概念迁移视角下英语专业四级写作中连接词的使用偏误分析-以“成都文理学院”为例

AnAnalysisoftheUseofConnectorsinTEM-4WritingfromthePerspectiveofConceptualTransfer—TakingChengduCollegeofArtsandSciencesasanExample概念迁移视角下英语专业四级写作中连接词的使用偏误分析—以“成都文理学院”为例概念迁移视角下英语专业四级写作中连接词的使用偏误分析—以“成都文理学院”为例摘要：连接词是指把两个或两个以上的词语、分句以及句子、段落连接起来，表示一定意义关系的词或词组。连接词作为重要的语篇衔接手段，在二语习得领域受到越来越多的关注。国内外学者对连接词的研究主要集中于表层语言现象，大多数研究都没能从认知视角解读连接词的习得。1998年，Pavlenko和Jarvis提出概念迁移假说后，连接词的研究方向便从表层语言现象转移到了概念迁移。基于“英语学习概念迁移理论框架”，本文试图对中国英语学习者写作中连接词误用现象进行系统研究，探索连接词误用与概念迁移的关系,并且试图回答以下二个研究问题:(1)连接词在学生作文中的使用情况及偏误如何分类？（2）怎样从概念迁移的角度解释造成连接词偏误的深层原因？本文主要对民办院校英语专业学生在英语专业四级写作中连接词的使用进行分析研究。作者随机抽取成都文理学院英语专业40名学生在英语专业四级模拟测试中的作文作为样本，利用分析文本和问卷调查研究英语专业大学生使用连接词的情况,最后使用SPSS20.0对数据进行分析。结果发现：连接词的使用频率中，添加类连接词所占比例为41.26%最高，其次为因果类连接词(24.21%)和时间类连接词（20.18%），转折类连接词（14.35%）的使用频率最低。四类连接词的使用正确率中，时间类连接词（88.89%）及转折类连接词（81.25%）的正确率较高。通过相关性检验得知，使用连接词的数量和写作水平之间没有绝对的相关关系。基于概念迁移理论，本研究发现连接词的偏误的产生原因在于在二语产出中错误地调动了基于一语的概念，错误地建构了共享概念，错误地建构了基于二语的概念。本研究对连接词的研究和教学有一定理论及实际意义：一方面，有助于帮助学习者更好地利用正迁移，减少负迁移，掌握连接词的使用；另一方面，本文对连接词的习得和教学提出的建议对二语写作教学有一定实际意义。关键词：概念迁移；专四写作；连接词使用偏误；偏误分析AnAnalysisoftheUseofConnectorsinTEM-4WritingfromthePerspectiveofConceptualTransferTakingChengduCollegeofArtsandSciencesasanExampleAbstract:Connectorreferstoawordoraphrasethatlinkstwosinglewords,phrasesorclausestogether.Duetoitsgreatcontributiontodiscoursecohesion,connectorhasattractedmoreandmoreattentioninthefieldofSLA.Scholarsathomeandabroadanalyzeconnectorsfocusonthelanguagesurfacephenomenonandmostofthemfailtoprobeintothecognitiveprocessofthelearners.ThehypothesisofconceptualtransferwhichbeproposedbyPavlenkoandJarvis(1998)probesintolanguagetransferfromtheperspectiveofconcepts.Basedon“EnglishlearningConceptualTransferTheoreticalframework”,thisthesisintendstoidentifyconnectorerrorsandexploretheunderlyingcausesofconceptualtransferintheconnectorerrorsinordertoanswerthetworesearchquestions:(1)Whatistheclassificationofconnectorerrorsinthosecompositions?(2)Whataretheunderlyingcausesofconnectorerrorsfromtheperspectiveofconceptualtransfer?Theauthorrandomlysampledthecompositionsof40EnglishmajorsinChengduUniversityofArtsandSciences,andthentheproficiencyofEnglishmajors’useofconnectorsandtheirlearningstrategiesareexaminedquantitativelybymeansofthesamplesandquestionnaire.FinallythestatisticsareanalyzedthroughSPSS20.0.Thestudydrawsthefollowingconclusions:Thefrequencyofadditiveconnectorsishigher(41.26%)andthatofcausalwords,temporalconnectorsandadversativeconnectorsislower.Bycontrastingthefourcategories’correctness,itisfoundthatratiosoftemporalconnectors(88.89%)andadversatives(81.25%)arehigher.Moreover,moreconnectorsusedinwritingdonotnecessarilyindicatebetterwritingskills.Basedonthetheoryofconceptualtransfer,theunderlyingcausesofconnectorerrorscanbesummarizedasthemis-mobilizationofL1-basedconceptsintheproductionofL2,mis-constructionofsharedconceptsandmis-constructionofL2-basedconcepts.Thisstudymayshedlightonconnectorstudyandconceptualtransferstudy.Foronething,ithelpsstudentstotakeadvantageofpositivetransferandavoidnegativetransferduringtheprocessofconnectorlearning.Foranother,thesuggestionsofthispaperonthelearningandteachingofconnectorshavesomepracticalsignificanceforL2writingteaching.KeyWords:conceptualtransfer;TEM-4writing;misuseofconnectors;erroranalysisContentsIntroduction 1ChapterⅠLiteratureReview 