(A) Recognising and using cohesive ties

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Cohesion plays a central role in reading comprehension. Cohesion refers to relations of meaning that occur within a text, often resulting from the functions of conjunctions and pronouns. For example, in the following excerpt from the test passage What will we do now? the pronouns us and we refer to Jim and Ella, and enable readers to understand what Jim and Ella are saying throughout the conversation. In this way, the pronouns us and we connect a string of sentences to form a text rather than a series of unrelated statements. Words that link sentences in this way, are sometimes called ‘vocabulary links’, and are also known as ‘cohesive ties.’

What will we do now? ‘Let’s [us] play outside,’ said Jim. ‘We can make a castle.’ ‘No,’ said Ella, ‘we did that yesterday. Let’s [us] go down to the creek. We can go fishing.’
Taken from: Reading Magazine Year 3, 2008, Curriculum Corporation on behalf of the Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs.

Examining the ways in which sentences are structured and cohere with each other, how forward and backward referencing occurs, and how key references are maintained from paragraph to paragraph, is a useful way of determining why and how reading errors occur. Cohesive ties may occur within a single sentence, but they also occur between sentences. For example, in the following excerpt from the test passage Dale Richards, vocabulary links, or cohesive ties, link meaning between sentences and within a sentence.

Dale Richards Dale Richards is one of Australia’ s top young surfers. Some people say he is like a snake on the waves. One day he hopes to be world champion so he can surf in different countries around the world.
Taken from: Reading Magazine Year 5 and Year 7, 2008, Curriculum Corporation on behalf of the Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs.

Although cohesion is fundamental to comprehending all texts, it has been identified as being significant in comprehending items on standardised tests. For example, in an article Real maths problems are in the wording (Justine Ferrari, Education writer⎟ August 06, 2007 News Limited), an analysis by Queensland University of Technology found the linguistic demands in maths were very high in the early years of school. One example of a numeracy problem for Year 2 students was:

Jess has 12 toy trains and James has 15. How many trains do they have all together?

In this case, connecting the cohesive tie Jess and James with the cohesive tie they was difficult. The research has found that many students in their early teens also have difficulty in connecting cohesive ties.

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A student’s recognition of cohesive ties generally depends on the amount of independent reading done by that student. Therefore it is essential that all students are involved in wide reading programs, and that time is available for students to read independently each day. In Halliday and Hassan (1976) cohesive ties are classified under two main headings: lexical cohesion and grammatical cohesion. These two groups are further divided into five major types as set out below. Note: Knowing the linguistic terms for each type of cohesive tie is not as important as being able to identify cohesive ties and understand how they affect a reader’s comprehension. 1. Lexical cohesion Lexical cohesive ties are semantic: connected in meaning. The two main groups of lexical cohesive ties are collocation and reiteration.

Water warning in Angkor ruins Leigh Dayton Science Writer Two enormous masonry structures discovered near Cambodia’s fabled Angkor Wat provide rock-hard evidence that the once-powerful Khmer kingdom vanished because of over-building, environmental damage and climate change. One of the new-found structures was a 40m by 80m spillway. The other was a 100m by 80m outlet channel, that, like the spillway, was part of the elaborate water system that served the sprawling ancient agricultural city of Angkor. These two structures demonstrate very high levels of hydraulic engineering, said Sydney University archaeologist Roland Fletcher, director of the Greater Angkor Project (GAP), a five-year collaboration between the University, French researchers and the Cambodian agency managing the Angkor site. The Khmer engineers used their expertise in masonry construction to build these structures that managed water flows for the entire city. There are considerable implications for our understanding of our water management systems.
Taken from: Reading Magazine Year 9, 2008, Curriculum Corporation on behalf of the Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs.

