ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates how native speakers (NSs) and advanced non-native speakers (NNSs) of Arabic use connectors to signal semantic relations in expository and argumentative writing. The study adopted Mann and Thompson’s rhetorical structure theory to identify discourse relations and connectors in 100 expository texts and 100 argumentative texts. The study identified 3,065 connectors that were not confined to the grammatical category of ḥurūf (particles) and marked 15 types of relations, the most frequent among which were conjunction, reason and contrast. A mixed ANOVA revealed a statistically significant difference effect of group membership and task type on the average use of connectors. From a qualitative perspective, salient similarities between the NSs and NNSs include the awareness of the polysemy and organizational function of connectors. The main differences between the two groups of speakers were that, as a group, the NS participants drew connectors from a wider repertoire, produced less choppy clause and sentence transitions and showed greater awareness of the rhetorical function of an absent connector in transitions between main ideas. The NNS group sometimes overused and misused the connector wa (and) and exhibited less awareness of the rhetorical function of connectors. Based on these findings, the study proposes a reading-to-writing model in the teaching of connectors in NS and NNS contexts.