31.1Definitionandclassificationofconnectors 31.2ThesimilaritiesanddifferencesofconnectorsinChineseandEnglish 51.2.1Similarities 51.2.2Differences 61.3Previousstudiesonconnectors 81.3.1Previousstudiesontheapplicationofconnectorsinwriting 81.3.2PreviousstudiesonconnectorsfromtheperspectiveofL1transfer 9ChapterⅡTheoreticalFramework 112.1Historicaldevelopmentoflanguagetransfertheories 112.2Conceptualtransferhypothesis 132.3ConceptualtransfertheoreticalframeworkinEnglishlearning 14ChapterⅢResearchDesign 173.1ResearchQuestions 173.2Participants 173.3Instruments 173.4Datacollection 173.5Theproceduresofdataanalysis 18ChapterⅣDataAnalysisandDiscussion 204.1Analysisofthequestionnaire 204.2Useofconnectorsanalysis 264.2.1Frequencyofoverallconnectoruseinwritings 274.2.2Thecorrelationbetweenconnectorsandwritings 274.2.3Frequencyanderrorrateofconnectorsusedinsamples. 284.3Detaileddataandanalysisofconnectorerrors 294.4Underlyingcausesoftheerrorsfromtheperspectiveofconceptualtransfer 324.4.1Mis-mobilizationofL1-basedconceptsinL2output 334.4.2Mis-constructionofL2-basedconcepts 344.4.3Mis-constructionofsharedconcepts 354.5Summary 35Conclusion 37Bibliography 40Appendix1Questionnaire 43Appendix2Writingtopicforsubjects 46Appendix3Scoreandthenumberofconnectorsinwritings 47IntroductionResearchbackgroundWhenlanguagelearnerslearnasecondlanguage,theinfluenceofmotherlanguageonthesecondlanguageacquisitionprovestobesignificant.Accordingly,inthepastdecades,manyresearcheshavepayattentiontothephenomenonofcross-languageinfluenceinsecondlanguageacquisitionresearches.Fromthe1950s,investigatorsstarttoworkontheresearchesofL1transferinSLA.Transferisapsychologicaltermwhichmeanstheinfluenceofaperson’sacquiredknowledgeorexperienceontheacquisitionofthenewknowledgeorexperience.WhenitcomestoSLA,“languagetransferreferstotheinfluenceofanyotherrequiredlanguageontheacquisitionofthetargetlanguage(Odlin,1989,2005).”Asthestudyboundaryoflanguagetransferresearchesisexpanding,thequantityofthosestudiesisimprovingaswell.Amongthem,adeepercomprehensiononthenatureoflanguagetransferhasbeendiscoveredrecentlybyChineseresearchers(LiuYongbingandZhangHuiping,2013).AccordingtoOdlin,transfermayoccurinalllinguisticsubsystems(Odlin,1989),suchasphonology,lexis,syntax,andsoon,andtherearefewresearchesfocusingontransferatthediscourselevel.Inaddition,Halliday&Hason(1976)haveproposedinthebookCohesioninEnglishthatcohesionandcoherenceareimportantindiscourseandthatconnectorisoneofthefivesignificantdevicestoachievecoherenceinanytext.Besides,intheresearchesofSLA,thecorrectuseofconnectorsiscloselyrelatedtolearner’swritingquality(Witte&Fsigely,1981;Deng,2006).Butmostofthelearnerscannotuseconnectorscorrectly,bycausingoveruse,underuse,misuseoromissionofconnectors(Grander&Tyson,1996;Lin,2004).AndsomeresearchersstatedthatitmaybecausedbyL1transfer(Granger&Tyson,1996;Al-kreshen,2011;Mohan&Lo,2013;Zuffereyetal.,2015),whilethisisaproposalthatneedsmoreempiricalstudiestoprove.Pavlenko(2008)hasputforwardthatwritingisoneofthebestdatatoanalyzelanguagetransfer.Therefore,inordertofindouttheunderlyingcausesofconnectorerrorsfromtheperspectiveofL1transfer,thispaperwilltakeTEM-4writingsasdata,basedon“English-learningConceptualTransferTheoreticalframework”(LiuYongbing&ZhangHuiping,2015)tomakeanempiricalstudyonstudents’useofconnectors.Thisthesisaimstoanswerthefollowingtwoquestions:Whatistheclassificationofconnectorerrorsinthosecompositions?Whataretheunderlyingcausesofconnectorerrorsfromtheperspectiveofconceptualtransfer?ResearchpurposeandsignificanceThispaperanalyzestheapplicationofconnectorsinTEM-4writingofEnglishmajorsinChengduUniversityofArtsandSciences.Morespecifically,thepurposeofthisresearchistoexplaintheconceptualtransferphenomenonbyanalyzingthesimilaritiesanddifferencesofconceptsbetweenthetwolanguagesofChineseandEnglish.Inordertoachievetheabovepurpose,theauthorintendstoinquireintotheuseofconnectorsasausefulskillinEnglishwritingamongChinesecollegestudentsandmanagestofindoutwhetherL1caninfluencetheirwrittenEnglishandwhetherL1conceptualtransferoccursintheacquisitionofconnectors.Accordingly,therewillbesomemeasuresbasedonthisresearchtoprovidelearnersandteacherswithhelptominimizethenegativetransferofChineseaswellasimprovestudents’Englishwritingability.Organizationofthethesis Thethesiscanbedividedintosixsections.Thefirstsectionisanintroductionofthestudy,includingthesignificanceoftheresearch,researchbackgroundandthestructureofthestudy.Then,inordertodiscovertheknowledgegapandexplainthekeyconceptsofthisstudy,thesecondsectionofthispaperisliteraturereview.Inthissection,definitionandclassificationofconnectorscanbeseen,andthenthestudiesonthesimilaritiesanddifferencesbetweenChineseandEnglishconnectorswillbeintroduced.Surely,thepreviousstudiesonbothconnectorsandwritingaresummarized.Thethirdsectionisabouttheoreticalframework,includingthedefinitionandeffectsofconceptualtransferandconceptualtransferhypothesis.Thispartlaysatheoreticalfoundationfortheerroranalysisofconnectoruse.Thefourthsectionisaboutresearchdesign,datacollectionanddataanalysis.Thefifthsectionpresentsresultanddiscussion.Thispartwillmainlystatetheresearchresultsaccordingtotheresearchquestions;inaddition,adetailedanalysisoftheresultswillbediscussed.Thesixthsectiondrawsaconclusiononthestudy.Thispartreportsthemainfindingsofthecurrentthesisandputforwardthepedagogicalimplicationsinsecondlanguageteachingandlearning.Atlast,pointingoutthelimitationsofthepresentstudyandsuggestionsforfurtherstudy.ChapterⅠLiteratureReviewInthissection,theauthorfirstintroducesthedefinitionof“connector”anditsclassification.Then,thesimilaritiesanddifferencesofconnectorsinChineseandEnglishwillbepresented.Atlast,theauthorwillsummarizethepreviousstudiesofconnectorsinthefieldofSLA.1.1DefinitionandclassificationofconnectorsConnectors,asanimportantcohesivedevice,contributetothecohesionoftextsbyvirtueoftheirspecificmeanings.Differentconnectorsdemonstratedifferentsemantic,syntacticandstylisticfeatures.Fromtheviewofwordproperty,Englishconnectorsembraceadverbs,conjunctions,phrasesandpronouns(Quirketal.,1985);accordingtoitsfunctions,Englishconnectorscanbepartedintomanygroups,suchassuccessive,causal,transitional,conditional,concussiveetc.(Quirketal.,1985).HallidayandHason(1976)statethat:Conjunctiveelementsarecohesivenotinthemselvesbutindirectly,byvirtueoftheirspecificmeanings;theyarenotprimarilydevicesforreachingoutintothepreceding(orfollowing)text,buttheyexpresscertainmeaningwhichpresupposethepresenceofothercomponentsinthediscourse.