The relationship between the use of cohesive devices and the quality of grade 12 french compositions in Zambia: the case of central province.
Date
2021
Authors
Kolomwe, Maureen
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
The University of Zambia
Abstract
The study aimed at investigating the relationship between the use of cohesive devices and the quality of grade 12 French Compositions. Sixty Compositions were collected from Grade 12 pupils of French from five Secondary Schools. The objectives of the investigation were to establish the types of cohesive devices grade 12 pupils of French used and those they failed to use in their composition writing. The other objectives were to determine the challenges the grade 12 pupils of French faced in the use of cohesion, establish the thematic progression patterns and whether there was a relationship between the use of cohesive devices and the quality of grade 12 French Compositions. Halliday and Hasan (1976) Cohesion and Thematic Progression Theory were employed. The findings were that pupils were able to use some grammatical and lexical cohesion. As regards grammatical reference, the pupils were able to use personal reference. In relation to conjunctions, the pupils were able to use additive and adversative conjunctions. In terms of lexical cohesion, the pupils were only able to use reiteration. The grammatical cohesion that they rarely used in their composition were substitution and ellipsis. Collocation was the lexical cohesion that was not used in the compositions. Concerning thematic progression that the grammatical and lexical cohesion provided, the study revealed that constant thematic progression was more predominant followed by linear thematic progression. The study revealed substantial lexicon-grammatical mistakes that could have been due to ignorance of rules. The findings also indicated that Grade 12 pupils were incapable of using grammatical and lexical cohesion proficiently in their writing. The study further revealed that there was a great relationship between the use of cohesive devices and the quality of grade 12 French Compositions. The pupils that performed better were those that used a variety of grammatical and lexical cohesion. Those that performed poorly were limited in the use of grammatical and lexical cohesion. The study recommended that in order to help the pupils use grammatical and lexical cohesion in composition writing, teachers of French should change their teaching strategies of composition writing by incorporating a more precise plan for teaching the appropriate use of cohesion. They should put emphasis on teaching pronouns, references, conjunctions and other cohesive devices.
Teachers should also use the most effective method of visual situations. In line with Thematic Progression, teachers should emphasise the correct use of Themes and Rheme patterning in composition writing.
Description
Thesis of Master of Arts in Linguistic Science.