Analyzing the micro coherence in English writing and implications for the teaching of English writing

Based on LSA’s (Latent Semantic Analysis) measuring textual coherence and Halliday and Hasan’s cohesive concepts and their categorization of cohesive devices, this paper analyzes coherent relatedness and cohesive devices of 100 Chinese students’ English writings. The results indicate that (1) LSA is proved to be an objective and appropriate method in measuring the textual coherence, and (2) close attention should be paid to the cultivation of textual coherence, which will be of significance to the teaching of English writing. Finally, the paper provides some suggestions for college English writing.