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EWE MAJOR STUDENTS’ COMMAND OVER COHESIVE DEVICES: COHESION 

AND COHERENCE IN THE NATIVE SPEAKERS’ CREATIVE WRITING ESSAYS 

IN THE UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION, WINNEBA 

 

 

Emmanuel Dogbey 

University of Education, Winneba, Ghana 

 

  

Introduction 

Essay writing in one’s native language or dialect, constitutes a problem for many 

people including native speakers who are formally studying their language. However, studies 

conducted in the fields of essay writing at the university levels and below to the best of my 

knowledge are, quantitative and not in L1. It is a fact that speakers of a language can 

generally demonstrate the language competence and language performance – thus to 

ascertain their level of command over the language. Creative writing forms are media for 

such justifications. Creative writing is ‘a habitual act’ and one of the full semester courses for 

Level 300 Ghanaian Language students in the University of Education, Winneba (UEW). In 

Ghana, language problems could be attributed to the nature of the prevailing language policy 

in the country- not considering effective study and development of local languages alongside 

the English language -L21 as well as the linguistic background of learners in the formal 

educational system. We can state that language problems are the causes of major challenges 

or are among the major challenges in the Ghanaian educational system.  Despite numerous 

approaches to writing, tackling writing in L1 or L2 is still a major problem. In the modern 

Ghanaian classroom, writing is reduced to taking of tests or copying of notes. Complains 

alone on any of these challenges will not solve the problem, researching into them counts.   

This study is therefore, concerned with exploring the organizational problems 

encountered by native/local language students while composing essays in their own language. 

It is purposed to examine types of coherent and cohesive devices Ewe major students use in 

their essay writings. Coherence and cohesion are evaluations essentials in continuous 

writings. I use the term coherence and cohesion generally to mean two complementary 

aspects of writing and text organization. Roughly, coherence includes those aspects of a 

narrative that are directly linked to the overall structure of its content, while cohesion 

involves those aspects that pertain directly to the linguistic expression of discourse – the 

internal relation across clauses. Expressing ideas verbally seems easier than putting them into 

writing. Ideally, people do have depths of ideas running through their minds; the ability to 

organize and express or present them in written forms is always the major task (Dogbey, 

2012:1). Acquiring the writing skill seems to be more laborious and demanding than the other 

language skills (Ahmed, 2010:211). This proves that writing is as an independent structure on 

its own and organizing thoughts into codified forms need much attention. In fact, producing a 

coherent piece of writing in one’s language (which is superficially studied at the foundation 

                                                             
1 L2 = For some schools in the Volta Region, Ghana Togo Mountain Languages area Ewe and Akan for instance, are second languages 

students offer at BECE  and WASCE                                                                                                                    



      

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levels as is the case of Ghanaian languages offered at the tertiary level) is an enormous 

challenge. Honestly, the rhetorical conventions of English texts (or L2 texts:---the structure, 

style, and organization-) differ from students’ L1.  A great effort is required by the L2 learner 

in organizing and managing the differences.  

In this regard, this study could help in identifying student’s level of awareness and 

competence in the use of cohesive devices in essays, ascertaining the most frequently used 

devices, those which are most problematic and or unfamiliar to students, discovering through 

students the awareness of the concept of cohesion and how lecturers handle it during lessons 

(the best teacher is seen through students’ performances – Rice, 2003), ascertaining how 

much cohesion could be permitted per a construction in order to avoid ‘heavy’ paragraphs 

and sentences, justifying a connection between students’ way of speaking and writing as well 

as thinking with regards to responding to essays and identifying the kind of essay writing 

approaches common to students.   

Furthermore, the study significantly focuses on addressing writing and speaking 

problems (most often there is a correlation between what is said and written by students 

during oral treatment of essays (Nartey-Larwe, 1981), inform and improve on student’s 

competence in the use of cohesive devices, serve as a point of contact as well as help to 

improve standards of performance in schools and institutions. 

 

Research questions  

1. Do EMS exhibit competence in the use of cohesive devices in their essays? 

2. What is/are the most frequently used device? 

 

 

Previous research 

Coherence in text: a multidimensional feature base 

Coherence, or texture, is the combination of semantic configurations of two different 

kinds: register and cohesion. Coherence in written text is “a complex concept, involving a 

multitude of reader- and text-based features” (Johns, 1986 in Ahmed, 2010). Text-based 

features mean cohesion (i.e., the linking of sentences) and unity (i.e., sticking to the point). 

