(Mis)use, Frequency, and Pedagogy of Linking Adverbials

in Academic Writing TESOL 2015 Presentation

Marianne Celce-Murcia, University California, Los AngelesBrent Green, Salt Lake Community College

Eli Hinkel, Seattle Pacific University

A Few Important Points and Definitions

• Linking Adverbials: Logical connectors (also called conjunctive adverbs) (Celce-Murcia and Larsen-Freeman, 2016).

• Connecting devices of three types:• Coordinating conjunctions - (and, or, but, yet) • Adverbial subordinators - (because, even though, since)• Conjunctive adverbials (moreover, thus, however, similarly)

• Note: Coordinating conjunctions and adverbial subordinators are sentence-level connectors and are not cohesive at the discourse level."

• This presentation will address how linking adverbials/conjunctive adverbs are used in authentic TESOL/Applied Linguistics contexts using corpus-based research. It will also suggest how one might teach them.

• We will NOT be discussing sentential adverbs (also often called linking adverbs) because these forms do not describe the logical relationships between two or more propositions the way conjunctive adverbs do. Instead they reveal the author's stance and are often used to persuade the reader: clearly, obviously, unfortunately, certainly, actually, in fact, etc.

• L2 academic writers cannot learn to construct effective academic

prose in English without being able to use linking adverbials correctly and in appropriate contexts (at least most of the time).

• Linking adverbials represent an area of difficulty for L2 writers simply because, in English, their construction and functions are numerous and complex.

Examples of Common Errors in Academic

Writing

• *Education is one necessary part of the world. Also, it depends on the country position and background.

• *After the Industrial Revolution, the development of economy increasingly relies on science and technology. Therefore, there are thousands of famous scholars [who] devote themselves to solving many questions.

• *As the author of the article says, in addition we would get high amount of payment when we get to the top position. Furthermore, bosses who have experience of working are able to understand other employees because they were in the same position some years ago. Then the relationship between employees and bosses will become more smooth. So you may get to be in a more higher position. Therefore, we can get the career at last.

• *To make students self-reliant may improve their intellectual maturity. In addition, with the impressive performance in global-knowledge economy, the education system shows its merit.

• *Several solutions should be applied to enhance information privacy.

Furthermore, in recent years, a specific subject called information security is introduced by [??a] few leaders in computer science.

• *Many great persons make great contributions to human beings in

fields such as art, science, politics and so forth. Bill Gates propels the coming of Computer Age. In the second hand, I do not deny the importance of one's achievements.

• *Since reading time is decreasing, consequently, what other activities are preferred in daily life?

• *Along the history, there are many characteristics of human beings

that has changed a lot. ??For instance, the way today's person lives are not the same as the first century's person. Furthermore, one can discuss a lot of phenomenon that changes globally.

• Analyzing and teaching Linking Adverbials (aka conjunctive adverbs) and how to deal with these types of errors come next!

More on Cohesive Conjunctive Adverbs

Additive

also, additionally, furthermore, moreover, etc.

"Sibilants tend to induce perceptual epenthesis the most, non-sibilant fricatives more so than stops, and coronals more so than labials. Additionally, the patterns of voicing identification found in the high-epenthesis group tend to be the same as those found in the low-epenthesis group."

Adversativehowever, in/by contrast, on the contrary, etc.

"When academics read, we keep track of who said what. We read texts not as information to be absorbed, but as claims to be analyzed. In contrast, some students complete assignments based on assumptions that the text presents the truth, that they should read to learn that truth, and that they should write to demonstrate mastery of it."

Causal/Resultativethus, therefore, hence, accordingly, etc.

"Since noticing was elicited during only a small part of the treatments in order to minimize the possible interference during treatments, measuring noticing of every language episode was not possible. Accordingly, due to the limited nature of the data in the present study, the results should be interpreted with caution."

Sequentialfirst of all, subsequently, next, lastly, etc.

