Skills of High School Students’ Using Cohesive Devices in Written Expressions According to Their Functions

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to determine the abilities of junior high school students to collate and combine cohesion modules together in their written expressions. Thereby, it will be possible to straightly put forward the forms of links the students make in a sentence, between sentences, in a paragraph and between paragraphs, yielding new suggestive approaches on how to establish such links in a healthier manner. The studied population consisted of 9th and 10th grade junior high school students currently enrolled at schools in Turkey during the academic term 2008-2009. Sampling was made with 524 students from Turkish population, selected from 23 cities and 32 public high schools. The basic conclusions reached during the study are as follows: Cohesion tools were used in lexical context by linking functionalities profoundly between sentences (by 47,32%) and then within sentences (by 31,60%), within paragraphs (by 15%) and between paragraphs (by 6,06%), in respective order. Junior High School students face certain problems when using cohesion tools within sentences, between sentences, within paragraphs and between paragraphs. These problems can be stated as follows: lack of clarity and distinction of personal pronoun replacements within sentences; lack of clarity and distinction of demonstrative adjective replacements between sentences; unnecessary use of demonstrative adjectives between sentences; references made between sentences causing singular-plural discordance; very frequent recurrence of elements of verbal expression associated with references made within paragraphs; singular-plural form discordances when using demonstrative adjectives in sentences, and, recourse to elliptical expression, where it is in appropriate, between sentences.