Grammatical Cohesion Devices in The Hortatory Exposition Texts of The Grafindo Bahasa Inggris Textbook Used at SMA N 1 Medan

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the types and frequency of grammatical cohesion devices realized in the hortatory exposition texts of the Grafindo Bahasa Inggris textbook for Grade XII used at SMAN 1 Medan, and to analyze the reason behind their usage. The data consist of clauses containing grammatical cohesion devices (reference, substitution, ellipsis, and conjunction) drawn from eight hortatory exposition texts. The source of data is Chapter 4 of the Grafindo Bahasa Inggris textbook, 2024 edition for Grade XII. This study employed a qualitative descriptive research design. The technique of data collection is documentary analysis following Bowen (2009), in which the texts were systematically selected, appraised, and reviewed clause by clause. The instruments of data collection are a Table Checklist adapted from Halliday and Matthiessen (2014) for RQ1 and a Functional Context Matrix for RQ2. Two complementary techniques of data analysis were applied: Miles, Huberman, and Saldaña's (2014) Interactive Model for RQ1 and Bingham's (2023) Five-Phase Process for RQ2. The results show that 274 total instances of grammatical cohesion devices were identified. Reference is the most dominant device with 149 instances (54.4%), followed by conjunction with 124 instances (45.2%), substitution with 1 instance (0.4%), and ellipsis with 0 instances (0%). Functionally, The Reason behind reference dominance is motivated by participant tracking, conjunction by logical scaffolding, substitution by grammatical economy, and ellipsis absence by the written monologic mode of the texts.