Textual deviation and coherence problems in the writings of Arab students at the University of Bahrain : sources and solutions
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
Qaddumi, Muhammad K. H.
PE English
Textual deviation and coherence problems in the writings of Arab students at the University of Bahrain : sources and solutions. 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
textual deviation coherence problem write arab students university bahrain source solution present_study compare writing group arab students university bahrain arabic_english main_purpose investigate possible source solution_problem textual incoherence deviation end composition paper review thirty text analyze language discover possible interference linguistic_cultural rhetorical level study_investigate variety opinion coherence different_perspective cohesion continuity development topic role lexis text_structure organization analysis text researcher proposes apply new measurement text coherence topic development cultural rhetorical linguistic_background arabic present variable affect student performance write arabic_english analysis text_reveals repetition parallelism sentence length lack variation certain cohesive device major_source incoherence textual deviation student_writing study supplement view arabic department staff quality