"...Secondly, morphologically more complex structures may also be more salient and noticeable to learners, and they do not necessarily result in a cognitive overload, contrary to what is predicated by information processing theory. Lastly, this study demonstrated how the concurrent use of multiple measures can help to obtain insight into learners' cognitive processes...."

Errors in the Use of Conjunctive LAs by Graduate Students in TESOL & Applied Linguistics

• The simplest errors to correct: Use of incorrect lexical form

• "The university...has a large number of nonnative speaker teachers, which may have caused the students to become familiar with and more accepting of them. Alternately, the students may have simply not verbally expressed any problems...

• [correction: Alternatively,]

• Omissions (not wrong but the discourse would just sound better with the conjunctive LA):

• " All of the participants were teaching at a major research university in the U.S. at the time of the data collection. Some of them had previously taught at other institutions in or outside the U.S. Five of the participants [ ] had experience teaching their native language."

• [suggested addition: also ]

• Redundant uses of conjunctive adverbs (note: the text is describing a non-native language teacher)

• "...nervous about students asking her unanticipated questions in class, she prepared her lessons extremely thoroughly, by spending much time reviewing sample sentences in the textbook and examining nuances between two similar words. Only after she received positive course evaluations from her students at the end of the quarter, [however,] did she finally realize that what they really cared about was not whether she spoke native-like Japanese but [instead] how satisfactorily she met students' needs and promoted their learning."

• [the 'however' and 'instead' are redundant; not needed]

• Incorrect use of "on the contrary"

• "...a teacher might provide feedback for a student's error in an utterance elicited by the teacher in an question-answer sequence. On the contrary, if a student asks a question with an error in the utterance, but whose approximate meaning is clear, the teacher will answer the question instead of correcting the student's error."

• [correction: However]

• Incorrect use of "on the other hand“

• Note: the teacher is Mrs. A.

• "In Sime's (2008) view...there is a lack of standardized patterns of gesture as opposed to the standardized form of words in a sentence. However, this did not prevent the students from understanding Mrs. A. On the other hand, they were able to use gesture in conjunction with speech to decode meanings.“

• [correction: On the contrary,]

Errors in The Incorrect Use Of Conjunctive LAs by

Published L2 Authors in TESOL & Applied Linguistics

• Incorrect use of "on the contrary“[background: the author discusses identifying formulaic language via corpus analysis by using two different methods]

• "In the statistical method, words that occur together more often than is predicted by chance are labeled as collocations. Within the phraseological methodology, on the contrary, the researcher identifies potentially formulaic or conventional sequences on the basis of linguistic criteria related to syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic restrictions."

• [correction: in/by contrast]

• Incorrect use of "on the other hand“

• "After finishing one piece of writing, the teacher assigns another topic not necessarily related to the previous one, and the cycle of teacher feedback and student correction continues. Despite the huge amount of time invested in error feedback, many teachers feel that their efforts do not pay off. Students, on the other hand, are generally discouraged by teacher feedback, which is inundated with red ink, and they tend to focus mainly on scores.“

• [correction: Students are also]

The Corpus and Data Results

TESOL/AL CorpusJournal Title Years Words Articles Authors

Annual Review of Applied Linguistics (ARAL) 2010-2103 434730 61 75

Applied Language Learning (ALL) 2008-2013 108301 24 38

English for Specific Purposes (ESP) 2011-2014 580925 127 182

English Teaching Forum (ETF) 2011-2014 260611 77 93

Language Learning (LL) 2011-2014 1299209 141 317

Studies in Second Language Acquisition (SSLA) 2011-2014 859209 162 247

TESOL Quarterly (TQ) 2011-2014 832740 186 160

TESOL Journal (TJ) 2011-2014 649545 161 234

Total 5,025,270 939 1346

Working List of Conjunctive LAs (sorted alphabetically by category)

