PART A: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale of the study
Over the past two decades, the teaching and learning English, especially English for
Specific Purposes (ESP) have changed dramatically. If in the 1990's, ESP was taught in
some universities in Vietnam, now it becomes a compulsory subject in almost every
universities and colleges that follow the curriculum established by the Ministry of
Education and Training (MOET). The ESP course provides students with background
knowledge and vocabulary of specialist fields, therefore it helps them greatly in future
careers. Being aware of the major role of ESP, teachers of English at Trade Union
University (TUU) have always attempted to improve the teaching and learning of ESP at
their college. However, there remain some difficulties as follows:
At TUU, English is taught in totally five semesters of which three are for General English
(GE) and two semesters are for ESP. GE accounts for 135 credit periods and ESP is taught
in 90 credit periods. In order to attend ESP course, students are required to complete GE
levels. The basic English course with the main teaching and learning materials are New
Headway Elementary and New Headway Pre-intermediate. However, in the next stage of
learning, the ESP course book requires learners of upper-intermediate and advanced level.
Therefore, after GE stage, students encounter numerous difficulties in learning in ESP
course as they are supposedly at pre-intermediate level.
English for Business Studies (EBS) is chosen as the main course book of ESP at TUU. The
book was written by Ian MacKenzie and published in 2002 by Cambridge University
Press. The book comprises of 30 units of which 8 units are chosen for ESP course level 1
and another 8 units for ESP course level 2 at TUU. In each unit, there are several sections
covering all the four skills: listening, reading, writing, speaking. Most of the units contain
three parts:
1. An informative reading text giving an overview of a particular topic with various
comprehension and vocabulary exercises and discussion activities.
2. Either listening exercises or shorter authentic reading passage.
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3. An additional case study, role play, discussion activity or writing exercise.
The listening part provides authentic interviews with business people and economists who

book. The study points out how often these lexical cohesive devices appear and how they
affect the text comprehending and vocabulary learning. After examining and analyzing the
collected data, some pedagogical implications will be drawn for both teachers and students
of BE.
3. Aims of the study
The study aims at:
• Figuring out how these lexical cohesive ties are used in BE sample texts of the
course book EBS.
• Providing BE teachers and students with an insight into the use of lexical cohesive
devices and thereby assisting their writing and reading comprehension.
4. Research questions
In order to achieve the objectives of the study, the following questions are raised:
1. What lexical cohesive devices are used in BE texts?
2. What lexical cohesive devices are employed most frequently in BE texts?
3. What are the overall features of BE discourses in terms of lexical cohesion?
5. Methods of the study
The study uses description, analysis and statistics research methods to achieve the research
objectives. The data for the research analysis are collected from six sample texts chosen in
EBS course book namely: Sample text 1: Types of banks; Sample text 2: Companies;
Sample text 3: Bonds; Sample text 4: Market leaders, challengers and followers; Sample
text 5: Taxation; Sample text 6: The business cycle. All the lexical cohesive items of each
type of lexical cohesion (reiteration and collocation) and its subtypes occur in the six texts
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are identified and calculated. The total number of each type is then converted into
percentage to compare within a text or among the categories and according to the
analytical purposes.
6. Organization of the study
This thesis includes three main parts
The INTRODUCTION part introduces the rationale, the scope, the aims, the
research questions, the research methodology and the design of the study.

cited in Nunan, 1993:6).
David Nunan used the term "text" to refer to "any written record of a communicative
event" and "discourse" to refer to "the interpretation of the communicative event in
context" (Nunan, 1993: 6-7).
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Crystal distinguished text as "a piece of naturally occurring spoken, written, or signed
language identified for purpose of analysis. It is often a language unit with a definable
communicative function, such as a conversation, a poster." (Crystal, 1992:72, cited in Vân,
2006:14), and discourse as "a continuous stretch of language larger than a sentence, often
constituting a coherent unit, such as a sermon, argument or narrative". (Crystal, 1992:25,
cited in Vân, 2006:14)
To some other scholars, text and discourse should refer to the same subject matter and may
be used interchangeably. Halliday and Hasan implied "discourse" when defining "text":
"the word Text is used in linguistics to refer to any passage, spoken or written, of whatever
length that does form a unified whole. A text is a collection of related sentences, with a
single sentence as the limiting case, a semantic unit. This unit is related to a clause or a
sentence by realization, i.e. a text is realized by sentences. The expression of the semantic
unity of the text lies in the cohesion among the sentences of which it is composed."
(Halliday & Hasan,1976:1)
Vân (2006) had seen the problem of distinguishing the two terms. He argued that we really
do not need to distinguish them as "text or discourse is an instance of language in use; this
means that no text occurs without a context , any attempt to distinguish text from
discourse will result in complicating the problem of terminology". Based on the definition
of Halliday and Hasan (1989), he confirmed that "discourse (or text) is a unit of meaning
and functional. It is functional in the sense that it occurs in a context of situation. In terms
of size, a discourse may be realized by a word, a phrase, a clause or a sentence, a
paragraph, a cluster of paragraphs, a book, or even the whole library of books."
For the purpose of this study, the author would like to take the viewpoint of Hoàng Văn
Vân (2006) about text and discourse as the base. Therefore, the words text and discourse
are treated interchangeably.

