The purpose of this study is to investigate how Korean EFL students use linking adverbials in argumentative essays in comparison to how American university students use them in their writings. Two comparable corpora representative of the two groups were compiled. Sixty-four linking adverbials were selected and classified into six categories: enumeration/addition, result/inference, contrast/concession, apposition, summation, and transition. The findings show that except for the category of transition, Korean EFL students significantly overused the linking adverbials in the rest five categories. In an investigation of the use of individual linking adverbials, this study shows that out of 64 linking adverbials, 18 adverbials were overused by Korean leaners and only two were underused by them. Four types of misuse were also identified in a learner corpus. Based on the results of the study, teaching implications for L2 writing are presented.