A Study Of Errors In Using Logical Connectors In Senior Two Students’ English Writing

The National English Curriculum Criteria for Regular High School(2017)has incorporated the core competencies,where senior high students’ language ability,cultural consciousness,thinking quality and learning ability have been attached great importance,among which thinking quality involving the ability and level of logic,criticism and innovation,has attracted wide attention recently.Writing is a logical thinking process;writing and logic are inseparable.Clear logic is indispensable to a piece of good writing.Logical connectors can not only connect words,phrases and sentences,but also fully express the semantic relations between two linguistic components,reflecting the logical thinking of writers.However,the inappropriate use or misuse of logical connectors often occurs in senior high school students’ English writing,resulting in logical errors.Based on the theory of Error Analysis,this study is designed to investigate the errors made by senior two students regarding the use of logical connectors in their writings.The logical connectors analyzed in this study mainly involve four types--additive connectors representing the additive relation,adversative connectors representing the adversative relation,causal connectors representing the causal relation,and sequential connectors representing the sequential relation.Accordingly,the following questions are addressed in this study:1.Do Chinese senior two students make errors in using logical connectors in their English writing?What are the types of logical connectors with errors?What are the features of the error distribution?2.Are there any differences among senior two students of different proficiency levels regarding the errors in using of logical connectors?If yes,what are they?Through the sample collection,error identification,error description,and error explanation,the major findings of the study can be summarized as follows:Firstly,the errors of logical connectors in writing cover the four types of logical connectors,among which the error rate of adversative connectors is the highest,followed by that of additive connectors,causal connectors and sequential connectors."and" is sometimes abused by students to connect two components at random even though there is no additive or parallel relation between the two linguistic units linked together."on the one hand...on the other hand" which is often misused by students as "for one thing...for another(thing)" according to the Chinese meaning.Students often misuse "because","so",imposing causal relation to two components between which there exists no causal relationship.However,students make fewer errors in using sequential connectors.Secondly,there exist significant differences among senior two students of different proficiency levels.To be specific,the error rate of the under-achievers is higher than that of the other groups.The high-achievers make fewer errors in using logical connectors.The results indicate that there is a positive correlation between the appropriate use of logical connectors and the students’ language proficiency level.In terms of the numbers of misuse of logical connectors,middle-achievers commit more errors than the other groups.With regard to specific logical connectors,"and" is often abused by the middle-achievers and the under-achievers.In addition,"on the one hand...on the other hand"are misused by the high-achievers and the middle-achievers who are fairly confused as for the difference between the adversative relation and the additive relation.The middle-achievers and the under-achievers tend to impose causal relation to two linguistic units by abusing causal connectors,which brings about the logical errors in writing.Three groups make fewer errors in using sequential connectors.