Reader-based features mean that the reader interacts with the text depending on his/her prior 

knowledge. Coherence is defined as “the organization of discourse with all elements present 

and fitting together logically” (Hinkel, 2004). This denotes that a coherent essay consists of 

an introduction, a thesis statement, rhetorical support, and a conclusion. However, all other 

features that make written or verbal discourse complete are never left out (punctuations, 

registers, syntactic and sentence functions, participant and topic as well as setting concepts, 

etc). 

According to Halliday and Hasan (1976), cohesion separates a text from expressions 

that are not considered texts, holds together the sections of the text and arranges the meaning 

relationship within a text. They asserted, a cohesive relationship in the text sometimes 

appears in a sentence, sometimes between the sentences and sometimes between the 

paragraphs (p.278). Achieving cohesive effect on selected vocabulary items is by reiteration 

or collocation (Halliday & Hasan, 1976:274). Halliday and Hasan (1976) evaluated cohesion 



      

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under the following titles:  reference, substitution, ellipsis, conjunctions and lexical cohesion. 

These features are crucial in achieving coherence. Ideally, coherence is a semantic property 

of discourse formed through the interpretation of each individual sentence relative to the 

interpretation of other sentences. Here, interpretation in implies interaction between the text, 

the reader and the writer (Dag, 2013). 

Some research findings revealed that students’ texts have repetition, parallelism and 

sentence length, lack of variation and misuse of certain cohesive devices as major sources of 

incoherence and textual deviations. In addition, students have some weaknesses, in terms of 

coherence and cohesion, manifesting both in their L2 written texts and spoken forms. The 

WAEC reports noted that students perform poorly in English Paper 1 where writing skills are 

tested…disconnected sentences or misuse of cohesive devises…(WAEC, Chief Examiner’s 

report, 2007-2010 : English Paper 1). Text cohesion in writing is a mechanism that facilitates 

discourse flow. Constructing cohesive texts by second language learners requires focused 

instruction and additional attention. Writing cohesively in L2 constitutes a serious problem to 

learners (Ahmed, 2010).  

The findings in this study portrayed the phenomenon that challenges faced in L1 also 

occur in L2. This finding emphasizes the assumption that ‘the L2 only drive’ cunningly 

propagated by the ‘mirage language policy in Ghana’ is never contributing any meaningful 

realization to learner efficiency. We can observer a blunt of unsharpened brains, destruction 

of potentials and the huge number of failures recorded across exams in the country set the 

record straight that deficiency in L1 (the medium of instruction, conceptualization, 

comprehension, expression and transfer) is the cause of all these (‘academic genocide’ 

experienced by students as shown by their examination records and academic reports.)  

 

Cohesion 

Cohesion is a general principle or a formal or grammatical linguistic feature that 

respects the order of thought presentation. Cohesive writing creates clear and logical 

relationships among ideas. Cohesion refers to the relationships established between sentences 

and paragraphs via the units in the surface structure of the text. In relation to essay writing 

cohesion, many researchers agree that cohesion, on the macro level is related to linking ideas 

whereas on the micro level, it is concerned with connecting sentences and phrases. "The 

concept of cohesion is a semantic one; it refers to relations of meaning that exist within the 

text, and defines it as a text". This made this study prove the proficiency and thinking levels 

of students in their languages as may be expressed even in their second languages. It is this 

part that emphasizes a link between thought and action (what is understood and is what is 

written down).  

Studies on text cohesion claim that a text stands as a text by means of cohesion. But 

for cohesion, sentences/clauses would be fragmented and would result in a number of 

unrelated sentences. Studies on L2 have drawn attention to different aspects of cohesion 

problems (Ahmed, 2010; Kurt & Atay, 2007) but do not investigate such phenomena in 

students’ native languages. This study is exploring the coherence and cohesion problems that 

EMS face in their essay writings and possibly relate it to other fields of study.  

