A Corpus-based Study Of Linking Adverbials In Chinese High School Students' Writings

Linking adverbials(LAs),as discourse markers,are regarded as crucial tools in English writing.They can organize writing to make it coherent and cohesive;They enable writers to make readers follow what has been talked about and to help readers anticipate what the author is going to express.If used appropriately,LAs can improve the quality of writing.However,many studies have revealed that Chinese high school students have great difficulties in using LAs.Thus,it's important to do research on LAs.Based on corpus,the study strives to examine(1)Compared with native English speakers,what characterizes Chinese high school students in their use of LAs in terms of frequency distribution?(2)Compared with native speakers,what characterizes Chinese high school students in their use of LAs in terms of function?To answer the research questions,adopting the methodology of contrastive interlanguage analysis and corpus-based approach,this study examines ST2(a sub-corpus of the Chinese Learners' English Corpus)with BNC(British National Corpus)as reference.The study first retrieves all the researched LAs to find the features of Chinese high school students in their use of LAs in terms of the frequency distribution;And then selecting some specific LAs and extracting 300 pieces of examples of each one from the total occurrences in ST2 and BNC,this study examines the features of Chinese high school students in their use of LAs in terms of function.The major findings of this study are as follows:Firstly,compared with native speakers,the features of Chinese high school students in their use of LAs in terms of frequency distribution are as follows:(1)Chinese high school students tend to overuse LAs on the whole;(2)In semantic categories,they use more Enumeration/Addition LAs and Result/Inference LAs than native speakers and use less Summation LAs,Apposition LAs,Transition LAs,Contrast/Concession LAs and Corroboration LAs than native speakers;(3)They display different preferences for the top 10 high-frequency LAs.(4)Among the 96 LAs examined in this study,they overuse 12 of them(so,too,first,second,at first,then(Enumeration/Addition),again,for example,besides,then(Result/Inference),rather,at last)and underuse 11 of them(eventually,in particular,indeed,apparently,thus,therefore,however,for instance,similarly,yet,moreover).Secondly,compared with native speakers,the features of Chinese high school students in their use of LAs in terms of function are as follows:On one hand,Chinese high school students,on the whole,are congruent with native speakers.(1)they both use Enumeration/Addition LAs to add extra information and make claims;(2)they both use Result/Inference LAs to mark results or consequences;(3)they both use Contrast/Concession LAs to make claims,express contrast or concession,express contrast between two aspects and add extra information;(4)they both use Corroboration LAs to indicate congruity and certainty of the previous argument.On the other hand,they fail to master some functions of LAs and misuse some LAs.(1)they hardly use Result/Inference LAs to fulfill linking function without any content;(2)they hardly use Contrast/Concession LAs to indicate alternative;(3)they hardly use Enumeration/Addition LAs in chains to make claims;(4)they hardly use Corroboration LAs to stress the following argument and state the prior argument is not completely true;(5)they misuse Contrast/Concession LAs in marking results or consequences.Based on the major findings,some pedagogical implications are obtained.From the perspective of teachers,teachers should teach LAs within authentic contexts instead of purely teaching individual LAs.In this way,students will be able to acquire the specific language patterns,internalize the language conventions of English.From the perspective of students,Chinese high school students should naturally acquire LAs.In the way of the natural acquisition,students will be much easier to acquire the English language conventions,master semantic meanings and functions of LAs and avoid L1 influence as much as possible.