Effect of Alignment on Text Cohesion in the Continuation Task

Autor/inn/en	Jiang, Lin; Xu, Xin
Titel	Effect of Alignment on Text Cohesion in the Continuation Task
Quelle	In: English Language Teaching, 9 (2016) 10, S.133-141 (9 Seiten) PDF als Volltext kostenfreie Datei Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1916-4742
Schlagwörter	Connected Discourse; Second Language Learning; Second Language Instruction; Collaborative Writing; Pretests Posttests; College Students; Syntax; Semantics; Protocol Analysis; English (Second Language); Writing Skills; College English; Foreign Countries; Alignment (Education); Comparative Analysis; Writing Processes; China + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Zweitsprachenerwerb; Fremdsprachenunterricht; Collegestudent; Semantik; English as second language; English; Second Language; Englisch als Zweitsprache; Writing skill; Schreibfertigkeit; Ausland
Abstract	A continuation task provides learners with a text with its ending removed and requires them to complete it through writing in a most coherent and logical way. The current study investigated (a) whether the continuation task had a positive effect on text cohesion and (b) whether texts produced by pairs exhibited higher cohesion than those produced by individual learners. A total of 80 college students were randomly assigned to one of three task conditions: 1) 40 students working in pairs in a continuation task; 2) 20 working individually in a continuation task; and 3) 20 working individually in a picture writing task. Text cohesion was analyzed by using three indices from Coh-metrix: Argument Overlap, Latent Semantic Analysis, and Causal Cohesion. Moreover, the collaborative dialogue and think-aloud protocols were collected and transcribed for identifying language-related episodes (LREs). The results showed that learners in Condition 1 produced the highest text cohesion while those in Conditions 3 the lowest. Furthermore, learners in Condition 1 produced more cohesion-related LREs, especially proportionally more correctly resolved LREs than those in Conditions 2 and 3. The implications of these findings from the perspective of alignment are discussed. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01