 



      

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Data presentation and analysis 

Sampling and sample size 

The study used a purposive sample of 28 students of Ewe. Their responses and 

scripts/documents were subjected to critical analysis on cohesive devices and coherence. This 

study considers a combination of discourse analysis with corpus linguistic approach of Ewe 

major students (EMS).  Discourses analyses here refer to a descriptive linguistic approach 

that focuses on ‘language in actual use’ (Kaplan & Grabe, 2002). In this study, a learner’s 

corpus comprises the language in use, which is the authentic data that were analyzed. The 

exploratory nature of this study, and its context-specificity, made the naturalistic orientation 

of interpretive, qualitative research as an appropriate choice. The interpretive approach helps 

to explore and understand the context within which essay writing in Ewe is taught and learnt 

at University of Education, Winneba. It also helps in revealing problems that EMS and even 

teachers encounter in the cohesion and coherence of essays.  

 

Cohesion with no coherence 

Text A: 

[Amadede si dzea `unye vevie lae nye 6it4. #u 6iwo 2e woz4na `ut4. #uawo kuku 

alea tea `u hea af4ku ge2e vanae. Medze 3uf4ku kp4 he`e nye af4. Esi men4 

abiawo 5e d4x4 la, dzi medz4am o elabena nyemetea `u sea vivi na nu2u2u o.] 

(NB:)2 

1. Ama  -  de-de  sì         dze   -  a    `ù - nyè  vevee  la-  e       nye                 6i   -  t4                        

Color  - RED REL    like-HAB  part-1SG  best    TP - FOC be/COP-is    white - 

one 

‘The color I like best is white’ 

2. [β ū]         6i      - wo        2è         wo      z4   - na,             `ut4.                                                           

Vehicle   white - PL        pFOC  3SG    walk - HAB      very much       

‘White cars move very fast.’ 

3. Wo –ku – ku       ale-a       ta   -    a     `u    hè   -  à       àf4ku      gè2è  va -    na -   e       

3SG-RED-drive this way POT-HAB body bring-HAB accident many come-HAB-

FOC 

‘Driving them like this can cause many car crashes’. 

4. Mè  -    dzè          βū       -  ‘f4ku             kp4       he   -  `e         nyӗ    af4.                                         

1SG-contacted   vehicle - accident         see    ITIVE - break    1SG      leg/foot 

‘I once had a car accident and broke my leg’ 

5.Esì      mè   -n4       àbì       -a -wo  e     d4-x4       la,   dzì    me-  dz4  -   â   -  m      ò                         

When 1SG -be-LOC   wound-TP -PL  POSS sick-room TP, heart NEG-happy-HAB-

1SG  NEG 

                                                             

2 High and low tones are prominent in Ewe, in the glossing; unmarked tones will be regarded high. Also, DEF - definate, DEM – 

demonstrative, FOC - focus, aFOCUS - term focus marker,  FUT - future, PROG – progressive, HAB - habitual,LINK - linker ( 

conjunctions, co-ordinate, etc),  REL-Relativizer, NEG - negative, POT - potential,  PL–plural,  QT - quotative, RED–reduplicated,  SG– 

singular, SPCF – Specifier, TRANS–Transitive, VENT–Ventive, 1SG - First person singular,  2SG - second on person singular,  3SG - 

Third person singular, ARG –Argentive marker, DAT –Dative,  be-LOC –Abilitative marker, CFp-Clause focus marker, TP-Topic marker, 

COMP-Complementizer, CFP-Clause final particle IDEO-Ideophone , PART: Particle 



      

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  elàbena  nye -me-  te -  a        `u   sè       -à       vìvi         na    nu-  2u-  2u               ò.      

 because 1SG-NEG-POT-HAB  body hear-HAB  sweetness DAT thing-RED-eat(food)  

NEG. 

‘Because of the wounds, I was very sad in those days for I loss appetite for food’. 

“My favorite colour is white. White cars move very fast. Driving them like 

this can cause many car crashes. I once had a car accident and broke my leg. 

Because of the wounds, I was very sad in those days for I loss appetite for 

food.” 

 

Text B: 

[Nu si wòl-a 2u2u vevie lae nye gali. Ga ge2e le galidzadzra me. Gali t4t4 al4 de 

kotokuwo me nye d4 ses8. Gali kotoku 2eka kpena wua dze kotoku 2eka g- h7.  

M]eléa afiwo kple alegeli siwo n4a agbax4wo me n4a gali kotokuawo `4m la].  

