The Role of Lexical Cohesion in Improving Twelfth Graders’ Essay Writing Quality

Abstract

The current study was conducted to examine the role of lexical cohesion in improving the quality of twelfth graders’ essay writing. The study specifically aimed at examining the correlation between lexical cohesive devices (LCD) and the quality of written texts as well as investigating the barriers of employing these devices for twelfth graders. The context was a private American curriculum school in the UAE. The present paper adopted the quantitative correlational and the quantitative survey research approaches. Data were collected using document analysis of 30 twelfth graders’ essays and an online survey attempted by 113 English teachers. Data were analysed using correlational statistics, multiple linear regression, and exploratory factor analysis. The results indicated that there was a significantly positive, moderate association between cohesive ties and students’ essay scores. The results also demonstrated that there was a significantly linear relation between hyponyms and synonyms and students’ writing scores although hyponyms had more effect on the writing score than synonyms. The findings of exploratory factor analysis identified three factors as major barriers encountered by learners while using lexical cohesion in their written texts including (1) lack of resources and instructions, (2) impact of L1 interference and (3) limited lexical awareness.

Assessing the Students’ Use of Cohesive Devices in Writing Hortatory Exposition Text

“…When readers encounter repeated or related words throughout the text, they can easily recognize the connections between ideas and follow the logical progression of the content. There are some research related with lexical cohesion in writing text, such as Danglli (2014), Hellalet (2013), Khalil (2023), andRabiah (2020).…”