Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

• Jabal Hasan ¹
• Manijeh Youhanaee ²
• Zargham Ghabanchi ³

¹ English Department, Faculty of Foreign Languages, University of Isfahan

² Department of English, Faculty of Foreign Languages, University of Isfahan

³ I have a chair at Ferdowsi University of Mashhad

Abstract

This study aimed at investigating the L2 rhetorical organization of translation and free writing tasks in terms of cohesive devices used by intermediate EFL learners in the narrative genre. To do so, 30 intermediate EFL learners took part in the study. The participants were asked to translate three narrative texts from Arabic to English and write three narratives related to the general topics given to them as prompts. The data obtained from translation narratives were compared with a standard translation for each text. Results indicated that EFL leaners produce shorter passages in the target language than in the source language; however, they used significantly more ties than expected for certain types of cohesive devices. Moreover, comparisons between translated narratives and free narratives indicated no significant difference between the translated and composed narratives. It is argued that patterns of cohesive devices used are compatible with properties of their first language. The findings also show that, unlike English grammatical properties, cohesive devices are not a problematic area and would not lead to fossilized errors in the performance of EFL learners.

Keywords

• cohesion
• cohesive devices
• textuality
• narrative writing
• free writing

Main Subjects

• English language learning