Cover not available

Article published In: Journal of English for Research Publication Purposes
Vol. 6:1 (2025) ► pp.37–65

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
EPUB logo with download linkDownload EPUB
authorization required

Uncovering global cohesion patterns in the introductory sections of Applied Linguistics research articles

 | Shahid Chamran University of AhvazAhvaz
ORCiD logo with link | Shahid Chamran University of AhvazAhvaz
 | University of Bayreuth | Adam Mickiewicz University
Published online: 4 December 2025
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/jerpp.25008.jal
Abstract
This study aimed to investigate how expert writers achieve textuality in 740 research articles (RAs) in Applied Linguistics. The study first examined the writers’ currently-used links between ideas across paragraphs in the introductory sections of 240 research articles. Then, in the second phase, 500 RAs over three decades were compiled to trace the emergent trends of global cohesion in RA introductions. Content analysis explored patterns of cohesive devices and the extent to which professional RA authors create textuality. Results of the first phase demonstrated that cohesion across paragraphs was achieved through both single and multi-unit constructions, along with explicit and implicit ties. Subsequent to Repetition as the single dominant explicit device, over 30 percent of cohesion was established through the use of phrasal patterns. Moreover, the study revealed an increase in the use of implicit devices over the three decades. While adapting and refining Halliday, M. A. K., & Hasan, R. (1976). Cohesion in English. Longman.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar cohesion framework, this study offers pedagogical implications for early-career academic writers and writing instructors.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Review of literature
  • 3.Method
    • 3.1Research design
    • 3.2Data collection
      • 3.2.1Corpora
      • 3.2.2Research article selection
    • 3.3Analytical foundations and data analysis
    • 3.4Coding reliability
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1Dominant patterns and distribution of cohesive devices
    • 4.2Evolution of cohesive devices
  • 5.Discussion
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgments
  • References
References (45)
References
Abu-Ayyash, E. A. S. (2020). The creative use of cohesive devices: Exploring new roles. Journal for Researching Education Practice and Theory, 3(1), 4–51. [URL]
Ary, D. J., Jacobs, L., Irvine, L. C. S., & Walker, D. (2019). Introduction to research in education (10th ed.). Cengage Learning Inc.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bhatia, V. K. (1997). Genre-mixing in academic introductions. English for Specific Purposes, 16 (3), 181–195. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77–101. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Crossley, S. A., & McNamara, D. S. (2011). Text coherence and judgments of essay quality: Models of quality and coherence. In L. Carlson, C. Hoelscher, & T. F. Shipley (Eds.), Proceedings of the 29th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 1236–1241). Cognitive Science Society.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2014). Does writing development equal writing quality? A computational investigation of syntactic complexity in L2 learners. Journal of Second Language Writing, 261, 66–79. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Crossley, S. A., Kyle, K., & McNamara, D. S. (2016). The tool for the automatic analysis of text cohesion (TAACO): Automatic assessment of local, global, and text cohesion. Behavior Research Methods, 481, 1227–1237. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
De Beaugrande, R., & Dressler, W. (1981). Introduction to text linguistics. Longman. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Duggleby, S. J., Tang, W., & Kuo-Newhouse, A. (2015). Does the use of connective words in written assessments predict high school students’ reading and writing achievement? Reading Psychology, 37(4), 511–532. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Férez Mora, P. A., Coyle, Y., & Solís Becerra, J. A. (2021). Cohesion in the Narrative Writing of Young EFL Learners: Correct and Incorrect Use of Local Cohesive Ties. Journal of the Spanish Association of Anglo-American Studies, 431, 11, 154–177 Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Foltz, P. W. (2007). Discourse coherence and LSA. In T. K. Landauer, D. S. McNamara, S. Dennis, & W. Kintsch (Eds.), Handbook of latent semantic analysis (pp. 167–184). Erlbaum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gao, X. (2016). A cross-disciplinary corpus-based study on English and Chinese native speakers’ use of linking adverbials in academic writing. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 241, 14–28. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ghanbar, H., & Rezvani, R. (2023). Research questions in applied linguistics research: A microscopic analysis of their distributional and syntactical aspects. Journal of Research in Applied Linguistics, 14(1), 156–167. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Golparvar, S. E., Crosthwaite, P., & Ziaeian, E. (2024). Mapping cohesion in research articles of applied linguistics: A close look at rhetorical sections. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 671, 101316. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Graesser, A. C., McNamara, D. S., Louwerse, M. M. (2004). Coh-Metrix: Analysis of text on cohesion and language. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers, 361, 193–202. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gray, B. (2010). On the use of demonstrative pronouns and determiners as cohesive devices: A focus on sentence-initial this/these in academic prose. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 9(3), 167–183. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Guest, G., MacQueen, K. M., & Namey, E. E. (2012). Applied thematic analysis. Sage. