Discursive Analysis of the Use of Cohesive Devices in the Written and Spoken Texts of Selected Secondary School Students in Oyo State

Abstract

ABSTRACT

Cohesion, the semantic and grammatical interconnectedness of text, plays a fundamental role in effective communication. While previous studies have examined cohesion and its types in students’ academic writing, limited attention has been given to the contextual appropriateness of cohesive devices in their texts. This study therefore investigates common cohesive devices in the written and spoken texts of secondary school students, with a focus on their contextual appropriateness and discourse relevance.

Halliday and Hasan’s cohesion model served as the study’s framework. A survey research design was adopted, employing both qualitative and quantitative methods. Data were drawn from students’ essays and debates. Sixty students from different schools in a peri-urban area (Iseyin) in Oyo State produced 400-word essays and delivered debate presentations on the same topic, which were audio-recorded and later transcribed. Analysis followed Halliday and Hasan’s classification of cohesion. Lexical ties emerged as the most prominent cohesive strategy in both written and spoken texts. However, students relied heavily on lexical repetition while underusing other lexical strategies such as synonyms and collocation. Substitution was absent in written texts but appeared in the oral texts, which exhibited a wider range of cohesive devices including ellipsis, reference, conjunctions, and lexical cohesion. Although some students demonstrated effective use of cohesion, others struggled, particularly with referential devices, ambiguous pronouns, and excessive transitional markers. Three discourse functions of cohesion were identified: transitory extension (achieved through additive conjunctions), topicalisation (via lexical ties, deixis, and parallelism), and thematic shift (through adversative conjunctions and rhetorical questions). Overall, English as a Second Language learners showed stronger use of cohesive devices in written communication than in spoken communication.