purposes language is used in a certain context of situation and the linguistic means to carry
out these purposes". The author claims that the speakers or writers are always located at the
main "stage" of communication. The speakers or writers initiate topics, set up
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presuppositions, define "information structures" and make "inference" while the hearers or
readers interpret and draw inferences. He comes to a conclusion that "this is essentially
what makes communication a two-way process by means of language"
Discourse analysis is undoubtedly the study of language in use of both written and spoken
form. It includes examining both form and function of the language. It analyses linguistic
features that characterize the social and cultural factors that help in our perception and
interpretation of different texts. While a discourse analysis of spoken text might focus on
turn-taking, overlapping, adjacency pairs or repair, written text of this kind studies the
topic development and cohesion across sentences.
1.1.5. Discourse Context
1.1.5.1. Context
In discourse analysis, context plays an undeniably important role in the interpretation of
discourse. Therefore its concept should be stated clearly. Halliday (1991) defined context
as "the events that are going on around" when people speak and write. G Yule (1983)
referred context to the "physical context" or the "linguistic context" in which words are
used. Nunan (1993: 7,8) claimed that "context refers to the situation giving rise to the
discourse, and within which the discourse is embedded." He considered that context
included two categories: linguistic and non-linguistic. Linguistic context is any language
surrounding or accompanying the piece of discourse under analysis while non-linguistic
context involves the type of communicative event; the topic; the purpose of the event; the
setting; the participants and the relationships between them and the background knowledge
and assumptions underlying the communicative event.
Context is therefore the environment in which a discourse occurs. Context refers to both
linguistic and non-linguistic aspects. Context can add more general information about the
nature of the text, the period written, fiction or non-fiction, the age and nationality of the
writer. Apparently, in order to make a communicative event become successful, listeners

1.2. Cohesion and coherence
1.2.1. Cohesion
Cohesion plays a very crucial part in the comprehension of written discourses. This can be
explained as comprehension is considered a process that happens within the reader, or at
least, depends on the cohesion and coherence of texts. Cohesion exists within a text and is
not the same as coherence which is something that the reader establishes during the process
of reading. Cohesion creates semantic continuity and therefore it permits coherence and
comprehensibility. The more explicit the cohesive relations are, the easier the text is to
understand.
Tanskanen (1984) refers cohesion to "the grammatical and lexical elements on the surface
of a text which can form connections between parts of the text" (Tanskanen, 1984: 7).
Halliday & Hasan (1976) consider "the concept of cohesion is a semantic one; it refers to
relations of meaning that exist within the text, and that define it as a text". According to
them, cohesion occurs when the interpretation of some element in the discourse is
dependent on that of another. The one presupposes the other. When this happens, a
relation of cohesion is set up, and the two elements, the presupposing and the presupposed,
are thereby at least potentially integrated into a text.
1.2.2. Coherence
Halliday & Hasan (1976) claimed "coherence is the underlying organizer which makes the
words and sentences into a unified discourse that conforms to a consistent world picture.
Coherent text is meaningful, unified and gives the impression of "hanging together"".
In grammar, the sentences that don't fit together in a sensible way, though there's nothing
wrong with the individual sentences, are called ungrammatical. In text and discourse
analysis, a text which combines such ungrammatical sentences is considered incoherent.
One of the key issues in text and discourse analysis is to find exactly what it is that makes
some text hang together while other texts are incoherent.
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Palmer (1983b) wrote: "coherence refers to the rhetorical devices, to ways of writing and
speaking that bring about order and unity and emphasis". Coherence can obtain on the
basis of relevance, the co-operative principle, the common shared background knowledge