Collocation Collocation is the occurrence of certain words that regularly occur in the same context e.g. computer/byte, doctor/medicine, beach/sand, and vet/animal welfare. In the excerpt from the test passage above, Water warning in Angkor ruins the following examples of collocation occur (in relation to the topic archaeology): ruins, masonry structures, rock-hard, hydraulic engineering, archaeologist, masonry construction are common vocabulary related to the topic archaeology. By reading Want to find out about you will find out about, see watch out for words related to topic – along way gather info and understand knowl possible sent Activating prior knowl –

Headings – words phrases Then what do you want to know – build knowledge of topic Read & retell Reiteration Reiteration is the where an explicit item is restated once, or several times. Reiterative ties in the test passage Water warning in Angkor ruins include: • • • • Repetition (Two enormous masonry structures/new found structures/two structures; managed/management); Synonym (masonry/rock; very high levels of hydraulic engineering/expertise; water flows/water management system); Superordinate (elaborate water system: spillway/outlet channel); General noun (Angkor/city)

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The more obvious the reiterative tie, the more easily readers recognise the lexically cohesive connection. Readers most easily identify repetitions, while the synonym and superordinate ties have progressively less chance of recognition. The cohesive ties formed by general nouns are the most difficult. 2. Reference These grammatical ties can be anaphoric (backward pointing) or cataphoric (forward pointing). Anaphoric reference in text is common: cataphoric reference less common. Two common problems that occur with anaphoric reference are the distance between the two elements of the cohesive ties, and ambiguity. The main reference ties are: • • • Personal (I, me, mine: they, them, theirs, their, …); Demonstrative (this, these: that, those: then, …); Comparative (such, so, similar to, alike, most, ….).

With cataphoric reference the problems of distance between ties and ambiguity do not occur, because the two ends of the tie are frequently close. However, readers are less accustomed to searching forward for the end of a tie, and may make the more common move to search backwards.

Endemism Endemism describes how species that are native to a particular geographical continent or area evolve. Examples of endemism are the koala and red kangaroo – both of which are not naturally found anywhere else in the world. Endemism usually occurs in areas that are isolated in some way. Australia has been isolated from other continents for tens of millions of years, resulting in a high level of endemism. More than 80% of our plant and animal species are not found on any other continent. Endemism occurs when populations of one species are separated so they cannot interbreed. Both populations continue to breed and evolve separately. In time, it is possible they will become two separate species.
Taken from: Reading Magazine Year 9, 2008, Curriculum Corporation on behalf of the Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs

In the excerpt from the test passage Endemism the following examples of reference cohesive ties occur: • Personal our/Australia; they/populations of one species); • Demonstrative (it/ become two separate species)

• Comparative (koala and red kangaroo/both) NB in the examples above, the only example of a cataphoric reference (pointing forward in text) is it/become two separate species – ‘it’ refers to the text following on of ‘become two separate species’. The other examples point backwards in the text (anaphoric). 3. Substitution Substitution involves the substitute of an item to avoid unnecessary repetition of the more explicit item (words or clauses). The main substitute ties include: • Nominal (one/s, the same, …); • Verbal (do/did … e.g. I didn’t work as hard as she did.); • Clausal (so, not e.g. It was just so.). Amphibians Frogs and salamanders are able to breathe through their damp skins to a certain extent, both in the water and on the land, but toads rely largely on their lungs and cannot remain underwater for long. Toads and frogs are similar in many ways, although toads usually have tougher, drier skins and may waddle rather than hop as frogs do.
Taken from: Reading Magazine Year 3 and Year 5, 2008, Curriculum Corporation on behalf of the Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs

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In the excerpt from the test passage above, Amphibians, the following example of a substitution cohesive tie occurs: • Nominal -; • Verbal (hop/do); • Clausal -. 4. Ellipsis Ellipsis is substitution by zero, where an item is left unsaid. Readers need to recognise when ellipsis occurs and draw on short-term memory or scan preceding text to find information to ‘fill in’ the ellipted item. In the following passage The story of Opo examples of ellipsis occur: Opononi and to the boats.

The story of Opo Opononi, New Zealand, was a quiet little town by the sea. Most of the men worked as fishermen. In the summer of 1955, they noticed that a strange sea animal was following their boat. At first the men thought it must be a shark. But the animal came closer and closer to the boats. Before long everyone could see it was a dolphin. One of the fishermen named her Opo - after the town [Opononi]. At first Opo was shy, as many wild dolphins are. But she was curious too. Every day she swam closer to the boats. Finally one of the fishermen reached out as far as he could [reach] with his oar. He scratched Opo with it. She reared back in the water. But the oar must have felt good, for soon Opo came closer [to the boats] than ever before. Then she rolled over. The men had to laugh. Opo was plainly saying, ‘Scratch my belly this time.’ A scientist came to look at Opo. He said Opo was a young dolphin who had probably lost her mother. That was why she was swimming alone. Opo might have been an orphan, but she soon found a new family. The whole town of Opononi adopted the friendly dolphin.

