Conjunctions in the writing of students enrolled on bilingual and non-bilingual programs

Authors

Ana Cristina Lahuerta Martínez Salto de línea Universidad de Oviedo

DOI

10.4438/1988-592X-RE-2015-371-310

Abstract

This study analysed the use of conjunctions by third-year and fourth-year secondary education Spanish EFL learners in their expository writings. The aim of the present paper was to contribute to clarify the question of the relationship between conjunction density and writing quality, and examine if there were any differences among the participants in terms of the frequency of use of conjunctions in their compositions. The participants were 393 secondary education students enrolled on a bilingual and a non-bilingual program. The quantitative analysis was followed by a qualitative analysis focused on the inappropriate use of individual conjunctions in participants’ written compositions. Every sample composition was marked to get a score that could represent its quality. Analysis of the compositions for cohesion was performed by counting conjunctions in accordance with the taxonomy of cohesive devices provided in Halliday and Hasan (1976). Results of the quantitative analysis showed a positive significant relationship between conjunction density and the composition global score, both in the bilingual and the non-bilingual group. Bilingual program students significantly outperformed non-bilingual program students in the total number of conjunctions. Both the bilingual and the non-bilingual program fourth grade students outperformed third grade students in the use of conjunctions. Given that the use of conjunctions is a crucial component of writing quality, the current findings can to some degree show the effectiveness of bilingual programs to develop written competence and reflect the gradual maturation of older students’ written discourse competence. The qualitative analysis revealed little variety in the participants’ use of conjunctions, especially among non-bilingual and third-grade students. Participants experienced difficulty in using conjunctions especially adversative and additive ones. Inappropriate use of conjunctions was more frequent among non-bilingual program students when compared with bilingual program students. Pedagogical implications are drawn from the identification of the incorrect uses of conjunctions in students’ writings.

Keywords

Writing, conjunctions, secondary education, bilingual program, non-bilingual program.