Chinese EFL Learners' Use of Conjunctions in English and Chinese Argumentative Writing

Abstract

The primary aim of this thesis is to examine how Chinese EFL learners use English and Chinese conjunctions differently in their argumentative writing. Thirty-nine undergraduates voluntarily participate in the study, so thirty-nine English argumentative writings and thirty nine Chinese argumentative writings are collected. Based on the data collected, quantitative and qualitative approaches are adopted to analyze the following aspects: frequency of semantic-type of conjunctions in English and Chinese, general characteristics of the English conjunctions used which include the analysis of sentence-initial position and the inappropriate uses of conjunctions. Finally, there is the analysis of some similarities and differences between the higher and lower learner groups in the use of English onjunctions. First of all, differences in the use of conjunctions between the English and Chinese argumentative writing are analyzed in this thesis. It is found that the frequency of English conjunctions ranks in the order of listing, resultative, contrastive, summative, transitional, appositive and inferential while in Chinese, ranking order is contrastive, listing, resultative, summative, appositive, transitional, and no inferential was found. In addition, Chinese students lack the awareness of using conjunctions in a flexible position because of their heavy dependence on the sentence-initial position. Another finding is the inappropriate uses of English conjunctions in students writings including redundant use, misuse, mixed use and sentence fragments introduced by conjunctions. Finally, quantitative analysis shows that though there is no apparent increase or decrease in the use of the seven kinds of semantic categories in English, wider varieties of conjunctions are found in the higher level group. The possible explanation is that they try to use more conjunctions to disguise their relatively lower level in English argumentative writing. This thesis concludes with some pedagogical implications and limitations.