 

6. Nu       sì        wò  -   l-  -  a       2ù - 2ù      vevie   la-e           nye         gàli.          

Thing  REL    2SG  -  like-HAB   RED-eat    most   TP-aFOC  COP-is    gali              

‘What s/he likes eating most is  gali.3  

7. Ga          ge2e    le             gali  -  dza-dzra           me.    

           Money   a lot    be-LOC     gali-     RED-sell             in 

      Much money is in selling gali 

8. Gali t4-t4         a     -  l4          de     kōtōkú  - wo  me     nye   d4    se-s8.           

Gali RED -roast   POT - collect  put   sack     -  PL  inside COP  work  RED-

hard  

‘Roasting and bagging gali is a tedious work.’ 

9. Gali  kotoku  2èká    kpè   -  nà   wú   -  á       dzè     kotoku     2èká    g-   h7.      

Gali   sack       one    heavy- HAB  than -HAB    salt      sack         one    even   

also.  

‘A bag of gali is heavier than a bag of rice’ 

10. M]e   -lé  -  a      àf ì-    kple  alegeli  si    - wo      n4       - a    agbax4    -wo   me   

1PL- catch-HAB mouse and    rat     SPECF -PL  be.at:PRES-HAB  storeroom-PL   

inside 

      n4     - a             gali    kotoku  -a -wo      `4   -    m          la.   

       

       be.at:PRES-HAB   gali      sack    - TP-PL    perforate-PROG  CFP 

‘We catch the mice and rats that hide in store rooms destroying (making holes into) 

the sacks of gali.’ 

‘His best food is gali. There is much money is in gali business. Roasting and 

bagging gali into sacks is a tedious work. One sack of gali is heavier than a 

sack of salt. We catch the mice and rats that hide in store rooms destroying 

(making holes into) the sacks of gali.’ 

i. White > white cars > move fast > driving >car crashes >broken leg > appetite for 

food. 

                                                             
3 Gali: a cassava meal prepared by roasting grated cassava. Some call it gari. 



      

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ii. Gali >a lot of money > preparation/roasting > putting into sacks/bagging > a tedious 

work > heavier > catching mice and rats > store rooms  

In ‘‘i’’ above, there is cohesion. The sentences connect clearly together but if you read the 

paragraph, it really makes no sense. The sentences started with talking about favorite 

color and food and ended on loss of appetite for food as well as catching mice and rats. 

There is no coherence in these sentences.  

 

Coherence with no cohesion 

Now, look at a sentence that is coherent but with no cohesion. 

Text C: 

[Amadede si nyoa `unye vevie lae nye 6it4. Mele dzi2e2i kple gb42eme blibo me.  

Le nye vovo6iwo la, meml4a gbe mumu ml4ml4 dzi le xexe, n4a yame kp4m].  

11. Ama-de-de   sì         nyo   -   a     `ù - nyè  vevie  la -  e      nye          6i   -  t4                              

Color RED REL good-HAB body-1SG  best    PT-LOG be/COP-is  white-one: 

(ARG). 

‘My favorite colour is white’ 

12. Mè   -lè                dzì-2è-2i                kple    gb4-2e-me                           blíbo  

mè.                      1SG-be.at PRESS hear-remove-down  and   breath-remove-

into/inside  total inside 

‘I am in total peace and comfort/relaxation’ OR  ‘I’m totally calm and 

relaxed’ 

13. Le  nyӗ  vō-vo  -  6i-  wo  la,    mè- ml4- a      gbē   mumu   f1    ml4ml4ml4   

dzi      At 1SG RED-free time-PL TP, 1SG-lie-HAB grass green   young IDEO-

fluffy   on lè           xexe,   n4          -à        ya-mè             kp4  -m                              

LOC-at       outside  be.at-PRES -HAB  air–inside (sky)     look  -  PROG  

‘At/During my leisure hours, I lie on fresh fluffy green grass outside, looking up’ 

“My favorite colour is white. I’m calm and relaxed. During my leisure 

hours, I lie on the young fluffy green grass outside, looking up.” 

 

The sample Text C is more difficult to understand due to cohesion challenges but basically 

this lack of cohesion means a lack of sufficient connectors to join the ideas together. If you 

try hard to understand what the person is saying (a short answer, an explanation, an example) 

the sentences do not fit together or are not coherent.  

