Pragmalinguistic Errors on a Cause-and-Effect Relationship in Japanese EFL Learners’ Writing: A Case of the Use of ‘So’

Conference: The Asian Conference on Language (ACL2022)
Title: Pragmalinguistic Errors on a Cause-and-Effect Relationship in Japanese EFL Learners’ Writing: A Case of the Use of ‘So’
Stream: Language Learning and Teaching
Presentation Type: Live-Stream Presentation
Authors:
Yaoko Matsuoka, International Christian University, Japan

Abstract:

This study explores the consistency of a cause-and-effect relationship in Japanese EFL undergraduates’ paragraph writings, focusing on the use of conjunctions/conjunctive adverbs. Fifty-three English argumentative paragraphs written by sophomores with beginning-intermediate to intermediate English proficiency were examined. Conjunctions/conjunctive adverbs logically connect sentences, clauses, and phrases and play significant roles in describing cause-and-effect relationships writers intend to show. Analysis included both quantitative and qualitative processes: thorough manual examination of all the papers/sentences in terms of the use of conjunctions; classification and calculation of the conjunctions/conjunctive adverbs; extracting pragmatically erroneous usage of conjunctions and identification of the error features. It appeared that students used 'so' with a cause-and-effect function nearly five times more often than other conjunctive expressions such as 'therefore' and 'as a result.' There was reversal of the cause-and-effect relationship and ambiguity in the cause-and-effect relationship due to the duplicate use of 'so' and other conjunctive expressions. Such usage conveyed pragmatically wrong meanings and led to impairment of cause-and-effect relationships in arguments. The results were also compared with the Michigan Corpus of Upper-Level Student Papers (MICUSP) data of native English speakers' (NSs') use of conjunctions. Although NS undergraduates used 'so' frequently, only about 7% of them were used for cause-and-effect relationship. The study also discusses the possible causes of Japanese undergraduates' pragmalinguistic errors of 'so': i.e., little instruction of 'so' in class, different usage and meanings of 'so,' the substitutive use of colloquial words, and phonological similarities between 'so' and a Japanese counterpart expression.

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