Connectors as Textual Orienting Themes in Korean and Australian Student Essay Writing

Abstract

Although there has recently been much empirical research on native and non-native writers’ connector usage, relatively few comparative studies to date have been conducted on connectors in Theme from a semantic perspective. This study examines the use of connectors in Korean EFL and Australian ENL university students’ English essay writing, with the main focus on the connectors employed in thematic position in the t-unit. The analytical methods adopted here have been mainly informed by systemic functional accounts of Theme and conjunctive cohesion. The results of the study have revealed that Korean university student writers tend to overuse connectors (in particular, coordinators) in initial thematic position. Korean university students’ ‘overthematization’ of connectors has been found to be mainly due to their lack of control over formal written genres and registers. In particular, they have been found to have insufficient knowledge of mode differences between speech and writing, frequently employing characteristic connectors of spoken discourse in their essay writing. It is thus suggested that in Korea’s tertiary English education should give due weight to the teaching of formal written English, with special attention to the genre/register-sensitivity of various discourse features and patterns.