Connectors in the argumentative writing of Norwegian novice writers

Abstract

This paper investigates the use of two categories of connectors, i.e. coordinating conjunctions and adverbial conjuncts, in argumentative texts written in English by Norwegian novice writers. These are compared to texts from four other text categories: texts written by expert L1 writers of English and Norwegian and texts written by L1 novice writers of English and Norwegian. The investigation is carried out according to the principles of the Integrated Contrastive Model. The results show that there is no transfer from Norwegian to English in the use of connectors by the L2 novice writers. However, novices whose L1 is Norwegian do overuse connectors, both when writing in their L1 and when writing in English. Further research is required to determine why this should be the case.