An Empirical Study On The Use Of The Logical Connectors In TEM-8 Argumentative Writing

This thesis conducts an empirical study on the use of the logical connectors in TEM-8 argumentative writing. In recent years, argumentative writings have played an indispensable role in the Test for English Majors Band 8 (TEM-8). Cohesion, mainly achieved by the use of cohesive devices, has been regarded as an important criterion for students' writing abilities and learners' language proficiency. And logical connector, as a major component of the cohesive devices, has been attached great importance among second language researchers. From the previous studies, many researchers have tried to focus on the use of logical connectors, but few researchers in China did research into the use of logical connectors in TEM-8 argumentative writings.Based on Halliday's cohesion theory, this thesis is to explore the use of logical connectors in 140 TEM-8 argumentative writings, which aims to give responses to these questions:(1) What are the general features of the logical connectors between the high-score group and the low-score group? (2) What are the specific features of each type of the logical connectors between the high-score group and low-score group? (3) What is the relation between the error rates caused by the misuse of the logical connectors and students' grades in the two groups?The 140 sample writings were chosen from Corpus of English Writing (CEW), including all argumentative writings from 2005 to 2007, and it was collected and tagged by Shanghai International Studies University. For the purpose of this study, we chose a low-score group and a high-score group to make comparison. With the help of CEW, Antconc3.2.4 and SPSS 17.0, the findings show that:English majors use additive, causal and adversative logical connectors most frequently, while use the temporal logical connectors least in their writings, which is concluded from the general features of the use of logical connectors; in the high-score and low-score groups, all students have used the additive logical connectors:and, thus; causal logical connectors:because, so, therefore, because of, adversative logical connectors:but, however and temporal logical connectors:secondly. As for the third question, there is no significant relation between the students'grades and the misuse rates of the logical connectors in the high-score and low-score groups.In view of the important role of the logical connectors in argumentative writings, it is necessary for English teachers to cultivate students'awareness of logical connectors in discourse level through practical teaching in class. For the learners, they should be encouraged to enhance their writing qualities by a proper use of logical connectors. But it is difficult to mark some logical connectors according to the specific contexts correctly, so future researches are expected based on this study.