An SFL analysis of cohesion in B2 first argumentative essays:

A case of Tunisian high-schoolers

Najla Fki

Abstract

The tools Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) offer to carry out text analysis and descriptions of language in pedagogical settings have attested their usefulness in assisting and empowering educators worldwide (DE Oliveira, 2015). Drawing specifically on SFL’s textual resources, this study underscores the utility of cohesive markers in examining learners’ progress in EFL environments. It particularly focuses on Tunisian B2 First students, a population that received scant attention in the literature. Halliday and Hasan’s (1976) and Halliday and Matthiessen’s (2014) system of COHESION, including both grammatical and lexical devices, is adopted as a framework of analysis. The main aim is to evaluate the progress of B2 Tunisian high-schoolers in argumentative essay writing which is one of the requirements for obtaining the B2 First Cambridge certificate. To this end, a corpus of students’ essays is purposively sampled to be compared with an equal corpus of model essays marked by the examiners for perfect scores in the essay genre. A scheme is developed to quantify the instances of cohesion following three main criteria: (a) frequency, (b) variety, and (c) appropriateness. The analysis shows that, in terms of quantity, the model essays use more cohesive devices than the Tunisian ones, especially at the level of lexical cohesion. As for the quality, some weaknesses are detected in the Tunisian sample in relation to the limited variety of cohesive markers and their occasional misuse. Implications for enhancing Tunisian writers’ proficiency can be drawn both on the short and long terms. Provisionally, the few detected differences can be a starting point towards immediate remediation for the sampled Tunisian learners with more recycling of cohesion ties. On the long run, the results serve as feedback on how to improve textbook adaptation to fit the level of Tunisian learners and tweak it according to the B2 First specifications for future Tunisian B2 candidates.