The Use Of Reiteration As A Cohesive Device In Third Year Efl Students’ Essays At Mouloud Mammeri University Of Tizi-ouzou: A Corpus-based Study

Résumé: The current study explores the use of the lexical cohesive device ‘reiteration’ in students writing essays. It seeks to reach two main objectives. The first is to check whether third year EFL students make use of reiteration. Second, it seeks to identify the predominant reiteration subtypes used, then explore the reasons behind their use. The third objective is to investigate the EFL writing teachers’ opinions about the importance of using this device in students’ writings. To fulfil the set objectives, Halliday and Hasan’s theory (1976) has been selected as the theoretical framework of the study. To gain a better understanding about the phenomenon under investigation, a mixed-methods approach is adopted for both the collection and the analysis of the data. The corpus of this study consists of eighty-four (84) essays written by third year EFL students at Mouloud Mammeri University of Tizi-Ouzou. Moreover, a questionnaire has been distributed to the teachers of writing module in order to collect data about teachers’ perception about the use of reiteration. As far as the data analysis is concerned, the descriptive statistical method and quantitative content analysis are adopted for the interpretation of quantitative data; whereas qualitative content analysis is used in the interpretation of the qualitative data. The findings of the study reveal that third year EFL students at Mouloud Mammeri University do make use of reiteration in their writings. The predominant type identified is ‘repetition’. A plausible explanation of these results is that this type is considered as the simplest and easiest way to build cohesive relationships between different parts of texts. The main results also show that writing teachers perceive reiteration as being one significant element in students’ pieces of writing; because first, it plays an important role in ensuring text’s continuity and achieving its overall cohesiveness. Then, the use of the different reiteration types allows students to build semantic chains between different words and sentences in one single text. Finally the use of reiteration subtypes manifests variation in terms of vocabulary and saves texts from sounding redundant and monotonous.

Publié dans la revue: