A Study On The Errors Of Cohesive Devices In Senior High School Students’ English Writing

Writing ability is an important part of English language skills,and the appropriate use of cohesive devices is an effective means of improving students’ writing ability.The National English Curriculum Standards(2017 Version,2020 Reversion)clearly require students to be able to use textual cohesion to improve the coherence of writing at the high school stage.Through literature review and teaching practice,the researcher has found that there are problems such as uneven use of various types of cohesive devices,confusion in reference,misuse of conjunctions and ellipsis in students’ writing,and that the textual cohesion theory has not attracted enough attention from English teachers in writing teaching and feedback.Based on textual cohesion theory and error analysis theory,this study takes students in four first-year classes of X High School in Chengdu and their English compositions in the midterm examination as the research objects,and adopts the text analysis,questionnaire and interview with the help of statistical analysis software such as Excel and SPSS,aiming to answer the following two questions.1.What are the main errors of cohesive devices in senior high school students’ writing?2.What are the reasons for the errors of cohesive devices in senior high school students’ writing?Through text analysis,this study has found that the cohesive devices most frequently used by high school students in English writing are reference,conjunction and simple repetition,and the cohesive devices with the highest error rate are ellipsis,conjunction and reference.Combined with students’ questionnaire and teachers’ interview,the author has discovered that the causes of errors of cohesive devices in students’ writing come from both teachers and students.Students are vulnerable to the influence of native language transfer,and also lack the understanding and awareness of textual cohesion theory in English writing.Teachers lack a comprehensive understanding of textual cohesion theory,insufficient instructions for cohesive devices in writing teaching,and inadequate feedback on cohesive devices.On the basis of the findings,the author provides some specific suggestions to both teachers and students regarding the above affecting factors.Students can learn about the differences in textual cohesion between English and Chinese texts through English-Chinese comparison to reduce the influence of native language transfer;they can accumulate the correct means of cohesive devices in English learning and apply them actively in English communication and writing.Teachers should strengthen the study of the textual cohesion theory and add targeted practice of cohesive devices in writing teaching;they should also attach importance to the feedback of writing and give specific suggestions to correct the errors of cohesive devices in students’ compositions in time,so as to enhance students’ awareness of textual cohesion and improve their ability to use cohesive devices.