Additional Guidelines
1. The text was written by a French student of English on a module in “English for Business and Management” at a university in the UK. The text is just over 1,400 words long. Your task is to analyse the text for coherence showing where and why the coherence is good, and where and why it breaks down.
2. The assignment brief is also provided for reference. This illustrates the task that was set for the student and provides some background information on the subject of the text (Sylvia’s Bar). You do not need to analyse the assignment brief however.
3. The main purpose of this assignment is to analyse the student’s text from the point of view of coherence. You will need to find a definition of coherence and demonstrate that you can apply this to the written text. You are looking for patterns in the text where the coherence is lacking and the reasons for this. Of course, you will also want to contrast this with parts of the text where the coherence is not lacking.
3b. A short section in the latter half of your report should indicate the type of feedback that you, as a teacher, would give to this student if you were marking it. In this section, you can write as if you are communicating with the student directly. In the appendix, you can place a copy of the first page of the student’s text with any handwritten annotations that you think are appropriate.
4. Two specific operations should be performed on the text:
1) It should be divided into suitable units for analysis. Typically this might be T-units but other units can be utilised.
2) You will then need to perform a line-by-line coherence analysis using a rating system that we develop. I will explain how to do all this in class.
5. Your task is to approach the text as an EFL teacher and to ask yourself how coherence has, or has not, been realised through the student’s use of English. The most important task is to analyse the text and show the patterns and trends that lead to the loss in coherence and which identify the text as ‘non-native’. Note, the purpose is not to simply list all the mistakes the student has made. Rather you should look for patterns and trends in the text that lead to a loss of coherence and discuss these, using examples occasionally to support your discussion. References to theory will also be necessary to demonstrate your understanding of coherence.
6. This is a semantic analysis and you will not be expected to report on grammatical errors. However, you may need to refer to grammar occasionally as this can sometimes be the cause of anomalies in coherence.
