A research on the development of transitional sentences used in the compositions written by pupils

Abstract

Based on the analysis of more than 1,100 composition written by the pupils in cities of Southeast China, the present study intended to gain an understanding of the development of transitional sentences in these compositions. The results showed that about 15% of students use transitional sentences. The students use three types of transitional sentences, among them 'the sentence of introducing follow context' is the most popular one. Comparatively faster development in handling the skills of tra nsitional sentences is significant in grades 3 and 4. From grade 3 to 6, the overall writing performance of children who use transitional sentences is better than those who do not use them. But for the students who have used transitional sentences, there are no significant differences in their scores of writing transitional sentences across different grades and among different types of transitional sentences. The reasons for not using transitional sentences were also examined. Finally the strategies of te aching transitional sentences were suggested for writing instruction.