The role of causal and concessive connectives in comprehending and producing L2 English discourse

This study investigates how the presence and proper use of causal and concessive connectives affect the comprehension and production of English discourse among Chinese English learners. Seventy-two English major undergraduates with similar language proficiency levels read four narrative texts featuring varying connective conditions (correct use, incorrect causal, incorrect concessive, or absence of connectives). They then answered identical comprehension questions and completed the same reading-writing continuation task. The results showed that the use of causal and concessive connectives improve both local and global discourse comprehension for second language learners. Furthermore, these connectives enhance their writing quality, with causal connectives more related to discourse coherence and concessive connectives more associated with language complexity. Overall, the study highlights the significance of causal and concessive connectives in facilitating comprehensible input and intelligible output for second language learners, pointing out their distinct roles in this dynamic process.