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Guo, L., Crossley, S. A., & McNamara, D. S. (2013). Predicting human judgments of essay quality in both integrated and independent second language writing samples: A comparison study. Writing Assessment, 181, 218–238. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Halliday, M. A. K., & Hasan, R. (1976). Cohesion in English. Longman.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Han, Y., & Gardner, S. (2024). Cohesion in research article abstracts and introductions: A corpus-based analysis of expert writing. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 661, 101276. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Heller, M. (1999). Reading-writing connections: From theory to practice. (2nd ed.). Longman. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hyland, K. (2005). Metadiscourse: Exploring interaction in writing. Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jin, H. (2019). On the anaphoric use of demonstratives this/these in L2 academic writing. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 381, 62–74. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kanoksilapatham, B. (2015). Distinguishing textual features characterizing structural variation in research articles across three engineering sub-discipline corpora. English for Specific Purposes, 371, 74–86. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Krippendorff, K. (2018). Content analysis: An introduction to its methodology (4th ed.). SAGE Publications.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Laksana, T. P. (2024). The analysis of cohesive devices used in Scopus-Indexed Journal. Jolly Journal of English Education, 2(1), 15–26. Retrieved from [URL]
Landis, J. R., & Koch, G. G. (1977). The measurement of observer agreement for categorical data. Biometrics, 33(1), 159–174. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lee, J., Park, H., & Kim, S. (2021). Grammatical cohesion in research articles: A study of reference and substitution in academic writing. Linguistics and Education, 631, 100918. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lei, L. (2012). Exploring how EAP writers establish authorial identity and stance through cohesive devices in applied linguistics research articles. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 11(2), 135–144. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
MacMillan, F. (2007). The role of lexical cohesion in the assessment of EFL reading proficiency. Arizona Working Papers in SLA and Teaching, 141, 75–93. [URL]
McCulley, G. A. (1985). Writing quality, coherence, and cohesion. Research in the Teaching of English, 191, 269–280. [URL].
McGee, I. (2009). Traversing the lexical cohesion minefield. ELT Journal: English Language Teachers Journal, 63(3), 212–220. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McNamara, D. S., Kintsch, E., Butler-Songer, N., & Kintsch, W. (1996). Are good texts always better? Interactions of text coherence, background knowledge, and levels of understanding in learning from text. Cognition and Instruction, 141, 1–43. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McNamara, D. S., Crossley, S. A., & McCarthy, P. M. (2010). Linguistic features of writing quality. Written Communication, 271, 57–86. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McNamara, D. S., Crossley, S. A., & Roscoe, R. (2013). Natural language processing in an intelligent writing strategy tutoring system. Behavior Research Methods, 451, 499–515. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
O’Reilly, T., & McNamara, D. S. (2007). Reversing the reverse cohesion effect: Good texts can be better for strategic, high-knowledge readers. Discourse Processes, 431, 121–152. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Padula, M., Panza, C., & Muñoz, V. L. (2020). The pronoun this as a cohesive encapsulator in engineering semi-popularization articles written in English. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 441, 100828. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Poudel, A. P. (2018). Academic writing: Coherence and cohesion in paragraph (Research Project). [URL] (accessed on 3 November 2019).
Ramilevna Kayumova, A., Eduardovna Nigmatullina, L., KharisovnaTarasova, F., & Mikhailovich Tarasov, A. (2023). The Phenomenon of shared interference to develop the collective competence of students in learning English. Journal of Research in Applied Linguistics, 14(3), 461–465. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Riadi, A., Nathania, N., Valentino, Y. B. (2023). Types and appropriateness: 165 Students usage of conjunctions in academic writing). Linguists: Journal of Linguistics and Language Teaching, 9(2), 165–177. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Richards, J. C. & Schmidt, R. (2010). Pivot grammar. In Dictionary of language teaching and applied linguistics (4th ed., p. 440). Pearson Education.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Saunders, B., Sim, J., Kingstone, T., Baker, S., Waterfield, J., Bartlam, B., Burroughs, H., & Jinks, C. (2018). Saturation in qualitative research: Exploring its conceptualization and operationalization. Quality & Quantity, 52(4), 1893–1907. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Shokri, A. (2016). Peripheral themes in Applied Linguistics articles. Journal of Research in Applied Linguistics, 7(1), 138–157. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Trisnaningrum, Y., Alek, A., & Hidayat, D. N. (2019). Discourse analysis of grammatical cohesion devices in college students’ academic writing essay. Indonesian Journal of English Education, 6(1), 79–90. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Yang, W. & Sun, Y. (2012). The use of cohesive devices in argumentative writing by Chinese EFL learners at different proficiency levels. Linguistics and Education, 23 (1), 31–48. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue