ABSTRACT
On the basis of evidence from TEFL, the learners’ written production appears to be difficult to read and understand; even those texts produced by advanced learners oftentimes lack coherence and cohesion. Many EFL teachers focus on conjunctions as a way of achieving text cohesion, since conjunctions can be explicitly taught and constitute a means to show how different parts of a text relate. Likewise, conjunctions help the writers to establish their position in relation to the ideas presented. An endless number of textbooks and other instructional materials for the teaching of English grammar and writing mention conjunctions under different labels (connectives, linking adverbials, linking words, connectors, transition words, among others). For the learners, these devices are easy to use from early stages of the foreign language acquisition. However, regardless of how efficiently conjunctions are taught, an excessive emphasis on them as cohesive devices has misguided the learners into overusing or misusing them. The purpose of this presentation is to reveal some insights from Corpus Linguistics in relation to the expression of addition in English. Based on information provided by Biber, et al. (1999), who compiled a corpus with 40 million words known as the LONGMAN Spoken and Written English Corpus, and what current textbooks include, a comparison is made and its implications for the teaching of English grammar and writing are discussed.
KEY WORDS: addition, conjunctions, English, writing, corpus linguistics.
On the basis of evidence from TEFL, the learners’ written production appears to be difficult to read and understand; even those texts produced by advanced learners oftentimes lack coherence and cohesion. Many EFL teachers focus on conjunctions as a way of achieving text cohesion, since conjunctions can be explicitly taught and constitute a means to show how different parts of a text relate. Likewise, conjunctions help the writers to establish their position in relation to the ideas presented. An endless number of textbooks and other instructional materials for the teaching of English grammar and writing mention conjunctions under different labels (connectives, linking adverbials, linking words, connectors, transition words, among others). For the learners, these devices are easy to use from early stages of the foreign language acquisition. However, regardless of how efficiently conjunctions are taught, an excessive emphasis on them as cohesive devices has misguided the learners into overusing or misusing them. The purpose of this presentation is to reveal some insights from Corpus Linguistics in relation to the expression of addition in English. Based on information provided by Biber, et al. (1999), who compiled a corpus with 40 million words known as the LONGMAN Spoken and Written English Corpus, and what current textbooks include, a comparison is made and its implications for the teaching of English grammar and writing are discussed.
KEY WORDS: addition, conjunctions, English, writing, corpus linguistics.
