Patterns of Sentence Connectors and the Effect of Instruction on ESL Learners' Writing

초록

This study investigates the effect of writing proficiency on patterns of sentence connectors in second language learners’ writing and the effect of instruction on those patterns. First, to examine how writing proficiency affects use of sentence connectors, 87 ESL student placement tests were analyzed. The results reveal that more advanced-level participants used sentence connectors less often than lower-level participants, illustrating that the tendency to overuse sentence connectors may decrease as an ESL student’s writing proficiency increases. Second, to examine whether instruction helps lower-level students overcome this tendency of overuse, sentence connector use was compared between a control group and an experimental group. Although the experimental group received instruction on connector use, the second experiment failed to reveal a significant difference between the two groups. These findings can be interpreted in two ways: 1) The overuse of sentence connectors decreases as a student’s overall writing ability improves during the semester. 2) The effect of the instruction in the second study was not strong enough. To explore the effects of instruction more thoroughly, further material development will be needed in future studies.

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