Coherence in English descriptive writing: Indonesian EFL learner's perception

Nur Sy, Amalia Trie (2020) Coherence in English descriptive writing: Indonesian EFL learner's perception. Diploma thesis, UIN Sunan Gunung Djati Bandung.

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Abstract

Coherence is one of the aspects that produce good writing and often become a problem for EFL learners. The learners mostly do not know the concept of coherence when they write an English text. Therefore, this study is intended to explore coherence in EFL learner’s writing. This study aims (1) to find out coherence in the EFL learner’s descriptive paragraph seen from thematic progression found in the paragraphs, and (2) to reveal EFL learner’s perception of coherence. This study is a qualitative study that applies a case-study design. It involved nine students of Paragraph Writing Class. The class was assigned in the second semester of the curriculum of English Education Department UIN Sunan Gunung Djati Bandung. The participants were selected by using a purposeful sampling technique, which means the selection of participants based on the needs of the research. This study captured the development of the learners’ coherences in three manuscripts: the first writing, the joint writing, and the final writing, with the analysis of the Theme System. Next, the study investigated the learners’ perception through virtual meetings conducted at the end of the class. The result of this study showed that the coherence in EFL learner’s descriptive writing was categorized into the low-middle level of coherence. The coherence in their first writing and final writing varied from less into fair coherence. Two students showed improvement in their writing, which was less coherence into fair coherence. Meanwhile, the other six students did not show improvement because the coherence in their writing remained the same—less and fair coherence. Moreover, there was one student whose writing’s coherence level decreased from fair coherence to less coherence. Furthermore, all of the participants perceived coherence as an essential aspect to be considered in a written paragraph. They saw coherence as a connectedness between sentences and the good arrangement of ideas presented in a paragraph. Additionally, they argued that theme and rheme in a sentence were important and could build good coherence in a paragraph. In conclusion, coherence is important to be taught to EFL learners to help them create a good product of writing. The implementation of the teaching theme-rheme concept is suggested for the teacher to teach coherence easier to EFL learners. This study is recommended for an English teacher to teach writing especially in the basic level of writing class. Furthermore, this study is also recommended for those who want to dig out more about coherence in EFL learner’s writing and the use of theme-rheme and thematic progression in EFL learner’s writing.

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