CAUSAL CONNECTORS IN ARGUMENTATIVE TEXTS:

STUDY OF A TEXTUAL CORPUS OF SECONDARY EDUCATION STUDENTS

Abstract

The topic addressed in this article relates to the observed uses of argumentative causal connectives among secondary school students in the Biobío region. To this end, a study was conducted in the areas of Computer Learner Corpora (CLC) and Computer-Assisted Error Analysis. The variables considered correspond to the frequency of use of causal connectives and error identification. Based on the Corpus of Learners of Spanish as a L1, 197 textual statements were identified in which causal connectives were delimited. The main objectives are: 1) To determine the most frequent causal connectives in the textual corpus produced by secondary school students, and 2) To identify the most frequent errors in the use of causal connectives determined in texts produced by secondary school students. The results show that the most frequent causal connectives are “ya que,” “porque,” “como,” and “puesto que.” These inter-sentential links were found to be relevant in the secondary school students’ texts; that is, they were used appropriately and their function was adapted to the type of argumentative discourse. However, a total of 100 errors in causal connectives were identified in the corpus: 86% corresponded to errors of omission of the causal connective and 14% to incorrect forms of causal connectives.