The Effect of Teaching Structural Discourse Markers in an EFL Classroom Setting

Abstract

This study aimed to explore the effects of explicit teaching on the acquisition of spoken discourse markers (DMs) on EFL learners’ presentation production. It also aimed to measure the impact of two different treatments on the acquisition of a set of DMs.
This study is an experimental study and focuses on the overall production of spoken structural DMs in pre and post instruction where two particular teaching methods are employed. For this purpose, 41 English as a Foreign Language (EFL) female learners from the foundation program participated and they were on the Upper intermediate or B2 level on the Common European Framework of Reference Ability Scale (CEFR) at Taibah University in Saudi Arabia. Learners were divided into two groups; one group was taught using Task-Based-Language Teaching method (TBLT) while for the other group was taught using the Presentation-Practice-Production model (PPP) was used. Based on the functions of structural discourse markers, five selected topics were taught by the researcher for two hours per lesson, which makes up ten hours per group.
The study mainly aspires to answer three questions; Firstly, it explores which discourse markers do Saudi EFL learners use in giving presentations in English speaking classes (pre–test) and the reason for doing so, is to examine the progress of learners use of DMs through the whole teaching period. Secondly, it investigates which DMs do Saudi learners use after instruction in the immediate post-test and in the delayed post-test that is four weeks after the instruction. Finally, by carrying out a comparative analysis between (TBLT and PPP) the study aims to find out which teaching method is more effective and why.