A Comparative Study of the Use of Causality Markers in Narrative Writings

This article investigates how Korean EFL writers and native writers express causality in narrative writing. The writers wrote creative stories using four picture strips, which were analyzed in terms of 53 causative markers. Comparison of the two corpora revealed that in both corpora, so was the most frequently used, followed by because. In terms of the grammatical categories of causative devices, the EFL writers showed a preference for adverbs and conjunctions, and the native writers for adverbs and prepositions, closely followed by conjunctions. The EFL writers showed a higher usage of causative markers, compared with the native writers. Such overuse occurred together with the learners’ heavy reliance on a limited set of particular markers. In contrast, the native writers expressed causation in a more diverse way. A closer examination of the data identified several distinctive features of the EFL writers’ causality expression, for example, frequent misuse of because, restricted use of prepositions as part of idiomatic expressions, and severe overuse of so. In light of the significance of the notion of causality in human interaction, some pedagogical implications are discussed.