Application of Cohesion Theories in Reading Instruction

Abstract： Cohesion does contribute a great deal to reading comprehension. Reading is an interactive process between the reader the text. Cohesion， as the backbones the text， can not be ignored. Cohesive devices not only relate to the reader’s previous knowledge but also constrain the prediction inference. They can help the readers consciously subconsciously in the reading process. And according to the importance cohesion this article will attempt to present some methods teaching cohesion in the reading class.

Key Words： text; cohesion; reading teaching;

Research on text has grown significantly in recent decades. We rarely speak in isolated sentences， text seems to be a more natural unit language to investigate. Text provides a rich source material for those interested in the cognitive processes used in language. So teachers should pay more attention to the text， a language unit bigger than sentence， in the teaching process， not to vocabulary isolated sentences. Cohesion is an important part text， the notion cohesion has a prominent place in both （text-） linguistic psycholinguistic theories text. In the process teaching teachers also should focus on cohesion， especially in reading teaching.

1. Concept Cohesion

When readers have successfully comprehended a text， they have constructed a representation the information. A crucial property this cognitive discourse representation is that it is coherent. A discourse is coherent if there is semantic relationship between successive sentences. Coherent discourse depends on many aspects， the central notion is cohesion. Halliday Hasan（1976） define cohesion as referring to “the range possibilities that exist for linking something with what has gone before”. Cohesion is one means to achieve coherent discourse， the important content discourse. English reading is a process in which one should gain semantic coherent between every segments within the discourse. It is important to find the external factor-cohesion within the discourse， so that one can gasp the proper meaning the discourse. According Halliday Hasan， they divided cohesion into five categories： reference， substitution， ellipsis， conjunction lexical cohesion.

Moreover， one point should be clarified. Although cohesion concerns semantic relations， it is not a matter content or textual meaning according to Halliday Hasan.“Cohesion does not concern what a text means. It concerns how the text is constructed as a semantic edifice.”It implies that semantic relation expressed by cohesion is not the text meaning， but the clue to the text meaning.

2. Functions Cohesion in Reading Process

In the view Halliday Hasan， the continuity that cohesive relations bring about is a semantic continuity. This makes it possible for cohesive patterns to play an indispensable role in the reading process. According to Goodman， the efficient reader“relies on strategies which yield the most reliable prediction with minimum use the information available. Only partly what he sees… partly he expects to see… because he has learned to organize his predictions according to what is is not significant in the language， also because he knows not only what to pay attention to what not to pay attention to”. That is， the efficient reader does not read every word in a text. He only picks up the key words in reading， which increases his speed comprehension. Cohesive devices are textual markers indicating what they should pay attention to， key words for the minimum use visual information.

Cohesion can contribute to reading comprehension. Cohesive devices form cohesive chains that act as overt cues to readers. Realizing the cohesive chains in the text， the reader reads faster understs better.

Cohesion also can contribute to solve reading problems. We ten meet with these two kinds a certain place. The specific gap ten comes from the missing link in cohesive chains. The other is that the reader understs almost all the words phrases， but don’t make sense the text. These general problems come from not realizing the cohesive chains. Accessing to cohesive devices within the text helps us to find out the potential connection among the components to solve the problems. Many psycholinguists think the reader needs background knowledge about the text. Background knowledge should be introduced to the readers. Sometimes that is not practical. The reader should has the background knowledge existing in his mind from the context. The useful practical way is to go back again look for the connection within the cohesive set. When he finds out the connection he can access to the text. Comprehension is an interactive process during which linguistic knowledge activates the background knowledge also constraints it. They work together to fulfill the reader’s intentionality.

Prediction inference are two main factors for comprehension. According to Goodman， reading is a psycholinguistic guessing game. Comprehension is a process making prediction. Prediction means asking questions comprehension means getting these questions answered. Reader can make predictions from the context situation. The context situation is the immediate environment in which a text is actually functioning. In the process making predictions， linguistic context non-linguistic context cultural context all contribute to making predictions. Inference means that the reader uses both the information from the context background knowledge in the mind to cross the specific gap make sense the text. In reading process， some gaps are ten encountered which the reader cannot make coherent according to the cohesion given by the writer. In this case the reader brings consciously unconsciously the information got from the text also background knowledge to infer so as to cross the gap.

3. Methods Teaching for Reading Comprehension

Cohesion， as a very important factor in reading， should be given enough attention in teaching practice. Cohesion helps to improve reading comprehension as it is discussed already.

To teach cohesion， the first problem is what should be taught： what is cohesion or the knowledge cohesion. Teacher should clarify the definition cohesion， the categories cohesion， the functions cohesion in reading process etc. Guy Cook suggests that activities focusing on cohesion should avoid confusing the use cohesion with the knowledge about cohesion.

The purpose for learning cohesion is to improve reading comprehension writing with cohesion skills. So to learn cohesion should be carried out in the use. The organization a text can help to underst the text. Each type text has its own cohesive chain indicating the organization pattern. Narrative structure has a narrative pattern its own cohesive chains expressions. Question-answer organization the text may have the discourse organizing words like problem， obstacle， difficulty， answer. This organizing words can help the students to have a general expectation about the text. Realizing them， the reader improves the reading speed comprehension a lot.

Usually the reader needn’t go to the detail to make clear the meaning each word. Understing the general meaning the text fulfilling his/her reading purpose is enough. However， there is such a case in which the reader has to find out the meaning the specific words.

There is another problem： the students can underst the words sentences in the text but miss the whole. This shows after the first time reading， the students haven’t grasped the main cohesive chain not mace clear the connection among the relative words. In this case， the teacher should give some clues to the students， which can activate their background knowledge in the reader’s mind.

In reading class the teacher needs to spend few minutes to correct the mistakes in students’diaries or their homework. It is a good way to correct cohesion mistakes extracted from their written work so that the students can get the cohesion skill in practice also improve their ability to express themselves appropriately.

4. Conclusion

This methods cohesion teaching is just an attempt， it needs further improving. Different types reading materials， reading purposes， reading ways students make the basis for teaching methodology choice. In the text based cohesion teaching， the teacher should adopt flexible ways to achieve the best effect.

作者简介：彭琳（1977—），女，藏族，四川小金，西南民族大学外国语言文学学院，讲师，研究方向为语言学及应用语言学。