A Corpus-based Study On Adverbial Connectors In TEM-8 Writings

There are a variety of cohesive devices, of which adverbial connector is a common one. The present study is a corpus-based research which aims to investigate the distribution and use of adverbial connectors in writings. With the assistance of statistical tools such as AntConc and SPSS, the distribution and use of adverbial connectors in CEM and LOCNESS are compared.The results reveal that the top 15 high-frequency adverbial connectors in CEM and LOCNESS account for a large proportion of the total number of adverbial connectors. Secondly, a wider range of adverbial connectors are used in CEM than in LOCNESS and the significant difference is found. Thirdly, Chinese English major students tend to overuse adverbial connectors indicating enumeration and addition, result/inference, summation and apposition. Fourthly, Chinese English major students overuse some adverbial connectors and few adverbial connectors are underused. Four types of misused adverbial connectors are found. Finally, Chinese English major students seem to have a strong colloquial tendency in TEM-8 writings, as reflected in their overuse of the informal adverbial connector so and underuse of the formal adverbial connector therefore and thus.The study on adverbial connectors in TEM-8 writings deepens our understanding of the use of cohesive devices in writings and sheds light on the teaching of English writing.