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The Concept of Coherence

The document discusses the concepts of coherence in written texts. It defines coherence as the logical links between ideas that make a text comprehensible as a whole, drawing on the reader's prior knowledge and experience. Coherence has both a microstructure at the sentence and paragraph level, and a macrostructure at the overall text level. The document provides examples of questions to evaluate local coherence within paragraphs and global coherence across an entire text. It explains that establishing coherence is important for reading comprehension and acquiring new knowledge from texts.

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Carlos Vega Ortiz
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91 views12 pages

The Concept of Coherence

The document discusses the concepts of coherence in written texts. It defines coherence as the logical links between ideas that make a text comprehensible as a whole, drawing on the reader's prior knowledge and experience. Coherence has both a microstructure at the sentence and paragraph level, and a macrostructure at the overall text level. The document provides examples of questions to evaluate local coherence within paragraphs and global coherence across an entire text. It explains that establishing coherence is important for reading comprehension and acquiring new knowledge from texts.

Uploaded by

Carlos Vega Ortiz
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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THE CONCEPT OF COHERENCE

What is coherence ?
Coherence is concerned with logical links which mean that the ideas presented in a text make sense as a whole. It is concerned to a great extent with our knowledge of the world which comes from our previous experience and learning. COHERENCE means consistence of ideas.

A WRITTEN TEXT IS COMPOSED BY :

MICROSTRUCTURE : RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN ADJACENT SENTENCES IN A TEXT ( E.G. A PARAGRAPH). IT LEADS TO LOCAL COHERENCE.

MACROSTRUCTURE : RELATIONSHIP AMONG ALL THE ELEMENTS IN A TEXT AT A GLOBAL LEVEL. IT LEADS TO GLOBAL COHERENCE.

Microstructure
Although there are some cohesive features in the text it is not coherent. It does not really say anything coherent that one could paraphrase. It seems to be talking about a lot of unconnected things even though it is on the topic of gardening. In fact it is taken from the first line of each chapter. A TEXT IS COHESIVE AND REFLECTS COHERENCE.

MACROSTRUCTURE

Local coherence
Establishment of semantic or meaningful connection of ideas at a local level. Ex : connecting ideas through sentence reading in a paragraph within a text.

Global coherence
Connection of all ideas in a text in order to get the meaning of them. Finally, it will lead us to to get a general notion of what has been read.

Example of question for local coherence


Although there are some cohesive features in the text it is not coherent. It does not really say anything coherent that one could paraphrase. It seems to be talking about a lot of unconnected things even though it is on the topic of gardening. In fact it is taken from the first line of each chapter. A TEXT IS COHESIVE AND REFLECTS COHERENCE.

1.- How can you define the word paraphrase based on the paragraph`s information ?

Example of question for global coherence


Although there are some cohesive features in the text it is not coherent. It does not really say anything coherent that one could paraphrase. It seems to be talking about a lot of unconnected things even though it is on the topic of gardening. In fact it is taken from the first line of each chapter. A TEXT IS COHESIVE AND REFLECTS COHERENCE.
1.- Summarize this text in 2 or 3 lines.

Why establishing coherence is important ?


Establishing coherence is important because it allows a reader to understand a text. When talking about reading comprehension, coherence becomes essential because this means we have acquired new knowledge through the interaction with a text.

Now:
Read the following text and create :
Questions to evaluate local coherence (3 for high

school students and 3 for primary school students)


Questions to evaluate global coherence. (3 for high

school students and 3 for primary school students)

Money causes teenagers to feel stress ; it makes them feel bad about themselves and envy other people. My friend, for instance, lives with her family and has to share a room with her sister who is very cute and intelligent ; this girl wishes she could have her own room and have a lot of stuff, but she cant have these things because her family doesnt have much money .Her familys income is pretty low because her father is old and doesnt go to work; her sister is the only one who works because her family cant buy her the things she wants, so she feels a lot of stress and gets angry sometimes . Once she wanted a beautiful dress to wear to a sweetheart dance, she asked her sister for some money to buy the dress. She was disappointed because her sister didnt have money to give her : she sat in silence for a little while, and then started yelling out loud. She said her friends got anything they wanted, but she didnt ; then she felt sorry for herself and asked why she was born into a poor family. Not having money has caused this girl to think negatively about herself and her family; it has caused a lot of stress in her life.

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