text producer (the speaker or writer) and the text receiver (the hearer or reader).
1.3.2. Classification
Cohesion is one of the text properties that contributes to the organization of discourse. The
term refers to the connectedness of the surface elements in the text. The concept of
cohesion is a semantic one; it refers to relations of meaning that exist within the text, and
that define it as a text. Cohesion occurs when interpretation of some element in the
discourse is dependent on that of another. Cohesion is part of a system of language. The
potential for cohesion lies in the systematic resources of reference, ellipsis, and so on that
is built into the language itself. Cohesion is partly expressed through the grammar and
partly through vocabulary. We can refer them therefore to grammatical cohesion and
lexical cohesion (Halliday and Hasan, 1976).
Halliday and Hasan (1976) identified five types of cohesion: reference cohesion,
substitution cohesion, ellipsis cohesion, conjunctive cohesion, and lexical cohesion. The
first four types fall under the category of grammatical cohesion. Lexical cohesion on the
other hand refers to relations between any lexical item and some previously occurring
lexical item in the text, quite independently of the grammatical category of the items in
question. The five types of cohesion are explained below:
1.3.2.1. Referential Cohesion
Halliday (1994) states "a participant or circumstantial element introduced at one place in
the text can be taken as a reference point for something that follows. In the simplest case
this means that the same thing comes again But it may also mean that it serves as a basis
for comparison" (Halliday, 1994: 309)
Thompson gives a very explicit explanation of reference, he wrote: "reference is the set of
grammatical resources which allow the speaker to indicate whether something is repeated
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from somewhere else in the text or whether it is has not yet appeared in the text"
(Thompson, 1996: 148).
There are two main types of reference, they are anaphoric reference and cataphoric
reference. While cataphoric reference points the reader or listener forward, i.e. it draws us
further into the text in order to identify the elements to which the reference items refer,

The last type of cohesion according to Halliday and Hasan’s (1976) classification is lexical
cohesion. Despite reference, substitution, and ellipsis which are associated with syntactic
elements, lexical cohesion has nothing to do with syntactic relations. Therefore it is a open-
ended and the most difficult cohesive type to define which is vocabulary-driven and based
on lexical relations. Halliday and Hasan divided lexical into two main catergories:
reiteration and collocation.
1.3.2.5.1. Reiteration
Reiteration is a phenomenon when one lexical item refers back to another, to which it is
related by having a common referent. Reiteration is a form of lexical cohesion which
comprises of the repetition of a lexical item to refer back to a lexical item and number of
things in between as the use of synonym, near-synonym, or superordinate. (Halliday &
Hasan, 1976: 278)
From the above notion we can infer that reiteration consists of repetition, synonym,
antonym, superordinate. The following examples will illustrate each type of reiteration.
- Repetition (of a phrase or word)
In most financial centres, there are also branches of lots of foreign banks, largely
doing Eurocurrency business. A Eurocurrency is any currency held outside its
country of origin. The first significant Eurocurrency market was for US dollars in
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Europe, but the name is now used for foreign currencies held anywhere in the
world (e.g. yen in the US, euros in Japan).
(EBS - Stocks and shares, p.91)
- Synonymy (words which have similar meanings, e.g. well-known, famous)
This act was repealed in 1999. The Japanese equivalent was abolished the
previous year, and the banking industry in Britain was also deregulated in the
1990s
(EBS - Banking, p.85)
- Antonym (the relation of opposite meaning e.g. high, low, day, night)
To reduce the money supply, they sell these bills to commercial banks, and
withdraw the cash received from circulation; to increase the money supply the buy

six texts studied in this thesis are extracted from six units of the course book EBS which
are included in the ESP course level 2, the course designed for third year students at TUU.
This course book was chosen as the main material for teaching and learning ESP of almost
all the faculties at TUU. Most of the units in the course book contain three components:
1. An informative reading text giving an overview of a particular topic
2. Either listening exercises or shorter authentic reading passage.
3. An additional case study, role play, discussion activity or writing exercise.
The six sample texts are taken from the first part of each unit. They aim at
introducing key business and economic concepts, including a large amount of relevant
economic terms. They are chosen to be examined because of having high frequent
occurrence of lexical cohesive ties. The following table presents the origin of each sample
text:
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Text Unit
Sample text 1: Types of bank Unit 14: Banking
Sample text 2: Companies Unit 15: Stock and shares
Sample text 3: Bonds Unit 16: Bonds
Sample text 4: Market leaders, challengers
and followers
Unit 18: Market structure and competition
Sample text 5: Taxation (and how to avoid
it!)
Unit 23: Central banking, money and
taxation
Sample text 6: The business cycle Unit 25: The business cycle
Table 1: BE texts chosen for analysis
The examination of all cohesive ties appeared in the six texts is implemented in the
following steps: first, each type of cohesive devices is taken into consideration, in
particular, the author search for every lexical item related to the examined device in all the
texts, then calculate them and sum up. The absolute count of each category is then

