Discourse Analysis 1st DRAFT SUBMISSION (MIDTERM TEST)

Discourse Analysis of Grammatical Cohesive Devices

in Twelfth Grade Students’ Explanation Texts

(Maulana Rizki, 21200140000008)

ABSTRACT

This study aims to investigate the use of grammatical cohesive devices in twelfth grade
students’ explanation texts. In addition, this study also aims to explore the types of grammatical
cohesion specifications in their essays. In this study, the researcher wanted to find out how good
the quality of their students in writing explanation texts. In order to achieve this goal, the
researcher used the conceptual framework of Halliday and Hasan (1976) regarding grammatical
cohesion. This study included 45 students of twelfth grade of Al Ikhlash Boarding School. The
research uses descriptive and analytic studies by assigning students to write the texts. The result
…

INTRODUCTION

One of the most important factors in creating written texts is the mastery of discourse
analysis, because analysis has an important influence on drawing attention to the art of
language, which puts the user's knowledge of phonological, grammatical and lexical resources
into action every time the language user achieves successful communication. This is similar to
the statment of Murcia (2000) who stated that by mastering discourse analysis, it can make it
easier for students to understand how the language should be used in real situations and
circumstances. Discourse analysis also has many factors that must be considered, one of which
is the cohesion factor, which can also be defined as the dependence of several parts (sentences)
in the text that are influenced by internal aspects. Moreover, according to Richards and
Renandya (2002), there are four basic skills in English, including; listening, reading, speaking
and writing. All these basic skills have an equally important role in learning English of the basic
arts above, however, writing is a skill that is not easy to master for students. Regarding this,
students are required to pay more attention to each of the basic language arts factors above to
produce sentences that are easy to understand and well-formed as well as correct in language.
Students must also understand how to convey ideas, thoughts, and opinions in various forms of
writing. Writing ability is one of the most important aspects for students, especially for twelfth
grade students, because this will be their benchmark in college education. Writing activities for
students aim to remember and explore things and are useful for solving problems. This writing
activity is expected to be carried out also outside the classroom, not only inside. so that students
are expected to be able to have a good writing art, one of the indicators is to write using a
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cohesive grammar that is good and correct.

Cohesion is one of the arts of writing skills that must be possessed. Cohesion and
coherence are very important in written discourse, the aim is none other than so that students
are able to make good and orderly texts, as well as to make it easier for students to understand
and absorb the information conveyed. The term cohesion is often also juxtaposed with language
learning. and it is part of the language system. This is also interpreted as a language unit that
provides continuity to the text. non-structural relations are relations that help the text to connect
with each other (Nunan, 1993: 20). Richards (1985: 45) reveals that cohesion is a lexical
grammatical relationship between unequal text units that can also be referred to as the
relationship between different sentences or between parts of the sentence that are not the same.
To support the information above, the delivery of cohesion can be partly through
grammar, partly through vocabulary, either lexical or grammatical cohesion. several types of
grammatical cohesion units including; references, substitutions, ellipsis, and conjunctions.
while reitaration and collocation are included in lexical cohesion (Halliday and Hasan, 1976).
Both reveal that cohesion refers to the relationship of meaning in the text. Hasan and Halliday
also explain that cohesion is the unity of meaning between units in a text and several important
units for expressing opinions. Referring to some of the opinions above, the author can review
that the similarities in a text are the unity of the text. they are all emphasis in a text. Those all
have their respective roles in creating a good and orderly puzzle is also useful as a determinant
of whether the sentence is good or not. it all happens when two supportive combinations are
able to form sentences that are both useful and understandable at the same time.
Creating a good paragraph is not easy. in this case, lack of proficiency in grammar will
affect the results of writing that is not coherent. In fact, many students lose their way to connect
ideas and even abuse grammatical cohesion tools in writing. In fact, the diminishing knowledge
and ability of students in using grammatical cohesion devices is a serious problem for students.
In line with Afrianto (2017), the lack of understanding and awareness of cohesion, especially
regarding the grammar of cohesion devices, has an impact on misuse of improper grammar of
cohesion devices. Therefore, the implementation and learning of grammatical cohesion devices
effectively and regularly will have an effect on cohesion and good writing quality.
Based on the explanation above, the researcher focuses on the analysis of the
grammatical cohesion devices used in students’ explanation text, the reason for choosing
student explanation text is to determine the quality of understanding, knowledge and ability of
grammatical cohesion devices used at the higher education level. This analysis identifies
students’ explanation text. Therefore, the purpose of this analysis by the researcher is to
examine the sets of grammatical cohesion in using explanation texts and identify their role in
Discourse Analysis 1st DRAFT SUBMISSION (MIDTERM TEST)

influencing written discourse on student quality.

