The Cohesive and Coherent Theory of Text and English Major Writing Teaching

A well-written text exhibits two essential features: cohesion and coherence.Halliday and Hasan stated that cohesion is an indispensable condition for the creation of a coherent English text.However,cohesion has been seriously neglected in English Major's writing teaching in China.As a result,a number of cohesive and coherent weaknesses exist in English major's compositions,such as lack of an outstanding theme,looseness of structure,unclear and illogical presentation of ideas,lack of smooth organization and expression of ideas.In English Majors' writing teaching,cohesion should draw much attention of teachers.Teachers should systematically introduce cohesive and coherent knowledge to students,guide them to write and then comment their compositions in different ways so that students can eventually express themselves accurately and appropriately and clearly.