 

Cohesion and coherence in dialogue 

The best examples are derived from the drama texts. Two people could talking about 

some picture/thing but if they neither respond to what each other is saying nor refers to each 

other then the conversation can be coherent but completely lack cohesion. For example, some 

of the derived texts from respondents’ creative writing include: 

 

Text D: 

14. E-w4            na-m       be    àgbè    kò    2ù-m          àmè        sia-wo      lè        alea             

3SG-made  to-1SG    QT   life   only  eat-PROG person DEM-PL be-LOC this way 



      

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‘I think these people are having a good time.’ 

15. E   - w4     na -m         be      dzìdz4  kò   kp4     -m      àmè        sia-wo      lè         alea       

3SG-made Dat-1SG COMP happy only see/look-PROG person DEM-PL be-LOC this 

way  

‘It appears (as if) these people are only enjoying themselves’ 

16. Wo-dze       àbe           m4keke-2u-la-wo           ène     

        3SG-look    like /as      holiday-eat-DEF-PL     as/if 

‘They seem to be on holidays or as holiday makers’ 

17. E-w4               àbe       m4keke     wo-lè                 ène.     

       3SG-made     like/as     holiday    3SG-be-LOC      as/if 

‘It looks like they are on vacation’ 

 

Obviously, there is no connection between A and B in this conversation. We understand them 

and they are coherent. What is missing is cohesion. They are not connected. A is not listening 

to B and B is not listening to A.  

 

Text E: 

18. E-w4            na   - m       be    àmè      sia-wo      lè           àgbè   2ù  -m              

       3SG-made DAT-1SG    QT   person  DEM-PL  be-LOC  lie     eat-PROG 

   ‘I think these people are enjoying themselves’   

19. ^eyi6i `uti d4    me-            nya         w4-nà    na  -   m        ò;     e  - ses8-  na     na  -  

m.  Time body work 3SG:NEG-VOICE/MOD do-HAB DAT-1SG NEG,   3SG-hard-

HAB DAT-1SG 

‘I can’t keep to time; it is usually hard for me.’ 

20. Mè-tsi-a               mègbē 6esia6i  le      w4-w4                      2e        gàmè dzi        

`u       3SG-remain-HAB back    always  be-LOC do/observe-RED LOC 

time  on/top body 

àbe  lè          gò  do-do        ny4nu-vi          a-2e      sì    mè-    di       be   mà   - a-    dzè          

like be-LOC out RED-exit woman-small INDEF REL 1SG-search QT 1SG-POT-

contact 

àhì7  -e        la      `u          ène.                       

love-3SG     CFP   body as/like 

‘I am always not on time; like meeting a lady whom I wanted to date/marry’. 

21. Ny4nu-vi        sì-wo      2à    di-di  yib4   lè      ta    na   eye             wo -  e      `ku-wo  

lè              Female-small REL-PL hair long  black be.at head for and (LINK) 3SG-POSS 

eye-PL be.at                                                                                                  ayi  -  bli-     

tsi        e      ama – de-de         me la   e       nu     nyo  - a      `u    -nye.             beans-

maize-water  POSS colour-RED-add in TP POSS thing please-HAB body -ISG                                                                                                                                         

‘I like ladies with with long dark hair and brown eyes’  

22. Nyӗ avu  e       `ku-wo  lè       àbe      ayi  -bli     - tsi     ‘ma-de-de       ène eye   e   - e       

1SG dog POSS eye-PL be.at as/like beans-maize-water color-RED-add as and 3SG-

POSS                     asike     h7        dìdì                                                                         

tail     also        long 



      

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‘My dog has brown eyes and a long tail’ 

The data or examples show that there is cohesion but the conversation makes no sense and 

therefore, it is missing coherence. This observation agrees with Carrell (1982) and Chen 

(2008) as cited in Ahmed (2010) that a text can display cohesive devices yet be found 

incorrect.        With regards to linkers, the highest abused ones are:  

 

kplé/kpákplé, élàbéná,    gake,         hafi,    h7,     ale,      eye                                    

and,          because, but/yet, before, also, so/hence, and  

This abuse could be explained under various concepts especially on the grounds that students 

are trying to transfer the L2 (English) code on to the Ewe. For example some of the texts 

read: 

 

23.  i: *Mè - o  -  è     togb4       be         e    -  dzu      -m        h7, …… 

     1SG-beat -3SG   despite COMP   3SG  - insult-1SG     PART …. 