Additive Adversative Causal/Resultative Sequentialadditionally/in additionalsoalternativelyat the same timebesides (this/that/NP)for examplefor instancefurther(more)in other wordssimilarlythat is (to say)

at the same timeby (way of) contrast/in contrastconverselydespite this/that/NPhoweverin comparison/by (way of) comparisonin spite of (this/that/NP)neverthelessnonethelesson/to the contraryon (the) one handon the other (hand)

accordingly as a consequencebecause of this/that/NPconsequentlyas a result (of this/that/NP)for this/that reasonhencein turnthereforethus

after this/that/ NPbefore this/that/NPfinally/lastly/last of allfirst(of all)/firstlyin conclusionin sumin the meantimein turnmeanwhilenextsecond(ly)subsequentlythenthirdthirdly

AdditiveItems occurring over 100 times per 5 million

for example (1995), in addition (889), furthermore (780), additionally (724), that is (615), in other words (590), for instance (550), similarly (458), also (263), at the same time (197), further (196),

Items occurring less than 100 times per 5 million

alternatively (62), besides (25), that is to say (16),

Items occurring 0 times

besides that, besides that + N besides this

AdversativeItems occurring over 100 times per 5 million

however (4351), in contrast (553), nevertheless (331), on the other hand (322), at the same time (295), nonetheless (154)

Items occurring less than 100 times per 5 million

by contrast (89), conversely (81), on the one hand (61), in spite of (48), on the contrary(43), in comparison (32), despite this+N (28), by comparison (11), despite this (9), on the other (9) on one hand (6), in spite of this (3), in spite of this+N (3), by way of comparison (2), despite that+N (1), in spite of that (1), to the contrary (1)

Items occurring 0 times

by way of contrast, despite that, in spite of that+N

Causative/ResultativeItems occurring over 100 times per 5 million

thus (1736), therefore (1006), as a result (227), in turn (?) hence (184), consequently (182)

Items occurring less than 100 times per 5 million

for this reason (94), accordingly (89), as a consequence (34), because of this (11), for that reason (10), as a result of that+N (1), as a result of this (1), because of that (1)

Items occurring 0 times

as a result of that, as a result of this+N

SequentialItems occurring over 100 times per 5 million

finally (1031), first (768), second (612), in turn (?), next (193), then (165), third (189), in sum (173)

Items occurring less than 100 times per 5 million

in conclusion (50), subsequently (45), meanwhile (44), lastly (39), secondly (38), firstly (36), first of all (33), after that (16), after this (9), in the meantime (6), thirdly (6), before this+N (2), before that (1), before this (1)

Items occurring 0 times

after that+N, after this+N, before that+N, last of all

Challenges of Categorization

• Some LAs are difficult to pigeon-hole and seem to fit into at least two categories.• A good example of this is "at the same time". We did a qualitative

analysis of 30 random tokens from our corpus and found that 5 of these tokens collocated with "however," which automatically made them adversative:• Example: "...there is evidence that even explicit, form-oriented treatments

can promote the development of implicit second language (L2) knowledge...At the same time, however, we know surprisingly little about the contribution of implicit learning and knowledge to L2 acquisition."

• Of the remaining 25 tokens, 12 expressed an additive relationship and 13 tokens an adversative relationship:• -additive example:• "Morphological awareness may facilitate the development of a broad

vocabulary that in turn facilitates successful comprehension during subsequent reading. At the same time, morphological awareness may facilitate accurate and rapid word identification, thus freeing cognitive resources for comprehension processes."

• -adversative example:• "There have been a number of studies on incidental vocabulary learning in

second language (L2) learning...These studies have shown that an L2 learner can learn new words incidentally while reading. At the same time, research suggests that learning words from context while focusing on reading is an inefficient method."

•Eventually we will examine qualitatively 100 random tokens of "at the same time“ in our corpus to see if this trend holds. The mere fact that a few LAs have this chameleon-like quality cannot be ignored. It shows that it is the entire discourse context, not just the LA, that determines the nature of the logical relationship among the propositions.

