findings indicate that there were no significant relations between lexical cohesion as identified by the frequency of bonds or bond distance and text level, but there were significant relations between frequency of a few types of links and text level indicating writing quality. There were no significant relations between study language at the same level on all variables. However, the high rated texts showed significantly higher frequencies of 1) 'sophisticated' types of links 2) bonded pairs of sentences over longer distances and 3) 'sophisticated' types of repetition in adjacent sentences. This indicates more maturity in writing than that found in the texts produced by the less proficient students. This also confirmed the holistic ratings of the texts. Findings further indicate that the sample sub texts formed from the highly bonded sentences showed satisfactory coherence ratings of organization of ideas. Together with the comments and suggestions of the students this confirmed the lexical cohesion analysis results and initial holistic text ratings. Based on the findings, a model showing the relation between cohesion and coherence is suggested.
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identifier_str_mv El-Bacha, N. N. S. (1997). Patterns of lexical cohesion in EFL texts: A study of the compositions of students at the Lebanese American University (Doctoral dissertation, Education).
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spelling Patterns of lexical cohesion in EFL textsEl-Bacha, Nahla Nola ShalhoubThe aim of this research is to investigate lexical cohesion patterns in expository texts written by Arabic speaking students of English in the EFL Program at the Lebanese American University. Specifically, it investigates whether such patterns are an indicator of writing quality and whether there are differences between high and low holistically rated texts and study language (English and French) at the same level.;The procedure entailed selecting a random sample of 40 texts, 20 rated high and 20 rated low, from a corpus of 202 texts written at the beginning of the academic year 1993-94 (Diagnostic Test 1) and the same students' re-writing on the same topic at the end of the semester after three months of regular instruction (Diagnostic Test 2).;The findings indicate that there were no significant relations between lexical cohesion as identified by the frequency of bonds or bond distance and text level, but there were significant relations between frequency of a few types of links and text level indicating writing quality. There were no significant relations between study language at the same level on all variables. However, the high rated texts showed significantly higher frequencies of 1) 'sophisticated' types of links 2) bonded pairs of sentences over longer distances and 3) 'sophisticated' types of repetition in adjacent sentences. This indicates more maturity in writing than that found in the texts produced by the less proficient students. This also confirmed the holistic ratings of the texts. Findings further indicate that the sample sub texts formed from the highly bonded sentences showed satisfactory coherence ratings of organization of ideas. Together with the comments and suggestions of the students this confirmed the lexical cohesion analysis results and initial holistic text ratings. Based on the findings, a model showing the relation between cohesion and coherence is suggested.N/Axxvii, 473 p: illIncludes bibliographical referencesUniversity of Leicester2018-06-06T07:01:35Z2018-06-06T07:01:35Z19972018-06-06Thesisinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersioninfo:eu-repo/semantics/masterThesishttp://hdl.handle.net/10725/8008El-Bacha, N. N. S. (1997). Patterns of lexical cohesion in EFL texts: A study of the compositions of students at the Lebanese American University (Doctoral dissertation, Education).http://libraries.lau.edu.lb/research/laur/terms-of-use/articles.phphttps://lra.le.ac.uk/handle/2381/30933eninfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessoai:laur.lau.edu.lb:10725/80082022-08-19T10:03:04Z
spellingShingle Patterns of lexical cohesion in EFL texts
El-Bacha, Nahla Nola Shalhoub
status_str publishedVersion
title Patterns of lexical cohesion in EFL texts
title_full Patterns of lexical cohesion in EFL texts
title_fullStr Patterns of lexical cohesion in EFL texts
title_full_unstemmed Patterns of lexical cohesion in EFL texts
title_short Patterns of lexical cohesion in EFL texts
title_sort Patterns of lexical cohesion in EFL texts
url http://hdl.handle.net/10725/8008
http://libraries.lau.edu.lb/research/laur/terms-of-use/articles.php
https://lra.le.ac.uk/handle/2381/30933