AN ANALYSIS OF COHESIVE DEVICES IN THE REPORT TEXTS ON CULTURAL VALUES WRITTEN BY THE SIXTH SEMESTER ENGLISH DEPARTMENT STUDENTS

This qualitative study examines the use of cohesive devices in the report writing of students in the English department. The study examines the use of grammatical and lexical cohesive devices in relation to students’ ability to express cultural values in their reports. The research used a comprehensive approach that included observation during students’ field study, interviews, and content analysis to gain deeper insights into language use and the impact of authentic activities on environmental and cultural issues prior to report writing. The results show that reference and conjunction are the main grammatical cohesive devices, while ellipsis and substitution are less frequently used. Among lexical cohesive devices, repetition is the most common, with antonyms, synonyms, hyponyms and meronyms used less frequently. The study highlights the role of cohesive devices in helping English students convey cultural values in their reports through the integration of field study and authentic experiences. This study also suggests that incorporating real-world applications and promoting deeper learning experiences beyond the classroom is in line with the principles of independent learning ‘Merdeka Belajar Kampus Merdeka’ (MBKM), that is expected to positively enhance the students’ language development and report writing competence.