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Taken from: Reading Magazine Year 3, 2008, Curriculum Corporation on behalf of the Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs

5. Conjunction (discourse markers) Halliday and Hasan (1976) use the term conjunction differently from its use and sense in traditional grammar. Their meaning is equivalent to the term discourse markers, markers that operate like signposts in a text. They provide signals in advance of the direction the text is taking, for example: • Continuing straight on (additive) e.g. and, furthermore, in addition; • Changing direction (adversative) e.g. but, however; • The consequence of text previously read (causal) e.g. so, because, consequently; • The time sequence (temporal) at first, finally. It is important students realise that sometimes conjunctive cohesion is unmarked: the conjunctive relationship is implicit. For example: Everyone went back to work. [because] The lunch break was over. In the above passage The story of Opo the following examples of conjunctive cohesive ties occur: • Continuing straight on (additive) • Changing direction (adversative) but; • The consequence of text previously read (causal) was why; • The time sequence (temporal) At first, Before long, Finally, Then. Teaching cohesive using the gradual release of responsibility model The gradual release of responsibility model includes five components: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. An explicit description of the strategy and when and how it should be used Teacher and/or student modelling of the strategy in action Collaborative use of the strategy in action Guided practice using the strategy with gradual release of responsibility Independent use of strategy

1. An explicit description of how to strategically use ‘vocabulary links’, including when and how vocabulary links should be used. Tell your students what you have observed about them as readers - that they read without understanding the importance of words that link texts together. Explain the term vocabulary links, and discuss how learning about vocabulary links will assist them in comprehending texts. 2. Teacher and/or student modelling of identifying vocabulary links in action, and regular references about how knowing about vocabulary links will assist them to comprehend texts read. Present a variety of texts on overhead transparencies and demonstrate how to: o Connect ties with varying colored washable markers or a series of overlays. Initially use familiar texts (both narratives and factual) before progressing to unfamiliar. o Present a text with one tie only marked and have students identify, mark and connect the other end of the tie;

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Complete a cloze activity where one end of a tie has been deleted, and students fill in the missing tie; Rearrange sentences that are out of temporal or causal order by referring to explicitly stated items and cohesive ties.

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3. Collaborative use of vocabulary links in action. Students join with teacher in marking vocabulary links, identify missing vocabulary links, and so on, modelled in the previous component (2). 4. Guided practice using vocabulary links with gradual release of responsibility. Small groups of students with a common need work with the teacher who provides guidance in identifying vocabulary links. 5. Independent use of vocabulary links. Students apply what they learned during modelling sessions and guided practice sessions. They also set their own goals in relation to what they would like to do ‘even better’ in relation to applying their knowledge of vocabulary links when reading. It may be seen from the five components within the gradual release of responsibility model, that teachers and students reposition themselves in relationship to responsibility assumed for a task. Tips for teaching cohesion • When selecting texts for teaching cohesion it is crucial to use meaningful texts, as textual content is essential in being able to identify cohesive ties. It is inadvisable to teach cohesion using fragmented ‘drill and skill’ exercises. Texts used could include a variety of factual and narrative texts used within the contexts of integrated units, genre, author, poet and playwright studies, text books, test items, and so on. • When introducing cohesive ties to students, perhaps spotlight one category at a time until the students are familiar with the processes involved and the language being used. However, as new categories of cohesive ties are taught, revise previous categories at the same time. Although students need to understand the various types of cohesive ties, it is not necessary for them to know the linguistic terms used in this piece. For example, ‘vocabulary link’ may be substituted for the term ‘cohesive ties’.

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References Chapman, J. (1983) Reading Development and Cohesion Heinemann Farstrap, Alan E. & Samuels, S. Jay. Editors (2002) What Research Has to Say About Reading Instruction IRA Delaware USA. Halliday, M.A.K. & R. Hasan (1976) Cohesion in English London: Longman.