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Article published In: English Text Construction
Vol. 17:2 (2024) ► pp.141–165

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The development of discourse competence in learner academic writing

ORCiD logo with link | The University of UtahSalt Lake CityUT
Published online: 16 October 2025
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/etc.23017.vo
Abstract
Discourse competence is crucial in constructing a unified text (Canale, Michael. 1983. On some dimensions of language proficiency. In J. Oller. (ed.), Issues in language testing research, 333–342. Newbury: Newbury House Pub.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar). However, while the importance of discourse competence in written discourse has been emphasized, studies of effects of specific features of discourse competence on the quality of a text have been neglected (Purpura, James. 2008. Assessing communicative language ability: Models and their components. In E. Shonany & N. Hornberger (eds.), Language testing and assessment: Encyclopedia of language and education volume 7, 5–68. New York: Springer.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar). Moreover, little research has used a Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) approach to analyze cohesion and coherence features in writing discourse. Therefore, this study employed an SFL approach to examine how cohesion and coherence features were used in 45 non-native academic written responses across proficiency levels. The study aimed to provide an insight into learners’ second language discourse competence development. The analyses from four multinomial logistic regressions suggested that comparative conjunctions, accurate use of referential expressions, lexical cohesion, and theme-rheme patterns provided useful insights into learner discourse competence progression. The study has implications for teaching academic writing and for developing a rating scale for a writing assessment.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Literature review
    • 2.1The use of cohesion features
      • 2.1.1Conjunction
      • 2.1.2Reference
      • 2.1.3Lexical cohesion
    • 2.2The use of coherence features
  • 3.Methodology
    • 3.1Corpus description
    • 3.2Procedures
    • 3.3Data analysis
  • 4.Results and discussion
    • 4.1Cohesion analysis
      • 4.1.1The use of conjunctions across proficiency levels
      • 4.1.2The use of anaphoric reference across proficiency levels
      • 4.1.3The use of lexical cohesion across proficiency levels
    • 4.2Coherence analysis: The use of theme-rheme patterns across proficiency levels
  • 5.Conclusion
  • References
References (32)
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