(Halliday&Hason,1976)ConjunctivecompositionsinEnglishhavesomespecialfeatureswhichincludeabroadvariety,broadusagesandcomplexmeanings.Connectorsshouldbeindispensabletogoodcompositionssoastoachieveasmoothturnandtransitionbetweendifferentsentences.Tosumup,connectorsaffectthequalityofentirecomposition.Connectorsnotonlyconnectwordsandsentences,butalsoexpressthedifferentrelationshipsbetweenthesentencesConnectionindiscourseexpressestherelationshipbetweensentences,whichisreachedbyusingconnectors.Inthisstudy,connectorreferstoawordorphrasethatconnectssinglewords,phrasesorclausestogethertobuildameansoflogicalconnection.Astotheclassificationofconnectors,thefollowingfourcategoriesofconnectorsmustbementioned.HallidayandHason(1976)firstlyadoptaschemeoffourcategoriesofconnectors:additive,adversative,causal,andtemporal.Additivemeansthereisstillroomforaddingsentenceorinformationafteracompletingone.Byaddingtothepresupposeditem,theaddingconnectorsexpressextensiveoraffirmativesemanticrelation.Addingconnectorsaresignedby“and”,“similarly”,“besides”,“thatis”,etc.Inaddition,additiveconnectorswhichusedtoexpresscomparisonmaynegatethepresupposeditem.Inthissituation,addingconnectorsaresignedby“nor”,“either”,“neither”,etc.Suchasthissentenceinashortstory,“Icouldtellyousomethingaboutlovelygirlnow.Anditwasn’tallmakeupeither.”Inthissentence,thestorytellerstatesthelovelygirlfirstly,andaddsthatitwasnotnonsensetomaketheformermessagecertain.Additiveconnectorscanalsoexpresssupplement,similarity,selectionandcontrast.Adversativerelationmeanscontrarytoexpectation,thatistosay,themeaningofthelattersentenceisoppositetotheformersentence.Adversativeconnectorscoverbut,yet,nonetheless,whereas,howeverandsoon.Forexample,“MyEnglishisn’tverygood,butIgotthegeneraldriftofwhathesaid.”Inthissentence,byusing“but”,thelattersentencedivergefromtheformerone,expressingdifferentperspective.Causalconnectorsindicatetherelationshipbetweenreasonsandresults.Causalrelationincludesthespecificonesofresults,reasonandpurpose.Forexample,“Shewouldliketheflowersunderthesunwasshiningandthewindsmilegrowuphappily,becausetheyouthdoesnotbelongtotears.”Inthissentence,thecausalword“because”isusedtoexpressthereasonoftheformersentence.Itemsas“because”,“for”,“onaccountof”,“so”,“asaresult”,and“inconsequence”arecausalconnectors.Temporalconnectorsincludeitemslike‘first,second,third,next,then,afterthat,afterwards,finally’,etc.Theyareusedtoexpressthesequenceoftimeandprocedure.Forexample,“Shewouldcontinuallydrillhimonhisstudiesuntilhegotitright.Afterwards,shewouldtakehimtogogeticecreamasareward.”Inthissentence,“afterwards”isusedtoexpressthesequenceofthisevent.Thisstudywilladoptthiskindofquartileclassificationforthefollowingreasons:Firstofall,thetraditionalquartileclassificationmethodisclearandpractical.Secondly,connectorsareanalyzedincontextsinthisstudy.Therefore,accordingtothediscourse,thesemanticmeaningofconnectorscanbesummarized.Moreover,thiskindofclassificationcanhelptheauthortoavoidthedeficiencyofinconvenienceinclassificationproposedbyHallidayandHason.1.2ThesimilaritiesanddifferencesofconnectorsinChineseandEnglishIt’slongbeenknownthatChineseandEnglishbelongtotwodifferentlanguagesystems.InordertoinvestigatetheinfluenceofL1onL2learners’useofconnectors,thispartmainlyfocusesonthesimilaritiesanddifferencesbetweenChineseandEnglishinconnectors.1.2.1SimilaritiesManycomplexsentencesinbothChineseandEnglishneedconnectorstoconnecttheentirecontentandachievediscoursecohesion.Surely,thereexistmanycorrespondingconnectorsinthetwolanguages.Thatistosay,thesimilaritybetweenChineseandEnglishconnectorsmeansthatoneEnglishconnectorcancorrespondtooneChineseconnectorasthematching.Theseconnectorsareasfollows:Table1.1correspondingconnectorsinEnglishandChineseCategoriesEnglishChineseAdditiveand与，和，而且when,while当……时aswellas也or或者Adversativebut,however但是nevertheless然而，不过suddenly突然though,although,but,although(though)…yet…虽然(虽,尽管)……但是unfortunately不幸的是Causalbecause,since,becauseof因为……所以……so,sothat,therefore,asaresult因此，所以，因而so…that如此……以至于for由于Temporalthen,andthen然后，于是finally,intheend最后，终于afterthat之后first,firstofall首先(Zhang,2002)Ascanbeseenfromabove,eachpairofconnectors(e.g.‘for’and‘youyu’,‘suddenly’and‘turan’)hasthesamemeaning.Thatistosay,thoseEnglishandChineseconnectorspossessthesamefunction,namely,connectingclausesorsentences,andexpressingorconnectingmeaning.Inthepreviousexamples,theseconnectorscanbeusedtoexpressadditive,adversative,causal,andtemporalrelationsinbothEnglishandChinese.Atthislevel,theconnectorsinChineseandEnglishhavesimilarities.1.2.2DifferencesAlthoughsomesimilaritiesexistbetweenChineseandEnglishconnectors,theyarenotallthesameinallaspects.ThedifferencesofconnectorsbetweenChineseandEnglishareclassifiedasfollows:Firstly,parataxisisagrammaticalfeatureinChinesecompoundsentences,whileEnglishishypotaxis-prominent.ChineseclausesaremoreindependentthanEnglish,inotherwords,ChinesetendstouselessconnectorsthanEnglish.Basedonthis,ifthelogicalrelationoftwosentencesisclearinChinese,theconnectorsbetweenthemcanbeomitted.However,inEnglish,theconnectormustbekeptinthiscase.Forinstance,你有你的观点，我有我的观点。(Additive)(niyounideguandian,woyouwodeguandian.)Youhaveyourpointofview,andIhavemine.谦虚使人进步，骄傲使人落后。(Adversative)(qianxushirenjinbu,jiaoaoshirenluohou.)Modestyhelpsonetogoforward,whereasconceitmakesonelagbehind.小刘是一个热心肠的人，我们大家都喜欢和她做朋友。(Causal)(xiaoliushiyigerexinchangderen,womendajiadouxihuanhetazuopengyou.)Xiaoliuisawarm-heartedperson,soweallliketomakefriendwithher.(Chaeles&Sandra,1981;Yao,1983;Zhao,1981)Intheaboveexamples,thefrequencyofEnglishconnectorsisclearlyhigherthantheChineseconnectors.Suchasinexample(2),theconnector“whereas”cannotomit,otherwise,thelatterEnglishsentenceisunacceptabletotheStandardEnglish,whileintheformerChinesesentenceisbeprovedtoberedundancywiththeconnector‘danshi’.Inconsequence,itiscommonforChineseEFLlearnerstounderusethosekindsofconnectorsinEnglishwritings.Secondly,someChineseconnectorsarealwaysusedinpairs.(e.g.yingwei……suoyi……，suiran……danshi……)ThelatterpartandtheformerpartoftheChinesesentencearealwaysaroundecho(Fan,1981;Zhao,1981).However,connectorsareusedseparatelyinEnglishsentence.Forexample,“because”and“so”,“although(though)”and“but”arenotacceptedtoappearatthesametime.Forinstance,因为这是一个风景极美的地方，所以河上可供租用的船只数量有限。(yingweizheshiyigefengjingjimeidedifang,suoyiheshangkegongzhuyongdechuanzhishuliangyouxian.)Becauseitisanareaofoutstandingnaturebeauty,thenumberofboatsavailableforhireontheriverislimited.即使今年收成不好，爸妈也坚持供他们上学。(jishijinnianshouchengbuhao,bamayejianchigongtamenshangxue.)Parentsinsistonkeepingtheminschoolthoughthisyear’sharvestispoor.