The Impact of Teaching Conjunctions in English Writing Proficiency at the Sentence Level

(A Case Study: (University of Kassala)

Abstract

This study investigates the use of coordinating and subordinating conjunctions by students enrolled in advanced academic writing course at University of Kassala. The data were quantitatively analyzed to examine the correct and incorrect usage of different conjunctions. Further examination of the incorrect usage of conjunctions revealed the difficulties encountered and the strategies learners used to deal with conjunctions. An understanding of such strategies would illuminate appropriate approaches for teaching conjunctions.
The findings supported the hypothesis that University of Kassala students' writing demonstrated weak performance in the writing skill at the sentence level due to lack of knowledge about coordinating and subordinating conjunctions in terms of meaning and functions. The results indicated that the subjects had limited conjunctions knowledge that did not enable them to express their ideas clearly, precisely, and made them prone to produce erroneous sentences. Such inadequate conjunctions knowledge did not enable them to produce well-structured sentences. Therefore, it seems that foreign language instruction needs to focus on expanding the conjunctions knowledge of foreign language learners. In addition, teachers of writing skills need to engage their students in conscious learning tasks that are designed to make them aware of the gaps in the conjunctions knowledge.