Challenges in Determining Frequencies of Cohesive

Conjunctive Adverbs

• Sometimes getting at the frequency of CCAs is fairly straightforward.• (e.g., additionally)

•What do we do with frequent non-initial tokens?• (e.g., also, in turn)

• Simply reporting the raw frequencies in the corpus can be very misleading!• (e.g., next, first, second, last )

Activities for Teaching Conjunctive Linking

Adverbs

Cloze Activity (can be done individually, in pairs, or in small groups)

• Instructions: Read the passage and then determine which conjunctive linking adverb best fits in the blanks. Be able to explain why you chose a particular linking adverb in each case.• Conjunctive Linking Adverbs: for example, thus, however, also, firstly

Carter (2004) drew attention to the relationship between language play and formulaic language use by referring to creativity that involves pattern re-forming, where speakers manipulate existing strings of prefabricated language to construct new, creative sequences.... Cook (2000) (1)________________ noted the importance of pattern formation in his description of the features of language play, emphasizing the creation of rhythm and grammatical parallels. The resulting discourse patterns that emerge during interaction may remain local patterns of language use, such as the nicknames or in-jokes that develop in intimate relationships. (2)_________________, in some cases they may spread and become larger patterns that change the way people speak more broadly. For instance, the reality television show Survivor, which originated in Sweden in 1997 and has since appeared in numerous other countries, spawned the phrase to “vote someone off the island," which at present seems to be used almost exclusively in a joking way.

Error Correction (can be done individually, in pairs, or in small groups)

• Instructions: The contexts below contain errors with linking adverbs. Read through each context and do the following: (a) correct inappropriate forms, (b) add linking adverbs where needed, and (c) delete linking adverbs that are not needed.

a. A few studies show that there is little difference between users of language learning and non-users. For example, there is no difference between those who use strategies and those who do not (Chao & Hsiao, 2000). And Taiwan high school students report that the Internet has a strong influence on their English language proficiency. But, there are many studies which point out the differences between good and bad learners of English.

b. In modern education a lot of emphasis is put on academic skills, such as learning vocabulary and improving reading. However, in schools, not only should these academic skills be taught, but also ethical and social values, which are sometimes more important than academic skills. And, I have several reasons for my position.

Class Discussion (for advanced writers in TESOL or Applied Linguistics, to do individually, in pairs, or groups and then to be discussed by the class)

• Instructions: Below you will find 4 excerpts of authentic discourse. In each excerpt linking adverbs have been deleted. Your task is to determine which linking adverb fits the blank. Once you have made you choice, we will discuss your answers together as a class or in small groups. Be sure to have good reasons for your choices. [Students will be given a list of adverbs].

a. The effect of awareness raising through text chunking was investigated in Boers, Eyckmans, Kappel, et al. (2006). Text chunking was a regular activity in the course of a school year for one group of advanced adult EFL learners, while a comparison group engaged in other activities with the same texts. At the end of the course all the students were asked to orally retell the content of a new English text. Significantly more formulaic sequences were found in the narratives produced by the students in the chunking treatment group. _________________, this was because these students recycled more word strings verbatim from the new text (while the comparison group tended to incorporate just single words from the text into their retelling). Stengers et al. (2010) repeated the experiment with new cohorts of language majors (one cohort of advanced EFL learners and one of advanced learners of Spanish). (however)

Discourse Completion (can be done in pairs or groups and then discussed by the whole class)

• Instructions: Read the passage and decide how it might be completed, given the initial discourse and the conjunctive adverb used.

a. The EFL students define their listening goals and share what they know about the topic. Together, they predict the information and words/phrases in the text. They write this down in English; however, the teacher allows____________________________________

b. In this stage of the lesson, the students are instructed that when speakers give lectures, they use certain expressions to indicate the purpose of what they are saying. For example, __________________________________________

Questions?

This power point presentation and the teaching activities handout can be found at the following web address by this 8:00 pm tonight:

www.elihinkel.org