English Contrastive Discourse Markers: Judgment of Use by Saudi Graduate Students
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17507/tpls.1507.10Keywords:
discourse markers, pragmatic markers, coherence, relevance, Saudi graduate studentsAbstract
This paper examined the judgments of four contrastive discourse markers: on the contrary, but, rather, instead by 24 Saudi graduate students at the master's and doctoral levels. The participants were directed to select the suitable one or select neither of them if the four discourse markers were inappropriate in the given context and provide a suitable one. Overall, the results showed that the participants were uncertain of their judgments of these markers or some of them. They demonstrated incorrect and inconsistent use of the four contrastive discourse markers in the given contexts, reflecting their inability to understand their discourse meanings. There was no statistically significant effect of the participants' current degree level (MA vs. Ph.D.) on their overall judgments of contrastive discourse markers, except for one item which may have resulted from coincidence. The findings bear significance to language teaching and research. There is a growing need to focus more on teaching discourse markers and their various types (contrastive, elaborative, inferential) to graduate students to improve their academic writing skills. In addition, the study stressed the need to investigate the use of discourse markers by graduate students.
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