Hostname: page-component-89b8bd64d-5bvrz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-05-08T14:23:05.898Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Text cohesion: An exploratory study with beginning writers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Philip Yde  and
Marc Spoelders
Philip Yde*
Affiliation:
Ghent State University
Marc Spoelders
Affiliation:
Ghent State University
*
Philip Yde, Laboratory for Education, Ghent State University, 1 Henri Dunantlaan, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Linguistic research on children's acquisition of writing concerns itself largely with the sentence as the highest unit of analysis. However, an adequate account of written language acquisition must deal with the text-productive ability, including devices for cohesion and compactness. The intersentential cohesive devices used by Dutch-speaking children aged 8–9 (N=14) and 10–11 (N=14) in narrative texts are analysed and compared in this report. The coding of the cohesive devices followed Halliday and Hasan (1976). The writing samples were also analysed for degrees of cohesiveness and compactness, using the formulae suggested by Scinto (1983). Our findings indicate a developmental trend in the construction of more cohesive and compact narrative texts.

Information

Type
Articles
Information
Applied Psycholinguistics , Volume 6 , Issue 4 , December 1985 , pp. 407 - 415
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1985

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

REFERENCES

Bereiter, C. Development in writing. In Gregg, L. W. & Steinberg, E. R. (Eds.), Cognitive processes in writing (pp. 73–93). Hillsdale, N.J.: Laurence Erlbaum Associates, 1980.Google Scholar
Britton, J. Shaping at the point of utterance. In Freedman, A., Pringle, I., & Yalden, J. (Eds.), Learning to write: First language, second language (pp. 13–19). London: Longman, 1983.Google Scholar
Cazden, C. B., Michaels, S., & Tabors, P. Spontaneous repairs in sharing time narratives. In Freedman, S. W. (Ed.), The acquisition of written language: Revision and response. Norwood, N.J.: Ablex, 1985.Google Scholar
Chafe, W.Language and consciousness. Language, 1974, 50, 111–113.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chafe, W. Giveness, contrastiveness, definiteness, subjects, topics and point of view. In Li, C. (Ed.), Subject and topic (pp. 27–55). New York: Academic Press, 1976.Google Scholar
Cooper, C. R., & Watson, C.The sentences of nine-year-old writers: Influences of ability and discourse type. Unpublished typescript. University of California at San Diego, 1981.Google Scholar
Crowhurst, M., & Piché, G. L.Audience and mode of discourse effects on syntactic complexity in writing at two grade levels. Research in the leaching of English, 1979, 13, 101–109.Google Scholar
Eiler, M. A. Meaning and choice in writing about literature. In Fine, J. & Freedle, R. O. (Eds.), Developmental issues in discourse (pp. 169–223). Norwood, N.J.: Ablex, 1983.Google Scholar
Freedle, R. O., & Fine, J. An interactional approach to the development of discourse. In Fine, J. & Freedle, R. O. (Eds.) Developmental issues in discourse (pp. 143–168). Norwood, N.J.: Ablex, 1983.Google Scholar
Halliday, M. A. K., & Hasan, R.Cohesion in English. London: Longman, 1976.Google Scholar
Hasan, R. On the notion of text. In Petöfi, J. S. (Ed.) Text vs. sentence (pp. 369–390). Hamburg: Helmut Buske, 1979.Google Scholar
Kress, G.Learning to write. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1982.Google Scholar
Perera, K.Children's writing and reading. Oxford: Blackwell, 1984.Google Scholar
Scardamalia, M., Bereiter, C., & Goelman, H. The role of production factors in writing ability. In Nystrand, M. (Ed.), What writers know (pp. 173–210). New York: Academic Press, 1982.Google Scholar
Scinto, L. F. M. The development of text production. In Fine, J. & Freedle, R. O. (Eds.), Developmental issues in discourse (pp. 225–268). Norwood, N.J.: Ablex, 1983.Google Scholar
Witte, S. P., & Faigley, L.Coherence, cohesion and writing quality. College composition and communication, 1981, 32, 189–204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yde, Ph., & Spoelders, M. Some pragmatic aspects of teaching and learning to write. In Spoelders, M. et al. , (Eds.), Language acquisition and learning: Essays in educational pragmatics 2. Leuven/Amersfoort: ACCO&C&C, 1985.Google Scholar