Linking adverbials in academic writing on applied linguistics by Chinese doctoral students

The present paper reports an investigation into the use of linking adverbials in the academic writing of Chinese doctoral students. The learner corpus used in the present study is composed of 20 applied linguistics doctoral dissertations. We also compiled a control corpus of 120 published articles in six international journals of applied linguistics to use as the norm of the analysis. The findings indicated that the overall frequency of linking adverbials used by the Chinese doctoral students were greater than that used by the professional writers. A total of 33 linking adverbials were found to be overused by the doctoral students. Of them, besides and actually were identified as misused. Meanwhile, 25 adverbials were identified as underused by the doctoral students. Of them, the adversative adverbials were most problematic to the doctoral students. The results also showed that the doctoral students relied more heavily on a limited set of linking adverbials than the professional writers in their academic writing. Pedagogical implications and suggestions for future research are presented at the end of the paper.

► This article compares linking adverbial use by Chinese doctoral students and by professional writers. ► A total of 33 linking adverbials were found overused and 25 were found underused by the doctoral students. ► Besides and actually were identified misused. ► Adversative adverbials were most problematic to the doctoral students. ► The doctoral students relied heavily on a limited set of linking adverbials.