(HuangMan,2017)Asaresult,manyChineseEFLlearnersmayusethiskindofconnectorinappropriately.Takethissentenceasanexample,“Althoughitisrainingoutside,buthestillwenttoschool.”ThiserrorisevidentlyinfluencedbyChinese(DuLi,2013).Thirdly,thepositionofconnectorsinChineseandEnglishisdissimilar.InEnglish,theconnector‘because’and‘though’asdemonstratedabovearecommonlyusedinthelatterclauseortheinitialofthesubordinateclause.However,inChinese,aconnectoriscommonlyusedinmainclause(Yao,1983).Fourthly,ifaconnectorAisreplacedbyanotherconnectorB,whattheconnectorAtriestoexpresswillbechanged.Thatistosay,oneChineseconnectoronlyexpressesonemeaning.SoitiscommontochoosedifferentconnectorstoexpressdifferentlogicalrelationsinChinese(Huang,1997).ButaconnectorcanexpressmorethanonemeaningandrepresentdifferentlogicalrelationsinEnglish(Huang,1997).Inaword,Englishconnectorsaremainlypolysemy,whileChineseconnectorsarenot(Huang,1997;Zhang&Chen,1981;Xu,2000).Forexample,这个可爱的小男孩要了一杯果汁，他爸爸点了一杯茶。(zhegekeaidexiaonanhaiyaoleyibeiguozhi,tababadianleyibeicha.)Thecuteboyordersaglassofjuiceandhisfatherasksforacupoftea.她一直努力学习，却在化学考试中失利。(tayizhinulixuexi,quezaihuaxuekaoshizhongshili.)Shealwaysstudieshard,andshefailedinthechemistryexam.车半路突然坏了，因此他们不得不等待救援。(chebanluturanhuaile,yincitamenbudebudengdaijiuyuan.)Thecarbrokehalfwaysuddenly,andtheyhadtowaitforrescuers.太阳升起来了，冰融化了。(taiyangshengqilaile,bingronghuale.)Thesunroseandtheicemelted.1.3PreviousstudiesonconnectorsInthissection,theauthorwillsummarizethemainstudiesonconnectors.Itconsistsofthestudiesonabroadandathome.1.3.1PreviousstudiesontheapplicationofconnectorsinwritingInthefieldofSLA,theresearchesbasedonconnectorscanbemainlydividedintothreedifferentkindsaccordingtothestudycontents:empiricalstudiesonthefrequencyofconnectors(e.g.Field&Yip,1992;Milton&Tsang,1993;Boltonetal.,2002;Chen,2006);empiricalstudiesontheerrorsofusingconnectors(e.g.Milton&Tsang,1993;Granger&Tyson,1996;Li,2001;Al-Khresheh,2011);andstudiesonthecorrelationbetweenconnectoruseandwritingquality(e.g.Witte&Faigley,1981;McCulley,1985;Hartnett,1986;Neuner,1987;Xu,2000).Itiswidelybelievedthatproperuseofconnectorscouldfacilitatecoherenceandqualityofwriting.Mostoftheearlyresearchesonconnectorsweredevotedtodescribingtheuseofconnectorsincompositionofnativespeakers.Later,manyofthescholarssetouttoinvestigatethefrequencyofconnectorsusedbylearnersfromdifferentlanguagebackgrounds.Amongthem,FieldandYip(1992)madeacomparisonstudyofconnectors’applicationbetweenCantoneselearnersofEnglishandEnglishnatives.TheresultofthisstudyisthatCantonesewritersusedahigherfrequencyofconnectorsthanwriterswhoareEnglishnativespeakers.Nextyear,MiltonandTsang(1993)makeamoredetailedstudy.Theyadoptacorpus-basedmethodtocomparetheconnectoruseofHongKongstudents.Accordingtothefrequencyofoverusing,thetopfiveconnectorsfromhightolowfrequencyare‘besides’,‘moreover’,‘secondly’,‘firstly’,‘consequently’.Incontrasttotheabovestudies,Boltonetal.