Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Date

2020

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Department

English

Committee Chair

Teresa Dalle

Committee Member

Emily Thrush

Committee Member

Romy Ghanem

Committee Member

Sage Graham

Abstract

My dissertation focuses on the connector use in the writings of the Asian students from 10 different countries in comparison with that of the English native speakers. Specifically, I examine how the Asian students use the connectors similarly or differently compared to English speakers in terms of frequency and choice, depending on their respective countries and English proficiency levels. The research questions addressed in this study are these: Is there a similarity in the use of connectors between the writing of college students in 10 Asian countries and native speakers (NS) of English, in terms of frequency and choice of connector? If there is, how do they employ the connectors similarly? Is there a difference in the use of connectors between the writing of college students in 10 Asian countries and native speakers of English in terms of frequency and choice of connectors? If so, how do they employ the connectors differently? Is there a difference in the use of connectors between the writings of college students within 10 Asian countries depending their English proficiency level and their nationalities? In responding these questions, I use the written essay module of the ICNALE (the International Corpus Network of Asian Learners of English), which is available to the public. Two computational tools (Coh-Metrix and AntConc) are used to analyze and identify the commonality and difference on connector usage among the different language groups.The current study reveals the similarities and differences with which the Asian students and the English speakers use the connectors. One major finding suggests that the Asian students underuse additive and negative connectors compared to their English counterparts and that they prefer to position certain connectors at sentence-initial positions. By signposting the Asian students writing patterns as compared to the norm of the English speakers, my dissertation aims to heighten the awareness of connector use and offer some helpful information to language learners and present an important instructional resource to ESL educators and textbook designers about the authentic use of English.

Comments

Data is provided by the student.

Library Comment

Dissertation or thesis originally submitted to ProQuest

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