Cohesive Errors In Writing Among ESL Pr

English Language Teaching; Vol. 7, No. 11; 2014
ISSN 1916-4742
E-ISSN 1916-4750
Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education

Cohesive Errors in Writing among ESL Pre-Service Teachers
Lisa S. L. Kwan1 & Melor Md Yunus1
1

Faculty of Education, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia

Correspondence: Lisa Kwan Su Li, Faculty of Education, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), 43600 Bangi,
Selangor, Malaysia. Tel: [phone]. E-mail: [e-mail]
Received: June 24, 2014 doi:10.5539/elt.v7n11p130 Accepted: July 31, 2014

Online Published: October 23, 2014

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/elt.v7n11p130

Abstract
Writing is a complex skill and one of the most difficult to master. A teacher’s weak writing skills may negatively influence their students. Therefore, reinforcing teacher education by first determining pre-service teachers’ writing weaknesses is imperative. This mixed-methods error analysis study aims to examine the cohesive errors in the writing of English as a Second Language (ESL) pre-service teachers of differing language proficiency levels—Medium and High-level, as indicated by the band levels achieved in the Malaysian University English
Test (MUET). 200-word narrative essays were collected from 30 final-year ESL pre-service teachers from UKM via email. The study found that the Medium-level pre-service teachers made the most errors in lexical cohesion, reference and conjunction cohesion categories. However, High-level pre-service teachers made more errors in lexical cohesion, ellipsis and reference. Collocation proved the most difficult form of cohesion for both groups of pre-service teachers, while High-level pre-service teachers made more errors in ellipsis than the Medium-level pre-service teachers. Nevertheless, this still indicates that the pre-service teachers’ overall mastery of cohesive writing is insufficient. Therefore, the teaching of these cohesive devices should be further fortified in the

References: Anon. (2003, May 7). Elevate writing instruction. USA Today, p. 4. Benjamin, N. (2012, October 13). 25 more English teaching assistants for Malaysia in 2013. The Star Online. Castro, C. D. (2004). Cohesion and the social construction of meaning in the essays of Filipino college students writing in L2 English Corder, S. P. (1967). The significance of learners’ errors. International Review of Applied Linguistics, 9, 147-159. Crossley, S. A., & McNamara, D. S. (2010a). Cohesion, coherence, and expert evaluations of writing proficiency. Crossley, S. A., & McNamara, D. S. (2010b). Predicting second language writing proficiency: The roles of cohesion and linguistic sophistication De Villez, R. (2003). Writing: Step by step. Dubuque, IA: Kendall Hunt. Dobber, M., Akkerman, S. F., Verloop, N., & Vermunt, J. D. (2012). Student teachers’ collaborative research: Small-scale research projects during teacher education Halliday, M. K., & Hasan, R. (1976). Cohesion in English. London: Longman. Hashemi, M., Azizinezhad, M., & Dravishi, S. (2012). The investigation of collocational errors in university students’ writing majoring in English Hashim, A. (1999). Crosslinguistic influence in the written English of Malay undergraduates. Journal of Modern Languages, 12(1), 59-76. Hinkel, E. (2003). Simplicity without elegance: Features of sentences in L1 and L2 academic texts. TESOL Quarterly, 37(2), 275-301. Huang, X. (2005). Multilevel analysis of Chinese EFL learners’ errors in their writing. CELEA Journal, 28(5), 24-32. Jalaluddin, I., Yamat, H., & Yunus, M. M. (2013). ESL writing self-efficacy: Contribution to ESL writing skills development Jalleh, J. (2012, September 26). Majority of teachers not proficient in English. The Star Online. Retrieved from http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2012/9/26/nation/12083360&sec=nation Kafes, H. (2010). Lexical cohesion: An issue only in the foreign language? English Language Teaching, 5(3), 83-94 Korthagen, F. A. J. (2010). Situated learning theory and the pedagogy of teacher education: Towards an integrative view of teacher behaviour and teacher learning Lightbown, P. M., & Spada, N. (2006). How languages are learned. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Liu, M., & Braine, G. (2005). Cohesive features in argumentative writing produced by Chinese undergraduates. Lowry, P. B., Curtis, A., & Lowry, M. R. (2004). Building a taxonomy and nomenclature of collaborative writing to improve interdisciplinary research and practice McNamara, D. S., Crossley, S. A., & McCarthy, P. M. (2010). Linguistic features of writing quality. Written Communication, 27(1), 57-86. Na, Y. H. (2011). Cohesive devices in CMC texts produced by American and Korean EFL writers. Linguistic Research, 28(3), 743-771. Nel, N., & Müller, H. (2010). The impact of teachers’ limited English proficiency on English second language learners in South African schools Ong, J. (2011). Investigating the use of cohesive devices by Chinese EFL learners. The Asian EFL Journal Quarterly, 13(3), 42-65. Parker, D. C. (2010). Writing and becoming [a teacher]: Teacher candidates’ literacy narratives over four years. Teaching and Teacher Education, 26, 1249-1260. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2010.03.002 140 Sadighi, F., & Heydari, P. (2012). Cohesion analysis of L2 writing: The case of Iranian undergraduate EFL learners Said, N. E. M., Yunus, M., Doring, L. K., Asmi, A., Aqilah, F., & Kwan, L. S. L. (2013). Blogging to enhance writing skills: A survey of students’ perception and attitude Schachter, J. (1974). An error in error analysis. Language learning, 24(2), 205-214. Song, M., & Xia, W. (2002). Combination of textual cohesive ties and textual teaching for the teaching of English writing Tangkiengsirisin, S. (2010). Promoting cohesion in EFL expository writing: A study of graduate students in Thailand Xu, W. C. (1992). Cohesion, coherence and writing quality in Chinese college seniors writing (Unpublished master thesis) Yunus, M. M., Salehi, H., & Chen, C. (2012). Integrating social networking tools into ESL writing classroom: Strengths and weaknesses Yunus, M. M., Salehi, H., & Nordin, N. (2012). ESL pre-service teachers’ perceptions on the use of paragraph punch