Teaching Appropriate Causal Expressions in Spoken and Written English for Learners of Japanese High School: An Analysis on the COCA Corpus

Abstract

This study investigates effective instructional approaches for enhancing logical coherence in Japanese high school students regarding English by using causal expressions rooted in rhetorical patterns. Prevalent patterns in American English are identified by examining 34 expressions from the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA). The research addresses three key questions: common expressions, diversity in patterns, and the correlation between rhetorical patterns and expressions. Findings reveal that American English predominantly employs conjunctions and explicit expressions for causation, with greater diversity in patterns for explanatory or argumentative texts compared to spoken/narrative language. The findings support the importance of tailoring instructional approaches to accommodate topic-based text structures.