Analysis of Reference Cohesion Errors in Students’ Compositions: A Case of the Department of English at Mouloud Mammeri University

Abstract

This study is an attempt to analyze the reference cohesion errors students made in their writings. It seeks to identify the errors, classify them and then identify the causes of these errors. To achieve the aim of this study, it is based on analyzing one hundred argumentative essays written by third year LMD students of the department of English at Mouloud Mammeri University of Tizi Ouzou, during the academic year 2013/2014.In doing so reference is made to Halliday and Hasan’s (1976) classification of cohesive devices with a particular reference to error analysis approach. The results of the study showed that 185 reference errors were made in the writing pieces, which are divided into four categories, namely, misuse of reference cohesive devises, omission of reference cohesive devices, superfluous use of reference cohesive devices and overuse of reference cohesive devices. The results showed that third year English students at the university of Tizi Ouzou commit reference cohesive errors, which are due to an intralingual factor.