An Investigation of EFL Undergraduate Students' Achievements in Identifying and Using Transitional Expressions

Abstract

Transitional words and phrases are very important connectors by which coherence of a text can be achieved. They are used to link ideas within a sentence, within a paragraph, or within a longer piece of writing.  The text cannot be well organized unless coherence and cohesion are taken into consideration, and this is achieved through the proper use of transitions. Students who study English as a foreign language (EFL) must be taught these devices properly because they are essential in improving their writing skill as well as their language. This research is confined to investigating students' abilities in identifying and using transitions properly. The research consists of two parts: the first part presents a theoretical survey of literature and the second part is the empirical one. To accomplish the requirements of the study 40 third year students of the academic year 2017-2018 from the college of Arts, University of Baghdad are chosen to do the test. The students are given a test with two questions. In the first question, they are asked to recognize the proper transitions and in the second question the students are asked to use the transitions as connectors in a piece of writing. The students' answers are corrected according to Quirk and Grenbaum (1973) approach. The final results show that most students have real problems in dealing with transitions.