Examining L2 studentsʼ development of global cohesion and its relationship with their argumentative essay quality

Abstract Cohesion is vital for connecting messages in writing, but there has been a dearth of studies focusing on the development of cohesion. Taking a Complex Dynamic Systems Theory (CDST) perspective, this longitudinal case study investigated the development of L2 learnersʼ use of global cohesion and its relationship with their argumentative writing quality over an academic year. Four English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) learners at a university in Western China were invited to participate in this study and requested to write 31 argumentative essays each over an academic year from March 2019 to January 2020. The resampling and Monte Carlo simulations were utilized to examine the characteristics demonstrated in the development path of and the interaction between global cohesion devices as well as the relationship between global cohesion and the text quality of argumentative essays. Statistical results showed inter- and intra-individual variability in the learnersʼ development of global cohesion devices and their interactions, as well as the relationship between global cohesion and L2 writing quality. The findings suggest that the studentsʼ development of global cohesion in argumentative writing is a slow process and necessitates teaching interventions.