(2002)providedanotherresults.HeinvestigatedtheconnectoruseinthewritingofuniversitystudentsbycomparingtheacademicpaperbetweenthecollegialstudentsinHongKongandinBritish.Thefrequencyofuseofconnectorswascountedinsentences,andtheoveralluseofconnectorswasanalyzedaccordingtothepreviousfrequency.ItincludednotonlyEnglishnativespeakersbutalsoEnglishlearnersoverusedabroadrangeofconnectors.AndthetopfiveoverusedconnectorsbytheHongKongstudentsandBritishstudentsare‘so’,‘and’,‘also’,‘thus’,‘but’and‘however’,‘so’,‘therefore’,‘thus’,‘furthermore’.Asmentionedabove,inthestudyofMiltonandTsang(1993),theyselected25logicalconnectorsthroughCelce-MurciaandLarsen-Freemen’sclassification.Thentheauthorselectedseveralexamplesforfurthercomparison.Asaresult,MiltonandTsangpointedoutChinesestudentswouldmeettwoproblemswhentheyuseconnectorssuchas‘moreover’and‘therefore’inEnglishwriting.Oneisoveruseandtheotherismisuse.AnotherrelevantstudytothisissueisthatofLi(2001).InordertoinvestigatethedifficultiesinacquiringChineseconnectors,Licollected983errorsfromEnglishnativespeakers’compositionsandmadeworkableteachingsuggestionsonChineseacquisition.Besides,Al-Khresheh(2011)analyzedthecoordinatingconnector‘and’in120essaysandmainlypaidattentiontotheerrorscommittedbyEFLlearners.Thisresearchfoundthatthedifferencesbetweenthesubjects’L1andL2causedtheerrorsintheacquisitionofEnglishconnectors.Apartfromstudiesonthefrequencyofconnectorsandtheerrorsofusingconnectors,therearestillmanyresearchesaimtoinvestigatethecorrelationbetweenconnectoruseandwritingquality.Onthistopic,thereisnoconsensusatpresent.Basedontextanalysis,somescholarsstatedthatthereexistsstatisticalevidencetoprovetherelationbetweenconnectoruseandwritingquality(e.g.Witte&Faigley,1981;McCulley,1985;Hartnett,1986),whilesomeresearchersarguedagainstthiscorrelationbetweenconnectoruseandwritingquality(e.g.Neuner,1987).Allofthesestudiesusedcorpus-basedapproach,especiallythedomesticstudiesprovideplentyofnewmethodforSLAresearchandalsothesestudiesshedsomelightonlanguageteachingandlearningbyclassifyingtheerrorsfoundinEFLlearners’connectoruse.However,mostoftheseresearchesstatedthatthecauseoftheproblematicuseofconnectorsisL1transferwithoutfurtherinvestigation.1.3.2PreviousstudiesonconnectorsfromtheperspectiveofL1transferTherearemanyotherstudiesonconnectors.Inthesestudies,thecomprehensionoruseofconnectorsarerelatedtolanguagetransfer.SomeresearchesaimedattestifyL1transferthroughcomparingtheuseofconnectors,suchasGrangerandTyson(1996),AltenbergandTapper(1998).OtherstendedtofindoutthepositivefunctionofL1transferintheuseofconnectorsinEnglishwriting.Forexample,Mohan&Lo(1985),Al-khresheh(2011)andZufferrey(2015)conductstudiesforthatpurpose.Besides,Wu(2016)indicatesinherstudythatthereasonthatcausethemisuseofconnectorsmainlyincludethetransferoflearners’L1andChinesethinkingpatterns.Intheend,thestudyprovidessomesuggestionsinthefollowingthreeaspects:teachingmethodssuggestions,teachingmeanssuggestionsandsuggestionsfortextbookcompilation.Besides,therearestillsomepostgraduates’papersworthbementioned.Duli(2013)conductedastudyonconnectors.Themajorfindingsareasfollows:Firstly,thesimilaritiesanddifferencesbetweenChineseandEnglishhavesomeinfluenceonChineseundergraduates’useofconnectorsinEnglishwritingnarratives.ThesimilaritiesbetweenChineseandEnglishexertpositivetransfer,whilethedifferencesexertnegativetransfer.Secondly,theL1influenceontheconnectorsinoralnarrativesisgreaterthanthatinwrittennarratives.Thirdly,thestudyhasalsofoundthatslipsoftongueorpetphrasesinChinesemayalsocauseL1transferforsomeoftheparticipants.Later,inMa’s(2016)thesis,theinfluenceofL1onconnectorsisanalyzedatbothindividuallevelandgrouplevel.Thereisamoredetailedstudymaybeagoodexampletofollow.Nie(20