Enhancing Students’ Use of Cohesive Devices: Impacts of PowerPoint Presentations on EFL Academic Writing

Abstract

This study aims to explore the impacts of preparing and presenting PowerPoint slides in EFL settings on the improvement of cohesive devices in EFL setting. In order to examine the effects of PowerPoint presentations on students' use of cohesive devices, sixty two BA students from University of Isfahan were randomly assigned into 2 groups .The course was"advanced writing". Each session lasted 90 minutes. One group received the traditional textbook teaching style whereas the other group received the power points of the same materials during ten sessions. Comparing the performance of two groups based on use of cohesive devices, it became evident that students in power point group performed better than students in traditional teaching style. (Frequency use of cohesive devices in power point group is 47.79 and the frequency use of cohesive devices in traditional teaching style is 27.79). Also results indicated that preparing and presenting power point slides had a significant effect on students writing achievement and their appropriate use of cohesive devices [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]