| The purpose of this study was to identify and examine in what different ways native speakers of Korean (ESL) and native speakers of English write English argumentative compositions regarding error types, textual organization, and cohesion device. This study involved 46 American students and 46 Korean students who were enrolled in Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. Basic descriptive statistics were used to calculate the percentages of certain error types, use of organizational types, and cohesion devices made in the subjects' written texts. A statistical device, regression analysis, was run to detect any relation between the subjects' language backgrounds (nationality, educational level, major, and the years of higher education) and their frequencies of making error types, preference of using cohesive devices, and textual organization.; The finding from this study suggest that, in general terms, the Korean ESL students wrote shorter essays and showed more errors, more textual organization patterns, and less use of cohesion devices. However, a similarity between the two groups was also found. Both groups of students basically preferred the three-unit organizational structure (introduction-body-conclusion), and they also favored the use of subcategories of each organization type such as claim, justification, and conclusion.; The Korean graduate students made a few more errors than undergraduates, and English or TESOL major students had more than the students majoring in other subjects. For the American students, graduates and English or TESOL majors made more errors. The Korean students made article errors most often, and the American students' errors were, to a lesser degree, with preposition and article errors. The result of regression analysis showed only the nationality variable significantly accounted for essay length and total errors at p < 0.01 level.; In terms of the cohesion devices, both Korean and American students used conjunctions and logical connectives most often in their essays.; With the results of this study, some pedagogical suggestions for both the ESL/EFL students and the teaching of effective argumentative writings to ESL/EFL students have been made. Improvements for ESL/EFL curriculum development have also been suggested. |
