ARTICLE REVIEW 8
What Cohesive Devices do You Use?
An Article Review 8
The title : The Use of Cohesive Devices in Descriptive Writing by Omani Student-Teachers
Citation : Abdul Rahman, Z. A. A. (2013). The use of cohesive devices in descriptive writing by Omani student-teachers. Sage Open, 3(4), 2158244013506715.
The authors : Zuhair Abdul Amir Abdul Rahman
DOI : 10.1177/2158244013506715
This research is a qualitative research examining college-level Arabic L1 users’ command of cohesive devices by exploring the extent to which Omani student-teachers of English and native English speakers differ in their use of cohesive devices in descriptive English writing. The participants of the study are divided into three groups. The first group comprised 30 1st-year students who joined the English department. The second group consisted of 30 3rd-year students or in five semesters during which they had studied courses in writing and discourse analysis. The 3rd group comprised 29 native speakers of English who were working at Sohar University. None of these participants was a professional writer.
The research questions:
1. What types of cohesive devices are used by Arabic L1 student-teachers in their written discourse?
2. How frequently do those students use these cohesive devices in their writing?
3. To what extent do these student-teachers differ from native English speakers in the use of cohesive devices?
4. What problems do these students face in using cohesive devices to achieve cohesion?
The instrument used by the researcher to collect the data was students’ and natives’ essays. Subsequently, the three groups were asked to write an essay of around 300 words on “A Day to Remember.” The results of the study indicated that there was a notable difference between the natives’ and the students’ use of cohesive devices in terms of frequency, variety, and control. While L1 English users’ writing displayed a balance between the use and frequency of various types of cohesive devices, the students overused certain types (repetition and reference) while neglecting to use the others, thereby often, rendering their written texts noncohesive.
The article is opened by the proper introduction to the topic. In the introduction, he explains the urgency of the research. Also, he adds some information about the setting of the research. There are three subtopics covered in the introduction; theoretical review, rationale of the study, and analytical framework. The theoretical review covers the elaboration on cohesion and coherence. The analytical framework consists of the certain framework analyzed by the researcher.
This article elaborates things sufficiently. It is completed by tables and charts creating a crystal clear elaboration. Every table and chart is given the name. In introduction, he explains the urgency of the research relating to the cohesion, coherence, and cohesive devices form the experts’ theory. Ensuring the evidence, he adds several previous studies that have been conducted before in the same field. He also points out the weaknesses and things needed to improve within them. In addition, he gives the information about the setting of the studies.
The positive things of this study are vary. The researcher divides every single subtopics to make each of them is elaborated clearly. Other than that, the four research questions show us that it is such a deep study. He focuses only on few things but have deeper investigation. Every research question is answered and provided with complete explanation. After answering the four of the questions, he sums up the important point on the discussion.
In addition, in the end of the article, the researcher provides the pedagogical implications. It is very fruitful for students, teachers or educators. It gives the real solution for the learning and teaching process in implementing the result of the research. Thus, teachers or students can apply the theory in the classroom. Other than that, the researcher uses various sources in writing the article to support any statements.
Nevertheless, this article has also such shortcomings. It is seen from the conclusion. In the conclusion, the information has been elaborated on the findings. Thus, it is seen that the some information on the conclusion is redundant. It is on the ground that the researcher only copied the information. Also, some sources used is less relevant because the year of publicity. Some of them were written in 1984 meaning that it has been thirty six years ago. It will be better if the references used were written in the previous ten years. The abstract does not sum up the content of the article. Overall, the article is worth to read and implement. It is published by a reliable journal.
Reviewer: Indah Mutiara
17202241045
PBI UNY 2017