Abstract:
This study investigates the use of English lexical cohesive devices by students enrolled in
advanced academic writing course at University of Kassala. The data were quantitatively
analyzed to examine the correct and incorrect usage of different lexical connectors in
expository texts. Further examination of the lexical errors revealed the difficulties encountered
and the strategies learners used to deal with lexical problems. An understanding of such
strategies would illuminate appropriate approaches for teaching FL writing and vocabulary.
The researchers constructed a test to assess the use of lexical items in students’ writing.
The test contained four areas of evaluation, synonymy, hyponymy, antonymy and inclusion.
The findings supported the hypotheses that the students’ writing demonstrated weak lexical
cohesion due to lack of connector variety, inappropriate use of connectors, and long distance
between cohesive ties in a chain. The results indicated that the subjects had limited vocabulary
knowledge that did not enable them to express their ideas clearly, precisely, and made them
prone to produce lexical errors. Such inadequate lexical knowledge did not enable them to
produce well-structured texts. Therefore, it seems that second language instruction needs to
focus on expanding the lexical knowledge of foreign language learners as well as familiarizing
them with academic rhetorical features to help them to succeed in English academic settings.
In addition, writing teachers need to engage their students in conscious learning tasks that are
designed to make them aware of the gaps in their vocabulary knowledge and provide them
with more opportunities to encounter new words in different semantic contexts.