2.2. Analysis of lexical cohesive devices in BE reading texts
2.2.1. Reiteration
Reiteration is termed by Halliday and Hasan (1976) and explained as "the repetition of a
lexical item, or the occurrence of a synonym of some kind, in the context of reference; that
is, where the two occurrences have the same referent. Typically, therefore, a reiterated
lexical item is accompanied by a referent item, usually 'the' or a demonstrative" (Halliday
& Hasan, 1976: 319). The role of a referent is claimed to be absolutely important in
creating the cohesive force in discourses. Obviously, a reiterated item followed by a
referent item is therefore cohesive by reference as in the following example:
There is a boy climbing that tree
The boy's going to fall if he doesn't take care. (repetition)
The lad's going to fall if he doesn't take care. (synonym)
The child's going to fall if he doesn't take care. (superordinate)
2.2.1.1. Repetition
Repetition refers to the same lexical item with the same meaning occurring more than once
in the same discourse. Repetition is categorized by Hoey (1991) into simple repetition and
complex repetition.
2.2.1.1.1. Simple repetition
Simple repetition is when a lexical item that has occurred previously is now repeated
exactly or without great changes in grammatical paradigm. For example, "is lent" is the
simple repetition of "lends". Here are some more examples:
Examples in text 3:
The British and American central banks also sell and buy short-term (three month)
Treasury Bills as a way of regulating the money supply. To reduce the money
supply, they sell these bills to commercial banks, and withdraw the cash received
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from circulation; to increase the money supply the buy them back, paying with
newly created money which is put into circulation in this way.
In the above example, the verbs sell and buy in the second example are repeated exactly
with their presupposed items, the noun phrase money supply is repeated twice without any

in London or Nasdaq in New York. Very successful businesses can apply to be
quoted or listed (i.e. to have their shares traded) on major stock exchanges.
Publicly quoted companies have to fulfill a large number of requirements,
including sending their shareholders an independently-audited report every year,
containing the year's trading results and a statement of their financial position.
Since text 2 discusses the issuing of stocks and shares, and companies are attached to the
activities of issuing stocks and shares, the repetition of the word company in the paragraph
and the text shows the importance of this word in explaining the main idea of the text.
2.2.1.1.2. Complex repetition
Complex repetition, as Hoey (1991) defined, is when two lexical items share a lexical
morpheme but are not entirely identical or when they are identical but they have different
grammatical functions. Therefore, it can be inferred that all the lexical items repeated in
different parts of speech in a discourse can be seen as the case of complex repetition. For
example:
tax (v) - tax (n) - taxable (adj)
liquid (adj) - liquidation (n)
Example in text 6:
Investment is closely linked to consumption, and only takes place where demand
and output are growing. Consequently, as soon as demand stops growing at the
same rate, even at a very high level, investment will drop, probably leading to a
downturn. Another theory is that sooner or later during every period of economic
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growth- when demand is strong, and prices can easily be put up, and profits are
increasing - employees will begin to demand higher wages or salaries. As a result,
employers will either reduce investment, or start to lay off workers, and
downswing will begin.
The word demand in the above example is repeated twice and it functions as a noun, it is
also considered as simple repetition. However, when it is repeated the third time, it is not a
noun anymore, but a verb. This repetition is then a complex repetition. Here are some more
examples of complex repetition in text 1:

There are 44 repeated items in text 2 accounts for 39.6% of the text's cohesive items in
which 36.9% is simple repetition and only 2.7% is complex one. Text 4 has totally 40
repeated items equal to 43% with 38.7% is simple repetition and 4.3% complex repetition.
In text 6, repetition appears with the frequency of 45 lexical items account for 42% of
which 33.6% is simple and 8.4% is complex.
The result of the study also reveals that the most common cases of simple repetition are
nouns and noun phrases. Apart from these, verbs and adjectives repetition also contribute a
part in making the text coherent.
2.2.1.2. Synonyms and near synonyms
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To avoid unnecessary repetition, text producers usually employ synonyms and near
synonyms in written discourses. The use of synonyms and near synonyms is very frequent
in English. Often this device is used by native speakers more frequently than non-native
speakers, this is due to the fact that in order to produce and employ synonyms correctly
and smoothly, the producers must be proficient in using English (i.e. have very good
background knowledge of English).
Vân (2006) referred synonymy to "the relation between different words bearing the same
meaning or nearly the same meaning for a particular person, object, process or quality".
With this definition, he does not distinguish the two kinds of synonym but considers them
as having identical meaning or similar meaning. The followings are some more examples
taken from BE texts,
Examples in text 1:
This act was repealed in 1999. The Japanese equivalent was abolished the previous
year, and the banking industry in Britain was also deregulated in the 1990s, and
financial conglomerates now combine the services previously offered by banks,
stockbrokers, and insurance companies.
Example in text 2:
Most companies begin as private limited companies. Their owners have to put up
the capital themselves, or borrow from friends or a bank, perhaps a bank
specializing in venture capital. The founders have to write a Memorandum of

The majority of synonyms found in the six BE texts are nouns and verbs. This can be
explained as texts in the course book EBS focus on giving business and economic concepts
and introducing key economic terms. As a result, nouns and verbs are used synonymously
to help create clarity, precision and unambiguity of a text.
2.2.1.3. Antonymy
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