    ‘I beat him though/although, s/he insulted me …’ 

ii: *Nyӗ  -me  - o    - e     o      elàbena      e     - dzu    - m        h7,    

      1SG-NEG-beat-3SG NEG  because     3SG-insult  -1SG   too/also                                                                      

    ‘I did not beat her/him because s/he insulted me too/also’ 

 iii: *Kofi kple Ama, kple Adzo, kple Aku kplakple Yao….        

      NAME (LINK) NAME, (LINK) NAME, (LINK) NAME, (LINK) NAME,                        

*the commas and LINKERS usage concurrently is a gross abuse of co-coordination.   

     iv: *Nyӗ   kpakple            -e         va                                                                                                                          

            1SG    and (LINK) - 3SG   come      

  The linker ‘kpakple’, goes with more than two nouns. 

 

Transliteration from English to Ewe is also a major negative effect exhibited by students with 

regards to linkers, cohesive and coherent text constructions. For instance, there is a wrong use 

of linkers: eye, kple, etc as in data 24 below to literally mean ‘‘and’’. 

 

24.    a: Kofi kple Ama yi dua me kple va do go 2e dukpl4la e vava `u.  

   b: Kofi kple Ama yi dua me eye wodo go 2e dukpl4la e vava `u. 

“Kofi and Ama went to the town and met the arrival of the president.’’  

In “24a” the student literally translate ‘and’ as ‘kple’ for cohesion but not coherence. In, 

‘‘24b’’ ‘and’ as ‘kple’, ‘eye’ is well presented cohesively to address the right coherence. In 

‘‘24a’, the sentence could be restructured to achieve the correct order through a reduplication 

of the verb ‘do’ (exit) and elimination of the ventive ‘va’ to make the sentence read as: “Kofi 

kple Ama yi dua me kple go dodo 2e dukpl4la e vava `u”. However, this will give the sense 

of suddenly.  

 

Total absence of cohesive devices  

Interestingly, some respondents wrote without observing any punctuation or coordinative 

device. An example is: 



      

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25. *~utsu-vi   la       2ù   nu  -  a     kat7   v4      dzè       al-     d4-d4          g4mè    f-  he-dzè                                 

Man - small DEF eat thing-DEF all   finish  contact  sleep RED-send under  rose IT-

contact                  nu     -   a   -wo gbegbl8             wo  -   x4    - e       sè    be                

thing- DEF-PL RED-spoil/bad 3SG-receive-3SG   hear  QT/COMP                                          

àti-ke    -v- -wo    no       -m     wò    -le               ale       wò - le                                        

tree-root (medicine/drug)-bad  -PL  drink-PROG  2SG-be.at-PRES  thus    2SG-

be.at:PRES àgbè vlo  -a      n4-m.                                                                                                                    

life   bad  -DEF be.at-PRES-PROG. 

 

LITERAL: [The boy ate all the food started sleeping when he woke up engaged in 

promiscuous conducts believed to be on drugs leading to that bully conduct.]  

 

CORRECTED VERSION: “The boy ate all the food [then he] started sleeping. [Later] when 

[he] woke up [he] engaged in promiscuous conducts.  [He is] believed to be on drugs, leading 

to that conduct. 

 

Findings from students’ writings 

 

Table 1: Summary of findings from students’ writings 

Item  Frequency 

1. Lengthy, compound-complex sentences  (68) 

2. Total absence of cohesive devices 54 

3. The use of wrong connectives in joining clauses  38 

4. Using noun, sentence/clause connectives in place of paragraph 

connectives in vice versa  

 

5. Presence of cohesive devices without punctuation marks  50 

6. Presence of cohesive devices without the right punctuation mark  32 

7. Cohesive device wrongly beginning with capital or small letter 42 

8. Sentences beginning with small letters or capital letters beginning 

connecting features and subordinating sentences or clauses 

44 

9. Paragraph connectives found at the beginning of sentences of students 126 

10. Placing connectives at the end of their sentences  8 

11. Lack of knowledge on the use of certain punctuation marks such as the 

comma, the colon and semi-colon as cohesive. 

18 

12. Total abuse of cohesive devices (either under-abuse or over-abuse)  81 

13. Cohesive without coherence constructions  26 

14. Coherence without any cohesive realization  12 

15. Poor development of paragraphs, full of series of unrelated points 48 

16. Poor usage of reference elements such as, pronouns, demonstratives, 

relative clauses and relative pronouns, ellipsis 

35 

17. Concord challenges  23 

 

 



      

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Other findings are: 

18. Impoverished knowledge on inherent category or properties of verbs and their usage  

19. Difficulty in writing the introduction, the thesis statement, the topic sentence, 

concluding sentences and writing the conclusion as well as show poor topic-specific 

background knowledge. 

