This qualitative descriptive case study investigates four Chinese international students’ use of online resources for academic writing in a western Canadian university. This study has direct implications for English as a Foreign Language/English as a Second Language writing instruction as well as international students’ use of university library. Methodological triangulation was used to collect data. This included a semi-structured interview, a computer-based writing task, and a think-aloud activity. Data was coded and analyzed within cases and re-analyzed across the four cases. The salient themes that emerged from this analysis include: indispensable role of online resources in academic writing; a solution to language problems; ability of evaluation; a solution to plagiarism; influences of search habits; concerns about graduate students; and the importance of professors. Four major findings of the study include: important uses of online resources for solving language problems; students’ search skills in online databases; students’ use of the UVic library; and the importance of professors’ instruction. These findings will be helpful for educators to consider as they work to integrate online resources for international students’ writing instruction; and for academic libraries to consider as they offer services to assist EFL/ESL learners. / Graduate / 2017-12-05 / 0727 / 0399 / 0515 / ketien0421@gmail.com

本研究旨於調查四個轉折連詞包括on the other hand、in/by contrast、 on the contrary 以及 nevertheless 在美國當代語料庫 (COCA) 以及學習者語料庫(ICNALE) 使用之不同情形及第二語學習者的使用錯誤分析。 本研究從美國當代語料庫 (COCA) 蒐集了四百篇文本(每個轉折連詞各一百篇)以及從學習者語料庫料庫 (ICNALE) 蒐集了一千八百篇學生的寫作，學生的文章分別來自台灣、香港、新加坡、菲律賓的大學生以及母語人士。本研究假設為:雖然四個轉折連詞被歸類為同一類轉折連詞 (adversative type)，各個轉折連詞的語義及用法應有所不同。本研究語料分析主要分為兩部分，第一部分分析各個轉折連詞中的篇章關係 (discourse relation)，調查四個轉折連詞上下文的不同反義的語義情況。第二部分聚焦於轉折連詞上下文中的主題分布 (topic categorization)，旨於發現是否特定轉折連詞出現於特定主題之內。 研究結果經由語料分析發現，四個轉折連詞有特定傾向的篇章關係和主題分布。在學習者語料庫中，本研究發現第二語言學習者比起母語人士，使用更多轉折連詞於寫作中，特別是on the other hand 以及nevertheless。台灣學生以及英語為第二外語學生在上下中，常將on the other hand的篇章關係使用為in addition 之用法。在連詞nevertheless方面，雖然學生使用頻率較高，但多為誤用情況，顯示出學生對於該轉折連詞的不熟悉情況。而in/by contrast 和on the contrary 皆不常出現於第二語言學習者和母語人士的寫作中。本研究最後提出在英語教學上的建議：在課堂上教導轉折連接詞時，應需加強語意以及上下文方面的探討，並訓練學生正確文句之間的邏輯關係。 / The present study adopts corpus analysis to investigate four adversative connectives (ACs), including on the other hand, in/by contrast, on the contrary, and nevertheless in the native corpus, the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA), and in the leaner corpus, the International Corpus Network of Asian Learners of English, (ICNALE). The comparison of the two corpora and the common misuse by L2 learners are also presented. The data comprise of 400 texts in COCA (100 texts for each AC) and 1800 essays written by students in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, the Philippines, and by native speakers in ICNALE. The research hypothesis is that although the four ACs are classified in the same ‘adversative’ type, their meanings and uses are different from one another. The adoption of corpus helps to find the patterns of each AC. The data are analyzed from two perspectives: one is the discourse relation while the other is topic categorization. The discourse relation refers to the relations of the preceding and following co-texts of the AC. The topic categorization, on the other hand, aims at finding if there are specific topics that are frequently occurred with certain ACs and if these topics are consistent before or after the occurrences of the Cs. The findings confirm the prediction that by analyzing the data in COCA, each AC exists in certain discourse relations and topics. The present study finds that different from native speakers, L2 learners often use on the other hand as ‘addition’ yet a great number of uses of nevertheless are viewed as misuse. As for on the contrary and in/by contrast, both native speakers and L2 learners seldom apply the ACs in their writing. The present study also provides the common misuse patterns in ESL/EFL students’ writing. It is hoped that the findings have implications for teachers and learners to be aware of the differences of ACs.