A Study On The Use Of Conjunctions In The English Writing Of Students In Grade 9

The thesis, based on the cohesive theories and former related research on conjunctions, is aimed to study the use of conjunctions in English writing by students in grade 9 and find out the reasons for the current use. The researcher analyzes English writing by students in grade 9 to know the distribution of eight categories of conjunctions qualitatively and quantitatively and understand the differences of conjunctions in good English writing and poor ones. Besides, an investigation is carried out among students in grade 9 in the form of finishing questionnaires, and the reasons why eight categories of conjunctions distribute differently in quality and quantity are expected to find after analyzing the results of questionnaires. Some suggestions on how to improve students' English writing are to be issued.The results indicate that eight categories of conjunctions distribute unequally in English writing by students in grade 9 and these students have limited knowledge of different lexicons of specific conjunctions. Besides, significant difference between the good and poor English writing on conjunctions does exist. Four reasons are found after analyzing the data of questionnaires. Four reasons are as follows. The first reason is that students in grade 9 have wrong attitudes towards English writing. The second reason is that students in grade 9 mainly use Chinese thinking modes to construct their English writing. The third reason is that students in grade 9 have little knowledge about cohesion and conjunctions. The last reason is that their English teachers pay less attention to the knowledge of cohesive theories, and seldom explain the use of conjunctions. At the end of the thesis, some useful pedagogic suggestions are given to English teachers for the sake of improvement of students' English writing.