RT Journal Article SR Electronic(1) A1 Zanardi, Nicoletta YR 1994 T1 Cohesion in Italian adult learners’ and native speakers’ compositions: A comparison JF Australian Review of Applied Linguistics VO 17 IS 2 SP 22 OP 50 DO https://doi.org/10.1075/aral.17.2.02zan PB John Benjamins SN 0155-0640, AB This paper presents data from a cross-sectional study of the use of cohesion in Italian texts written by L2 adult learners and by native speakers. Twenty-six free compositions were analysed for cohesion: eighteen by anglophone learners of Italian attending first, second, third and fourth year of Italian at Sydney University, and eight by native speakers of Italian divided in two groups: one of students, who have either done their schooling in Italy or recently arrived in Australia, the other of Italian professionals living in Sydney. More specifically, cohesion was analysed for the three categories of reference, conjunction and lexical cohesion. The objective of the study is twofold: a) to compare learners and native speakers in their use of cohesion, and b) to observe the developmental sequences in the use of cohesion in the six different groups. Examples from the texts are given and a tentative interpretation of the data is presented., UL https://www.jbe-platform.com/content/journals/10.1075/aral.17.2.02zan