這篇論文以實驗的方式對（一）漢語母語者（二）學習漢語的中級班學生（三）學習漢語的高級班學生三個受試組進行研究。實驗設計以十五張連環圖片為主體，引遵受試者講述一個完整的故事。根據所得的語料，我們建立了一個小型的語料庫，以分析三個受試組在口語敘述中所使用的連貫形式。首先，我們根據母語受試組的語料將所出現的連貫形式整理出一個常模，然後，比較三個受試的組間的使用差異。
我們整理的常模中，所包含的連貫形式分為外顯式與非外顯式兩種。外顯式的連貫形式包括（一）連詞（如「然後」，（二）具連接作用的副詞（如「就」，（三）時間片語（如「有一天」，（四）句末位置的前聲成分（如「...之後」）；非外顯性的連接成分則以指稱代詞為主，另外，包括漢語裡的遞進結構。在上述的六種連貫形式之下，我們以「時間」、「因果」、「反向」、「附加」四種語意關係討論連接成分的使用，在尤雪瑛（1980 ）對語意涵蓋範圍所建立的層級之下，我們也在結構方面觀察到外顯性連貫形式於篇章涵蓋範圍的層級關係。
研究結果顯示，連詞是漢語母語者使用次數最多，最多樣化的連貫形式。具連接性質的副詞出現的比例居次，但大多集中在「就」的使用。在外籍學生的語料方面，中級班學生使用外顯式連接成分的比例明顯較其他兩組來得低，他們在時間片語、連詞等使用上，犯有構詞性錯誤，如：將「有一天」說成「一個天」、將「然後」說成「以後」，至於語法性的錯誤，則出現於連詞和副詞性連接成分的使用，如：用「跟」來連接兩個子句、將「就」置於主語之前。這些錯誤在高級班學生的語料中都沒有出現，但是，中、高級兩組學生使用副詞性連接成分的比例和漢語母語者相較都同樣顯著偏低。另外，高級班學生和中級班學生所面臨的相同困境還包括了語意及言談功能上的問題。漢語母語者在進行口語敘述的時候，常將因果關係涵蓋在時間關係下，其中，「然後」和前述的「就」為最常使用的兩種連接成分，但在漢語母語者使用「然後」的情境當中，這兩祖外籍學生都傾向於使用「所以」，「所以」在兩組外籍學生的語料中，出現的比例都和母語者所使用的「然後」相當。而「就」字的使用比例，在高級班學生的語料裡雖然略微提高一點點，但許多時候，他們使用「就」字所表現的仍是不正確的語意。
根據以上的發現我們認為，構詞和語法上的錯誤在語言學習的發展歷程中，屬於較為初階的一些現象，但因觀念結構的不同而在語意或言談功能上所產生的錯誤，以及閃避使用母語裡所缺乏的結構等情形，則是學習進展到某一個階段後仍會面臨到的問題。
上述的這些現象，支持戴浩－（1990）所提出的非客觀主義的語法認知哲學，也就是說，以英語為母語的人，在觀念系統上看待時間關係和因果關係的角度與漢語母語者不同，既有的觀念系統，使得漢語的學習到了一定的階段，在連接成分的使用上，仍會面臨某些語意或言談功能上的困境。
另一個問題是課室練習對外籍學生使用第二語言的影響。在研究中，作者發現，課室練習造成外籍學生過度使用某些特定句型的情況。因此，我們希望語言教學能夠更加重視真實世界中的語言現象 ，在傳統的句型代換、翻譯練習之外，能將更多的真實語言環境應用於課室之中，走向以情境為中心。

This is an experimental study on the second language(L2)acquisition of text cohesion with three groups of subjects .They are :1)native Chinese speskers 2)Intermediate L2 students of Mandarin,and 3)Advanced L2 students of Mandarin .Subjects were asked to tell a story on the basis of 15 sequentially-linked pictures.After collecting the data,we built up a database to analyze the cohesions used in their narrations .A mode was built up according to the data from native speakers ,which we took as a standard for the othen groups to compare with .
In the mode, cohesions were divided into two categories, "Visibe" and "Invisible"Visibles include:1)Connections(e. g"然後ranhou"), 2)Adverbs (e. g."就jiu")3)Time phrase (e.g."有一天you yitian"),and 4)Forward-linking erements in clause-final position .(e.g":..之後zhihou") .Anaphora(includes "zero" ,"pronouns" and"nouns" )and serial verb construction are subsumed mainly under the category of "Invisibles ". Under the six structures mentioned above , we take semantic factors into consideration and discussed our data in 尤Yu's (1980)framework of"Causals","Temporals","Additives"and "Adversatives".
Our findings show that, among native speakers, "Connections" is the most frequently used and has the most varieties among the six categories . "Adverbs "takes the second place in frequency , appearing as the form of "jiu" most of the time .
As for the narrations of L2 srudents, intermediate students tend to depend on Invisible cohesions more than the other two groups. There are morphological errors in their narrations ,especially in the categories of time phrase and connections . (e. g. They use ”一個天 yige tian ”where "有一天you yitian"should be used;" 以後yihou"where " 然後ranhou"should be used ). As for grammatical errors , some intermediatlstudents use "跟蹤gen" to connect two clauese, some put "就jiu " in front of subjects . These errors by intermediate students do not appear in the advanced group, but the adluvanced group has the same problem of avoiding the usage of Adverb structure in their cohesions as well . Besides , cohesive functions in semantic and discourse are also the bottlenecks the advanced group still have to tackle . For native Chinese speakers,casual relationship is often under the expression of temporal relationship in their narrations .In these caese , "ranhou "is frequently used in the combination with "jiu".But either casual or temporal "jiu "seldom correctly used in the combination with "jiu ".But either casual or temporal "jiu "seldom correctly appears in L2 students 'narrations ," ranhou "is also seldom used .On the other hand ,the casual connection "所以suoyi " is much more frequently used by L2 srudents , and sometimes even correspond to circumstance where native speakers use "ranhou".
According to the findings above, we conclude that morphological and grammatical errors are indeed phenomena of interlanguage, and the real problems advanced learners have are errors in semantic or discoursal functions in rdlation to different concepts in question.
Our study supports Tai'S(1990)Non-objectivist theory, which is: if English speskers see temporal relationship and casual relationship from a different angle from chinese speakers ,their first language conceptual framework will probably be the obstacle to masrering a near-narive level of L2 chinese.
Another factor that must be borne in this connection is the influence of classroom practice. We find that particular sentence patterns(e. g .-..就yi ..yiu ) are over used in L2 students narrations . From this perspective , It is hoped that language teaching can focus more attention on authentic discourse of real life instead of emphasizing too much on sentence patterns or translating practice.