Textual deviation and coherence problems in the writings of Arab students at the University of Bahrain: sources and solutions
Publication Date
1995
Creator
Abstract
The present study compares the writings of a group of Arab students at the University of Bahrain in both Arabic and English. The main purpose is to investigate possible sources and solutions to the problem of textual incoherence and deviation. To this end, four hundred and sixty composition papers have been reviewed and thirty texts were analyzed in both languages to discover possible interference at the linguistic, cultural and rhetorical levels.
The study investigates a variety of opinions on coherence from different perspectives such as cohesion, recoverability, continuity, development of topics, role of lexis, text structure and organization. For the analysis of texts, the researcher proposes and applies a new measurement for text coherence and topic development.
The cultural, rhetorical and linguistic background of Arabic is presented as variables affecting students' performance in writing in both Arabic and English. The analysis of texts reveals that repetition, parallelism, sentence length, lack of variation and misuse of certain cohesive devices are major sources of incoherence and textual deviation in students' writing. The study is supplemented by the views of the Arabic Department staff on the quality of students' performance in Arabic. Interpretation of and solutions to various problems are suggested. The major conclusion is that there should be more concentration on the preservation of topic unity in teaching writing. A proposed plan for teaching writing based on the findings of this study is also suggested.
Item Type
ethesis
Thesis Type
PhD
Supervisors
Subjects (LC)
Associated Schools / Departments
School of English (UK)
eprints ID
11212
UoN Repository URI
Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as
File(s)![Thumbnail Image]()
Name
307763.pdf
Type
Full-text
Size
25.65 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum ()