Writing Skills and Discourse Analysis: Cohesion, Coherence and Reading

Teaching Writing Skills

TX 6: Written communication: different types of written texts, structure and formal elements, norms governing written texts, routines and formulae.

1. Introduction

In writing and communication, the following areas are covered: 2. Writing language acquisition, 2.1 Reading and writing, 3. Types of texts, 4. Components and rules governing written communication, 4.1 Components, 4.2 Rules, 5. Didactics, 6. Conclusion, 7. Bibliography.

2. Writing Language Acquisition

2.1 Written language acquisition is much more complex than oral language acquisition. There are three levels of development in this process:

• Control over psychomotor skills
• Acquisition of translation rules between sounds and graphic forms
• Acquisition of structural rules of written discourse organisation

Unlike oral skills, reading and writing are acquired through formal instruction at school. The importance of teaching written skills is therefore evident. Let us now focus on each subskill separately.

2.2 Reading

Reading consists basically of translating from written symbols to a form of language to which meaning can be attached. In short, it is the process of obtaining meaning from print. Writing, as opposed to reading, is more than the mere production of graphic symbols. It requires a high degree of organisation and accuracy, as well as great knowledge and vocabulary. This is why writing is considered by many as the most difficult of all language skills. At this point, we consider it necessary to give an account of the main written textual types.

3. Texts

Texts have a communicative intention, and they require the organisation of meanings into information units. In all texts we can observe three basic features which are relevant for text production and comprehension:

• Genre, or sort of text
• Topic, or subject matter
• Comment, or what is said about the topic

For example, the main types of texts we are most likely to work with in the classroom are:

• Personal and formal correspondence, in the form of letters and emails
• Summaries
• Essays
• Notes
• Reports, which are usually produced after watching a film or a particular event
• Project work

Once we have made clear the concept of text and mentioned the main textual types we are concerned with, it is time to consider the components governing written language.

4. Components and Rules Governing Written Communication

4.1 Components

Five interrelated areas are important in written comprehension and writing:

• Mechanics, or the ability to form letters in a legible way
• Production, or the ability to use the right number of words in order to convey meaning adequately
• Conventions, which include, among other things, punctuation and spelling
• Linguistics, or the use of varied lexis and a correct syntax
• Cognition, which refers to the organisation of a text in a logical and coherent way

As we can see, mastery of the written language is quite complex, as it requires many different abilities. Let us now pay attention to its rules.

4.2 Rules

Written expression is governed by certain rules, which include the use of orthography, punctuation and other devices to convey meaning. Orthography refers to the mastery of the written system and includes the ability to spell. In English, it is a source of problems due to the weak relationship between sound and symbol in this language.

As for punctuation, we must emphasise its importance for correct text understanding. English punctuation rules are quite similar to the Spanish ones, so this point should not be a big problem for our students. The important point in punctuation is to emphasise its correct use in order to avoid misunderstanding.

After all these theoretical considerations, it is now time to move on to practical and pedagogical implications.

5. Didactics

Reading Skills

Let us begin with the reading skills. There are several ways of approaching reading:

• Skimming, which is reading to obtain only the general idea of the text
• Scanning, which is reading to obtain specific information
• Intensive reading, which is reading a short text for detail
• Extensive reading, which is reading a long text for pleasure

Research has shown that reading is only effective when the whole structure of the text is understood. Apart from the focus on global understanding, there are other important aspects when dealing with reading:

• Use of authentic texts
• Integration with other skills (it is important to combine writing and comprehension with other skills, such as writing by summarising, listening by using recorded information or speaking by organising debates on the topic of the text)
• Active skill (it is not a passive skill; reading implies guessing, predicting, checking and inferring meaning)
• Flexible and varied activities
• Learner's autonomy (we must prepare our students to be efficient readers)

To conclude, we will provide a series of highly effective reading activities suggested by Ur 12:

• Pre-questions: a general question is asked before reading and students have to find a piece of information
• DIY questions: students must create their own questions
• Provide a title: students suggest a title for the text
• Summarise the content of the text in a couple of sentences
• Continue: students suggest a possible ending to a story
• Gapped text: some gaps are left to be completed

Writing Skills

Now, let us continue with writing skills. Today, writing is considered to reinforce grammatical structures and to help students learn, as it contributes to thinking in the foreign language. Written production is quite complex and presents several difficulties:

• Psychological: to write, we must decide what information is necessary and how to express it without any feedback
• Linguistic: written language is more complex than oral language as it requires more accuracy
• Cognitive: writing implies organising thoughts into paper

For that reason, it is important to bear in mind certain strategies:

• Positive and cooperative attitude: students must be motivated to write by facing realistic tasks, engaging in cooperative work and getting feedback
• Preparation for writing: teachers must give models to guide students
• Form: controlled through guided to freer activities

Unfortunately, we often ask our students to write freely too soon, and the result is quite disappointing, as some mechanisms must be mastered before writing freely. Now I will provide an account of activities to work on writing skills:

• Controlled activities like 'Hangman', 'form words with jumbled letters', 'crosswords' or games like 'The crazy sound', where students write words beginning with the last letter of the previous word

We can also guide students by providing them with the main ideas to be included in the text, the sections, useful words and expressions, or even prompt pictures or vignettes. Finally, when they reach the necessary level, they can deal with creative writing. We can distinguish the following types: writing summaries, essays, reports and letters. Free writing must be related to the students' interests and have a clear communicative intention.

6. Conclusion

Teaching writing skills requires a gradual approach, from controlled to free production, within a communicative framework.

7. Bibliography

• Byrne, D. (1988). Teaching Writing Skills. London: Longman.
• Ur, P. (2012). A Course in English Language Teaching. Cambridge: CUP.
• Widdowson, H. G. (1992). Teaching Language as Communication. Oxford: OUP.

Discourse Analysis and Articulation

TX 29: Discourse analysis and articulation. Cohesion and coherence. Anaphora and cataphora. Connectives. Deixis.

1. Introduction to Discourse Analysis

In Linguistics, we use the term 'discourse analysis' to refer to the study of how we make meaning with larger units, not mere sentences. Its main fields are:

• Semiotics, which considers that a text produces sense because of textual functioning, defending that it is not just a sum of signs (Ricoeur 1980)
• Pragmatics, which regards the text as the unit of language in use (Halliday 1975)

Both fields deal with the structure of discourse (cohesion) and the relationship of meaning among the utterances in discourse (coherence). This is what we call the articulation of discourse, which students do whenever producing texts. In the process of discourse articulation in oral communication there are two main rules: turn-taking and the cooperative principle by Grice.

2. Cohesion and Coherence

2.1 Definition

Cohesion can be defined as the property that makes texts perfectly knitted wholes. It refers to form rather than content. Let us now offer a taxonomy of cohesive relationships.

2.2 Taxonomy of Cohesive Relations

Formal markers. Here are some examples and types:

• Additive: they link elements (and, furthermore)
• Adversative: they introduce the idea of contrast (however, but)
• Causal: they connect elements under a cause-consequence relationship (so, consequently)
• Temporal: they create a time-dependent relation (then, finally)

Lexical relationships: we call lexical relations the links between words derived from their interaction with other words preceding and following them in the text, or from the evocation of related words of the same semantic field in our mental lexicon.

Now we will provide some examples: