Textuality Study of “Cohesion”: Establishing the EFL Students’ Grammatical and Lexical Linking within Written Discourses

Abstract

“Cohesion” contributes to qualifying sequences of sentences within texts. It grammatically and lexically links sentences together and provides meaning. This essence, therefore, forms the aim of diagnosing it. As a qualitative Case Study research design, the authors were the key instruments whereas Unidha ED students were purposively selected as the object of the research (n=32). The data sourced from the 2nd Year ED students’ Written Texts. The observation was a technique of collecting the data whilst the 1967 Corder clinical elicitation as a method of data analysis. The findings signified that the EFL students’ written texts were ungrammatically and un-lexically linked to each other because the total numbers of ungrammatical and un-lexical cohesion were 143. The unlinked substitution was 18 (12.58%), ellipsis was 23 (16.08%), anaphoric reference was 30 (20.97%) and cataphoric reference was 25 (17.48%), reiteration: repetition was 13 (9.09%), synonym was 4 (2.79%), and collocation was 30 (20.97%). In conclusion, the sequences of the EFL students’ written texts have not yet been grammatically and lexically linked to the textual elements of the texts’ textuality of cohesion correctly. The ELT programs are, therefore, required to highlight the teaching of cohesion and, if possible, integrating it with the other related six criteria of textuality as POWER CONTROL UNITS in connecting the sequences of the EFL students’ English written Texts grammatically and lexically.