A Corpus-based Analysis of the Use of Conjunctions in an EAP Teaching Context at a Sino-British University in China

Abstract

Using appropriate conjunctions in writing English assignments is a crucial skill for students to achieve their academic goals at universities because of the important role played by conjunctions as logical connectors, especially in academic writing. However, according to some previous corpus studies on conjunctions, many EFL learners encounter difficulties in the use of appropriate conjunctions in their English academic writings (Granger, 1994; Granger & Tyson, 1996) and regularly use informal conjunctions or over-use and under-use some connectors (Altenberg & Tapper, 1998; Narita et al., 2004). Therefore, it is vital to teach EFL learners to use conjunctions effectively in their academic writing.