A previous study on Didin Nuruddin Hidayat (2019) examined the analysis of the use of
grammatical cohesion in students, ''writing academic essays as part of discourse analysis''. This
study explored the knowledge of the types of grammatical cohesion device specifications in
academic writing essays for students in higher education. The findings reveal that 1048 sets of
grammatical cohesion are used in essays. Another finding revealed that the highest use of
grammatical cohesion devices was references and conjunctions with 53.53%. The data also
explains that students are more closely related to references and the use of conjunctions than
substitutions and ellipsis. The results also explain that the lack of grammatical cohesion tools
used in terms of understanding, knowledge and ability in writing causes students to use the
wrong grammatical cohesion device.
According to Johnson (2017), the author is obliged to use a cohesive device to allow
connections between ideas. This can be done through explicit language or vocabulary tools. In
their work on cohesion in English, Halliday and Hasan (as quoted in Johnson, 2017) reveal that
writers often use cohesive devices to direct readers through a text. Devices can be grouped as
grammatical forms of cohesion or forms of lexical cohesion. Abdalla (2017) argues that
cohesion is formed on the semantic relationship between lexical and grammatical units in a text.
In addition, the use of appropriate lexical and grammatical cohesion is able to match between
what is being said and what is going to be said. In addition, Parazaran and Motahari (2015)
explain that cohesion has an important influence in making text unity and is also a regulator in a
text. Then, Halliday and Hasan (as quoted in Parazaran and Motahari, 2015) revealed that the
concept of cohesion is a semantic concept. and it refers to the binding of meanings that exist in
the text, and what constitutes it as a text.
Halliday and Hasan (as quoted in Jabeen, Mehmood, and Iqbal, 2013) reveal that among
the various kinds of grammatical cohesive devices are substitution, reference, ellipsis, and
conjunction. Almutairi (2017) explains that the definition is used to refer to something else for
them to interpret. The reader is required to be able to sort out what signs are mentioned from
both outside or inside the text. Reference refers to the use of anaphoric, cataphoric and
exophoric. He also revealed that substitution when a word/phrase can be changed in other
words. Substitution can be in the form of number or nominal (same, one, and one), verb or
verbal form (do), and clause (no, so). Not only that, Jabeen Mehmood, and Iqbal, (2013) also
explain that the ellipsis is an idea to remove part of a sentence with the assumption that the
previous sentence will further clarify the meaning. then, the last set is the reference conjunction
for words, for example and, finally, however, and in conclusion which brings together phrases,
clauses, or parts of a text in such a way that they express the logical-semantic connection
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between them. (Paltridge, 2016). From the above expression, the list of Halliday's cohesion
devices and hasan's conceptual arrangement, quoted in Afrianto (2017), as a reference. The list
is as follows table 1.
Table 1. The Conceptual Framework of Halliday and Hasan in Grammatical Cohesion Devices
Discourse Analysis 1st DRAFT SUBMISSION (MIDTERM TEST)

Referring to the explanation above, the researcher examines and checks the results of
students' explanation text according to the grammatical cohesion device used. It is proven that
the grammatical cohesion of the device is an important part in improving the quality of the
written text, because they bind related ideas, create a sense of bound discourse so that it allows
readers to interpret the text easily. The results of previous research also explain that the
grammatical cohesion of the device is one aspect that affects the assessment of writing quality.
Therefore, this research is expected to answer the following questions: (1) what are the common
grammatical cohesions that students used in writing explanation text? What kinds of tools are
often used in writing explanation text? (2) what are the types? Specifications of what kinds of
grammatical cohesion devices are often used in writing writing explanation text?. Referring to
the question the research, the purpose of this research is to: (1) determine what grammar is
common used? What kinds of cohesion devices are often used by students in writing
explanation texts. (2) find out what types of grammatical cohesion device specifications are
often found in twelfth grade students.

METHOD

The researcher uses descriptive and analytic method to explore students' knowledge and
abilities in utilizing grammatical cohesion devices in the explanantion written texts. The
researcher installed the grammatical cohesion device of Halliday and Hasan's arrangement to
examine and explore the grammatical cohesion device used in explanantion written texts. Then,
students’ texts are reviewed to consider the quality of writing in terms of grammatical cohesion.
The participants of this study were 45 students of twelfth grade of Al Ikhlash Boarding School.
Demographic data were self-reported by participants: 25 female participants and 20 male
participants. Research data is examined through the results of student essays by assigning them
to write simple present explanation texts. The stages of exploring the data are as follows:
1. Collecting data on students' writing assignments.
2. Calculate each cohesive aspect for each student's writing and enter it according to its
grouping in each table.
3. Naming the cohesive device through the formula;
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4. Assessing whether the cohesive aspect in the student's writing is correct. The researcher also
categorizes various types of grammatical cohesion devices by inputting examples of
grammatical cohesion devices in student texts.