Students’ Problems with Cohesion and Coherence in EFL Essay Writing in Egypt: Different Perspectives

Ahmed, Abdel Hamid

doi:10.20533/licej.2040.2589.2010.0030

Cited by 110 publications

(129 citation statements)

References 32 publications

(26 reference statements)

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“…The rest of the sentences are not only personalized, but also transferred from the style of Arabic. These samples of topic as well as concluding sentences are in keeping of previous ones that had been mentioned by Ahmed (2010) and Dweik (as cited in Alsamadani, 2010) that Arab writers in English often write around the topic and repeat phrases before stating the main points.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 81%

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Challenges Face Arab Students in Writing Well-Developed Paragraphs in English

Rass¹

2015

ELT

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This study aimed to investigate problems facing Palestinian Arab students from Israel who are majoring in teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in developing well-written paragraphs in English. They usually transfer the stylistic features of their first language, Arabic to the target language, English. For example, they tend to write long sentences with coordinating conjunctions (Al-Khatib, 2001), repeat themselves and argue through presentation and elaboration (Almehmadi, 2013), and often talk around the topic and repeat phrases before stating the main points (Alsamadani, 2010). The data had been accumulated for the last fourteen years include samples of 205 students, which show similar repeated types of mistakes and errors made by the participants of the first year writing course. The accumulated data show that students face many problems in writing good topic as well as concluding sentences, supporting details by adding examples and reasons and using discourse markers appropriately. To help these learners write good samples of paragraphs in English, a variety of approaches such as contrastive analysis, error analysis, and the process approach have been employed. The findings indicated that by the end of their first school year, most of them succeed in writing topic and concluding sentences. However, (1) providing supporting details including examples and reasons is not fully mastered; (2) the style of English is not completely acquired: Some students continue transferring the style of Arabic writing; and (3) developing a cohesive paragraph using the right coordinators and transition words still needs a lot of practice.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 81%

“…Similar findings regarding the writing of Jordanian college students in terms of organization of ideas were reported by Lakkis and Abdel Malak (2002). In addition, Ahmed (2010) examined the writing of EFL Egyptian students and reported similar problems in terms of sequencing ideas and writing topic sentences.…”

Section: Theoretical Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Challenges Face Arab Students in Writing Well-Developed Paragraphs in English

Rass¹

2015

ELT

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“…They often repeated their ideas, reported few if any valid points, made serious mistakes in grammar and punctuation, and included irrelevant information. Similarly, Ahmed (2010) investigated cohesion and coherence problems in EFL essay writing in the Egyptian context. He reported that the students faced difficulties writing thesis statements, topic sentences, transitioning of ideas, and the sequencing of ideas.…”

Section: The Challenging Nature Of Efl Writing For Arab Studentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effectiveness of a Blended Strategy based on Concept Mapping and Text Structure in Enhancing EFL Learners’ Writing Performance

Kassem

2017

JSE

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The current study investigated the effect of a blended strategy based on concept mapping and text structure on EFL learners' writing performance. An intact group (N = 42) of seventh level English majors at Thadiq Sciences and Humanities College, Shaqra University, KSA participated in the study in the first semester of the academic year 2016-2017. They were assigned to an experimental group and a control group, each consisting of 21 students. A writing pretest was administered to the two groups and scored by two raters using the Weir's TEEP attribute writing scale (1990). An independent samples t-test performed on the pretest mean scores of the two groups showed that they were homogenous prior to the experiment. Concept mapping and text formatting (the proposed blended strategy) were integrated in the Advanced Writing course (Eng 413) for experimental group students. The control group received conventional instruction that did not include the proposed strategy. Independent and paired samples t-tests revealed that the experimental group outperformed the control group in all the sub-scales of Weir's TEEP attribute writing scale, hence supporting the positive effect of concept mapping and text formatting on EFL learners' writing performance. Pedagogical implications are offered.

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“…Speaking is a way to exchange feelings, emotions, and demands. It is not only a matter of putting utterances together, but it is also an issue of being one of the most significant aspects that is very confusing to master in the learning process (Ahmed, 2010). Chakraverty and Gautum (2000) state that speaking skill is used to convey meaning of spoken words through a set of signs and symbols between a speaker and a hearer.…”

Section: Review Of Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

The Dense Use of Lexicalization in Dialogues by EFL Students at Jordan University-Aqaba

Al-Awabdeh¹,

Abdo²

2017

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This qualitative and quantitative analysis, researching language and social interaction, is one of its kinds, to examine the current ESL pedagogical strategies in native and residential Jordanian college students. It uses lexicalization in spoken dialogues produced by English language and literature students at the Department of English Language and Literature at Jordan University/Aqaba branch. It includes 30 participants selected randomly. The study uses Hoey's (1991) Matrix of Lexical Cohesion and a Semi-structured Interview to collect data from the participants. The findings indicated that the density of lexicalization has a significant contribution in the creation of cohesion of the spoken dialogues. This research recommends that further research be conducted to investigate other types of spoken dialogues

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Students’ Problems with Cohesion and Coherence in EFL Essay Writing in Egypt: Different Perspectives

Abstract: Abstract

Cited by 110 publications

References 32 publications

Challenges Face Arab Students in Writing Well-Developed Paragraphs in English

Challenges Face Arab Students in Writing Well-Developed Paragraphs in English

The Effectiveness of a Blended Strategy based on Concept Mapping and Text Structure in Enhancing EFL Learners’ Writing Performance

The Dense Use of Lexicalization in Dialogues by EFL Students at Jordan University-Aqaba

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