Contrastive Analysis of Students’ Use of Cohesive Devices: A Basis in Designing an Instructional Material
Authors: Hubilla Caprice Katrine Villaflores 
Published: March 2020

The aim of this study is to do a contrastive analysis of the dominant errors of Communication Arts 2 students’ use of cohesive devices in English essays. Its four specific objectives are (1) to know the demographic profile of the respondents in terms of academic program, age, available English reading materials and references at home, first language, gender, length of stay in college, number of English courses taken in college and types of school the respondents graduated from; (2) to determine the dominant errors the respondents commit in the use of cohesive devices in essay; (3) to reveal if there is a connection between the respondents’ profile and their use of cohesive devices; and (4) to design an instructional material that will help improve the students’ writing performance. The respondents in the study included fifty-three (53) freshmen college students aged 16-29, taking different academic programs. All of them were enrolled in Communication Arts 2 at STI College for the academic year 2013-2014. They were composed of 37 male students and 16 female students. The research findings are as follows: Academic program of the respondents. The majority of the respondents are HRS students that are 20 out of 53 or 37.7%, followed by 14 (26.4%) BSIT students. Whereas, the least frequency is accounted for is BSCS with only 3.8%; Age. The study reveals that 13 (24.5%) of the respondents are 17 years old; 12 (22.5%) of the respondents are 19 years old; 7 (13. 2%) of the respondents are 18 years old. The least age brackets are 16, 26 and 29 years old. These only accounted for 1.19% of the respondents; Available English reading materials and references at home. The study reveals that 36 (67.9%) of the respondents have a dictionary at home; (66%) of the respondents have a magazine at home; 31 (58.5%) of the respondents have a newspaper at home. Whereas, only 6 (11.3%) of the respondents have a thesaurus at home; Gender. There are more males than females among the respondents in this study. 37 (69.8%) of the respondents are males while 16 (30.2%) are females; First Language. The study reveals that 48 (90.6%) of the respondents use Tagalog as their first language; 3 (5.7%) use Bisaya as their first language; 1 (1.9%) uses Maranao as his first language; 1 (1.9%) uses Waray as his first language; Length of stay in college. The study reveals that 17 (32.1%) of the respondents have been staying in college for 3 semesters and 16 (30.2%) of the respondents have been staying in college for 2 semesters. Only 3 (5.7%) respondents have been staying in college for 7 semesters and 3 (5.7%) have been staying in college for 8 semesters; the Number of English courses taken. The study reveals that that 21 (39.6%) of the respondents have taken two (2) English courses and 18 (34.0%) of the respondents have taken one (1) English course. Only 1 (1.9%) respondent has taken five (5) English courses; Types of school the respondents graduated from. The study reveals that 32 (60.4%) of the respondents graduated from public high schools, while 21 (39.6%) graduated from private high schools; The study reveals that 51 (96.2%) of the respondents committed error in using reference; 43 (81.1%) of the respondents committed error in using conjunction; 15 (28.3) of the respondents committed error in using lexical cohesion; 7 (13.2%) of the respondents committed error in using ellipsis; 2 (3.8%) of the respondents committed error in using substitution. Thus, errors in using references and conjunction are frequently committed by the respondents. In addition, the study reveals that there is no statistical connection between the respondents’ demographic and scholastic profile (academic programs; age; gender; first language; length of stay in college; a number of English courses taken in college; type of school they graduated from) and their use of cohesive devices. The study also reveals that except for thesaurus and lexical cohesion there is no statistical connection between the respondents’ available English reading materials and references at home and the errors committed in the use of cohesive devices. The following inferences are made in the light of the above-mentioned findings: The analysis of the data shows that the respondents’ profile does not affect their writing performance. That means students commit mistakes in the use of cohesive devices regardless of their academic program, age, first language, gender, length of stay in college, number of English courses taken in college, and types of school from which they graduated from. In addition, the available English reading materials and references at home such as a dictionary, journal, newspaper, textbook, and magazine do not have a significant connection with the respondents’ errors in using cohesive devices. However, the findings reveal that there is a significant connection between the respondents with a thesaurus at home and the errors they committed in their essays; All the errors made in learning the L2 could be attributed to ‘interference’ by the L1. Contrastive Analysis could not predict all learning difficulties, but was certainly useful in the retrospective explanation of errors; Differences between two languages affect the way a person produces in the target language because differences among languages cause learning difficulties, and on the other hand, similarities among languages make for ease of learning; The researcher realized that a well-designed instructional material can be used to help improve the students’ writing performance. The following recommendations were made due to the abovementioned findings and conclusions: The Instructors should use supplementary writing materials. They may adapt existing ones or design new ones. The Library should include supplementary writing materials for the students to help and motivate them in writing. The Textbook Authors should adapt their production of English textbooks in order to address the extensive writing materials and activities of the students. The Instructional Designers should include more exercises in the syllabi they make to help the students improve their ability to properly use cohesive devices in writing. The School Administrators should consider this study as an eye-opener regarding the need to raise the level of teaching effectiveness of the faculty, students’ academic performance, and sufficiency in writing materials. The Future Researchers could use error analysis in the use of cohesive devices to make their study profound and wider in scope.