A Study On The Use Of Causal Markers By Chinese Students

This thesis investigates the use of causal markers in Chinese college students’ argumentativecompositions based on corpora. Under the framework of Relevance Theory, this study isconducted on the basis of the methodology of contrastive analysis with the help of AntConc3.2.1concordance software.The main procedure of this study consists of two parts: a comparison on the use of causalmarkers between English majors and non-English majors; and a comparison between Chinesecollege students (both English majors and non-English majors are included) and native collegestudents.This thesis find that (1) There exist differences and similarity in the use of causal markersbetween English majors and non-English majors. The differences lie in the discordance of thevarieties and the specific features of some of the causal markers. And the similarity is concernedwith the high frequency of so and because in both groups.(2) Chinese college students use almostthe same kinds of causal markers as native college students, showing that their awareness of beingrelevant in the process of writing.(3) There are deficiencies in the use of causal markers to achieverelevance by Chinese college students. For one thing, they tend to use more causal markers, which,impedes the readers’ comprehension of the essays. For another, they misuse some causal markersin position and function, which doubtlessly affect the relevance effects of the context.As regards to these findings, this thesis suggests that three reasons might cause the problemsmentioned:(1) negative transfer of the language,(2) limited exposure to the target language, and (3)lack of stylistic awareness.In light of these problems, this thesis provides some suggestions for the teaching of the correctuse of causal markers so as to improve the writing competence of Chinese students.