The use of transitional devices in the writing of ESL learners a case of Bolgatanga girls SHS students

Abstract

This thesis investigated the use of transitional devices by students of Bolgatanga Girls Senior High School. Three objectives were set for the research: to identify the kind of transitional devices that appear in the writing of senior high school students, the challenges that are associated with the use of transitional devices by the students and the causes of the problems of using transitional devices by the students. T o achieve these objectives, the researcher employed a case study approach. The researcher employed interviews and observation of students script for the collection of the data for the research. Essays of students were sampled for the extraction of the tran sitional devices used by the students. The data that was obtained was analysed based on the themes that emerged from the research questions. The findings of the study showed that Bolgatanga Girls’ Senior High School students use transitional devices of dif ferent categories in their writing tasks. The findings of the study revealed that the students contextually and semantically use connective devices appropriately, which makes their essays to achieve coherence and cohesion. It was shown by the study that ev en though the students use the connective devices appropriately, they overuse some of the transitional devices, while they avoid some. The study also showed that compound connective devices are sometimes misspelt by the students by writing them as separate words. The findings indicated that the teachers of English language place too much emphasis on the external examination; they also employ teacher teacher-centred methods in teaching; they do not adopt process approach to teaching transitional devices to the stude nts and the students also fail to undertake reading task on their own. The study recommended that teachers of English should teach transitional devices as distinct topic and adopt a learner learner-centred approach to teaching transitional devices to their student students.