| This study attempts to understand how Chinese ESL learners use English textual cohesive devices in writing of English by measuring the occurrence of cohesive devices and comparing with native speakers'.;In this study, Halliday & Hasan's taxonomy of English cohesive devices and a contrastive analysis of English and Chinese textual cohesive devices were provided as the bases. Four potential problems in using English cohesive devices for Chinese ESL learners were predicted and tested.;VARBRUL, a statistical computer program, was employed to analyze the data and test the predictions of contrastive analysis. The results confirm two predictions of contrastive analysis that Chinese ESL learners use fewer instances of Pronominal cohesive devices and the definite article 'the', which imply an influence of first language knowledge. At the same time, the overuse of Conjunctive cohesive devices may suggest a developmental process of second language learning, in which the conjunctions are overused. |