20. It has been observed that as Africans has advanced oral development backgrounds than 

written and in speeches of conversation, structural outlines (punctuations, paragraphs 

etc) are conceptual maters hence are not consciously marked. This makes learners to 

transfer such phenomena into the writing environments.   

21. Traces of L1 proficiency challenges were also identified. Students were paying 

attention to language matters rather than making meaning. Resulting in transliteration of 

the syntax and semantics of English language into their native language compositions. 

22. Native language study and its skills are grossly plagued with attitudinal, policy and 

other incomprehensible roadblocks. These made learners incompetent neither in L1 nor 

L2. It is hard to find a fluent speaker without code switching or mixing. The poor 

proficiency in language; the medium for every thought and actions and functions entails 

poor thinking, understanding and expression.  

 

These findings agree with some researchers’ assertions on students’ essays (and discourse) in 

English: Lack of knowledge on features of a good paragraph (Agor, 2010), Have problems 

with concord (Agor, 2003), Exhibit gross shallow knowledge of parts of speech (Gyasi et al. 

2011), Lack of cohesion and coherence (Dako, 2009; Appiah, 2002, Dag, 2013), Exhibit 

weak thematic progression (Adika, 2003, Krista, 2012), Gross ignorance of essay and essay 

types (Tsareva, 2010), Tune to wrong and non-standard use of language (Forson, 2007, 

Krista, 2012). 

 

Discussion 

Findings of the study revealed a number of factors behind the coherence and cohesion 

problems. These challenges include lack of motivation, lack of self confidence, writing 

anxiety as well as judgment of competence through examination results among others. 

Students and lecturers are not motivated enough to produce essays in Ewe or study the 

language. Large classes also characterize physical and intellectual distance between teachers 

and students. Instructional methods of teaching Ewe essay writing is always the traditional 

(lecturing, reading aloud, and book reading) method. According to Ahmed, 2010), the 

traditional approaches on essays hinder students’ communication; they respond to essay 

writing as difficult. This could be described as “signs of boredom”, “passive watching” and 

“teaching spectacle” (It presents an impact of passive listening on students’ learning in 

general, creative writing and examinations).  

Other revelations by the study include: low motivation -usually contributing to students’ 

vocabulary problems in writing (Lee, 2006), lack of confidence, poor supervision, over 

loaded curriculum, scarcity of teachers’ feedback on students’ writing performance, quality 

of assessment measures not exploring students full potency, high demands on learners by 

parents and teachers, students learning for results or certificates instead of for knowledge. 



      

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Ahmed (2010) says, families place unrealistic academic expectations on their children, they 

expect them to achieve high beyond their intellectual abilities. Parents, teachers and 

institutions also value and judge students by certificates rather than their actual levels of 

knowledge acquisition and full learning faculty. 

Students also have poor reading culture. Meanwhile, it is students’ reading and 

writing competence that enables them to adapt to new teaching/learning methods better. We 

can say, reading and writing have a close relation and are inseparable but need to be properly 

addressed simultaneously. The writing anxiety or apprehension could also be due to teaching 

load, short lecture duration, and defficient of teachers’ professional development, teacher 

attitudes toward teaching essay, resources and difficult topics among others. Pedagogically, it 

was suggested that L1 proficiency helps to improve L2 reading and writing (Bell, 1998) 

hence, reading for pleasure and mandatory reading affect developing composition skills 

positively (Ferris & Hedgcock, 1998). In this view teaching reading and writing should be 

simultaneous to better prepare learners to read like writers and write like readers. 

Additionally, knowledge of topic backgrounds is also crucial. Prior knowledge plays an 

important role in one’s comprehension and composition skills (Heller, 1999). Prior 

knowledge and experience that students bring to the composition classroom are major 

distinctive characteristics between effective and non-effective students (Ferris & Hedgcock, 

2004).  

The study revealed that students lack topic prior knowledge, meanwhile, different 

kinds of knowledge backgrounds were believed to be a predictive of success in compositions. 

