The use of lexical cohesion elements in the writing of ESL learners

• Authors: Goodluck C. Kadiri , Uche Lebechi Igbokwe , Udodirim Ngozi Okebalama , Cajetan Ikechukwu Egbe
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

This study investigated the use of lexical elements of cohesion in the essay writing of students of English as a Second Language. Two hundred essays of final year students of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka were collated and analyzed by the researchers in order to identify the lexical elements used to achieve cohesion in writing. The result showed that students used three lexical elements as postulated by Gutwinski in varying degrees in their writings. These include: repetition, synonyms, and lexical sets (collocations). Students tended to use more of repetitions and made minimal use of synonyms and lexical sets to achieve cohesion in writing. This has led to poorly written essays by students. It also implies that lexical cohesion elements should be taught in schools to enable students use them appropriately in writing.

Keywords

EN

cohesion; lexical elements; English as a Second Language; writing

• Publisher: Uniwersytet Łódzki. Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego
• Journal: Research in Language
• Year: 2016
• Volume: 14
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 221-234

Dates

published

2016-09-30

Contributors

author

Goodluck C. Kadiri

• University of Nigeria

author

Uche Lebechi Igbokwe

author

Udodirim Ngozi Okebalama

author

Cajetan Ikechukwu Egbe

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Identifiers

DOI

10.1515/rela-2016-0014