Revisiting cohesion in academic writing: A corpus-based analysis of EFL learners’ use of conjunctions

Grammatical and semantic devices writers use to maintain text cohesion have received significant attention for over forty years. Among these devices, conjunctions are particularly emphasized for their role in enhancing communication and the quality of academic writing. Despite extensive research on how EFL learners use conjunctions in their academic writings, the existing body of work remains inadequate. Research findings have consistently shown that EFL learners misuse conjunctions. Consequently, conjunction instruction techniques have been integrated into learning materials and academic writing programs. Nevertheless, the persisting issue necessitates further investigation using current research methods and writing conventions. To address this gap, this study aimed to evaluate EFL learners’ usage of conjunctions by employing a contemporary research method. It employed the corpus linguistic method to analyze the use of conjunctions by EFL learners in a 125, 000-word corpus and compared it with a native speaker corpus, using Halliday and Hassan’s categorization as the analytical framework. It was hypothesized that EFL learners misuse conjunctions in both quantity and quality. The study revealed varied uses of conjunctions in the two corpora. However, these variations were not uniform across all levels, as some aspects of conjunction usage showed similarities between the corpora. The findings suggest the need for updating conjunction instruction and learning materials. Further research, adopting corpora and longitudinal approaches, is recommended to validate these findings.