Lexical Cohesion Between An Examination Question Prompt and its Answers

Abstract

In hierdie artikel word verslag gedoen van 'n gedeelte van 'n navorsingstudie wat ondemeem is om die verband tussen die leksikale kohesie in akademiese skryfwerk van studeme en die koherensiemetings asook die akademiese vlakke van sodanige tekste te ondersoek. Tydens die navorsing is 70 eksamentekste ontleed ten einde vas te stel of daar leksikale kohesie geidentifiseer kan word. Die digtheid van leksikale kohesie tussen die eerste en laaste paragrawe van hierdie tekste en die opdrag is gekorreleer met die metings van drie onafhanklike evalueerders. Verder is die digtheid van die leksikale kohesie tussen hierdie paragrawe en die opdrag ook gekorreleer met die akademiese meriete. Daar is bevind dat daar 'n hoogs betekenisvolle verband bestaan tussen die digtheid van die leksikale verband tussen die slotparagrawe van die genoemde tekste en die opdrag enersyds en die koherensiemeting van hierdie tekste andersyds.

This article reports on part of a study undertaken to examine the relationship between lexical cohesion in texts of student academic writing and the coherence ratings and academic achievement levels of those texts. The study analysed 70 student examination essays for lexical cohesion devices. The lexical cohesion densities between the first and last paragraphs in these texts and the question prompt were correlated with the coherence ratings awarded the texts by three independent raters. The lexical cohesion densities between these paragraphs and the question prompt were also correlated with the academic scores awarded the essays by the examiner. It was found that a highly significant relationship existed between the density of lexical ties between the closing paragraphs of the essays and the question prompt and the coherence ratings of those essays.