There is a strong and consistent relationship between topic specific background knowledge 

and the quality of students’ writing (Tsadidey, 2009) hence, prior knowledge and writing 

experiences affect students’ works (Scordaras, 2003). It is what students bring into the text; it 

is ‘the what’ and ‘the how’ of their reaction to the given information.  

In this regard, cohesion problems have links with prior knowledge (External Examiner’s 

Report on Ewe Language Essay, 2012 & 2013). Producing coherent, cohesive and well-

organized writing pieces by L2 students are always very challenging because the rhetorical 

conventions of L2 texts such as the structure, organization, lexis and grammar differ from 

those in other languages (Forson, 2007). These students need to understand the concepts first 

in the L1 before transferring them into any other language. Meanwhile; the EMS were 

superficially taught or not taught the L1at all in their previous schools.  

From this study, Ewe cohesive devices could be characterized as context-based, 

generalized, repetition-oriented, and additive. In contrast, English cohesion could be 

described as text-based, specified, change-oriented, and non-additive. In my view, since 

students have total speaking command in Ewe than the writing, it would affect cohesion in 

their writings in both languages. This accounts for why they turn to use English ideas in the 

Ewe and vice versa (see data 23). It also accounts for the literal translation and use of 

formulaic expressions in their writings as indicated by data 24 and the findings in Table 1. 

 In addition, writing the run-on sentences and repetition were other features identified due 

imbalance in the use of L1 and L2 for academic purposes. This could be interpreted from two 

angles based on the findings: First, students join the university with poor L1 and L2 

proficiency. Second, admission to all levels of education is determined by results or 



      

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certificate rather than knowledge or competence and performance (communication). These 

foreshadow the numerous problems students are expected to encounter in the various 

academic courses in general and essay writing in particular as well as work environments.  

In view of these finding, further studies could be conducted on: (1) effects of different 

teaching techniques on the development of students’ organizational skills in writing, (2) the 

concept of teaching and the mechanics of writing in an essay writing course, (3) analyzing 

students’ vocabulary learning strategies and its effect on the development of coherent and 

cohesive written essays, (4) classroom interaction techniques on students’ attitudes towards 

essay writing and (5) investigating feedback practices to understand the factors that hinder 

good quality teacher feedback on students’ writings in the L1 and others. 

 

 

Summary and conclusion  

The full assessment on the study proves that, students exhibit a lesser degree of 

knowledge on cohesive devices. They depend on just a few of them and over use them 

exhaustively. Most of these are: ‘kple’ ‘kpakple’, ‘eye’- (and), ‘h7’-(also), ‘elabena’- 

(because), ‘gake’ ‘ke’-(but, yet), ‘hafi’-(before). Another observation was poor usage of 

punctuation marks. It causes students’ construction of very long sentences: compound-

complex or complex-complex sentences. It is surprising to see a full paragraph (a heavy 

paragraph of 18 lines) without a comma. Only the full stop specifies the end at times.  

These ‘paragraph sentences’ are full of ‘kple’, ‘eye’-(and) ‘eya ta’- (because of), ‘elabena’-

(because), ‘ale’- (so, hence), ‘yi edzi la’-(furthermore), etc as connectives. Cardinal and 

ordinal connectives such as ‘gb7-(one), ‘eve’-(two) or ‘gbat4’ (first /firstly), ‘evelia’-(second 

or secondly) and others were totally absent in the texts.  

The few sentence or clause and paragraph connectives found were also abused (They 

were either marked with a full stop or mostly not marked at all with any punctuation): ‘Togb4 

be’ (although), ‘ke h7 la’-(however), kpe 2e e`u la’-(in addition/additionally), ‘yi edzi la’-

furthermore, moreover), etc. These cohesive devices were either not punctuated at all or are 

wrongly punctuated or used to connect nouns rather than clauses and paragraphs. These 

conjunctions: the additive, adversative, causal, temporal or co-ordinate conjunctions suffer 

the same degree of punctuation menace. Extensive repetition of lexical features and semantic 

units was also observed. It means a scratch of the same thought, making the composition 

appearing in parallel or parallelism forms in given contexts.  

In conclusion, the study provides implications for strategies on essay writing, methods 

of teaching and assessment in Ewe and for that matter, other African languages at the 

university level. It is hoped that curriculum planners and designers would take into 

consideration different approaches that could enhance the organization skills of students in 

composition / essay writings in Ewe (other languages of African inclusive)   

 

 

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