Grammaticality or Lexicality: Iraqi EFL University Students’ Utilization of Cohesion in Narrative Essays

Abstract

It is often expected that Iraqi EFL students have mastered the use of cohesive devices that are essential in almost every written text. Nevertheless, their written texts reveal that they have confronted difficulties in the use of these devices. The problem is attributed to the students' uncertain and incorrect use of these devices or sometimes in the avoidance of using them. This paper intends to investigate the use of grammatical and lexical devices employed by students in their narrative essays, focusing on the purposes behind the use of these cohesive agencies. Fifty narrative essays written by Iraqi EFL students of College of Arts, Mustansiriyah University are collected to constitute the data for the present paper. Data and results analysis is conducted. The result shows that students have more tendencies to use grammatical devices than lexical devices. They rarely use "synonymy, antonymy, hyponymy and general word" in their narrative essays.