Cohesion and the social construction of meaning in the essays of filipino college students writing in l2 english

Abstract

This study compares the degree of cohesion and coherence in the essays written by thirty Filipino college freshmen and analyzes how the social construction of meaning was made evident in their writing. Results showed that low, mid and highly rated essays were comparable in grammatical cohesive device use. Lexical repetition and use of synonyms were the most common means of establishing lexical cohesion. The findings suggest that second language writers with shared socio-cultural backgrounds utilize similar linguistic and textual resources in meaning construction, highlighting the socio-cognitive nature of writing practices and how literacy is a social act (Ramanathan & Kaplan, 2000). The students’ lexicogrammatical choices reflect the interrelationship of language and culture. Implications for second language pedagogy accounting for learners’ sociolinguistic backgrounds are discussed.