Error Analysis Of Using Logical Connectors To Link Clauses By Students In Senior High Schools

Recently,many researchers have studied the use of logical connectors and problems existing in the writings of EFL learners based in the ?discourse cohesion' theory.This study attempts to explore the misused logical connectors in high school students' writings from the perspective of clause construction.Three questions are proposed in this study:(1)What is the overall situation of logical connectors used by senior high school students' to link clauses in English writings?(2)What is the overall situation of logical connectors misused by senior high school students' to link clauses in English writings?(3)What reasons for the logical connectors misused by senior high school students' to link clauses in English writings? 100 students and 5 English teachers from a middle school in Changsha participated in this study.Based on the cohesion theory from Haliday &Hansan,this study divided sample writings into clauses and marked the logical connectors and misused logical connectors among clauses.Through data analysis of SPSS,the study found that the number of logical connectors used in clause construction is large,but the type was single,and the proportion of misused logical connectors was large,so the quality of logical connectors in senior high school students' writings was not high.After analysis of writing samples,there are five major categories of incorrect use of logical connectors.Finally,through the investigation of students and interviews with teachers,the study summarizes the internal and external reasons for the misused logical connectors.This study finds that students consciously use logical connectors to achieve discourse cohesion in senior high school students' English writings.It also discovered that the use of logical connectors is broad but imbalance.The study also summarized several types of misused logical connectors: the abuse of logical connectors,the absence of logical connectors,the misuse of logical connectors,the repetition of logical connectors and lack of richness of logical connectors.Finally,the study analyzed the main reasons for students' incorrect use of logical connectors,including negative transfer of mother tongue,differences between Chinese and western thought pattern,students' learning habits,improper teaching methods of English writing and logical connectors.According to the study result,the author puts forward some suggestions on teaching English writing in high schools: teachers should pay attention to cultivating students' contrastive awareness of Chinese-English thinking and change the previous Translation Teaching Method to guide students to write in the context instead of providing model simply;adopting Process Writing Method to cultivating students' revising habit after writing also is a good choice.While teaching logical connectors,the context should not be separated.The meaning and function of logical connectors should be strengthened by contrastive teaching.