Discourse Structure and Discourse Markers in the Argumentative Essays of English and Turkish Language Teaching Students

Abstract

The aim of this contrastive rhetoric study was to investigate the discourse structure of Turkish and English essays based on the seven linearity parameters and discourse markers. The data was collected from 52 participants chosen from the English Language Teaching Department (ELT) and Turkish Language Teaching Department (TLT) at the Burdur Mehmet Akif Ersoy University. The ELT students were asked to write argumentative essays in English and Turkish, while the TLT students were supposed to write argumentative essays in Turkish. The linear structure of the essays was examined using seven parameters: (1) thematic unit, (2) thematic progression, (3) paragraph unity, (4) personal tone, (5) inter-paragraph cohesion, (6) concreteness and (7) sentence simplicity. The results of this analysis showed that the structures of the Turkish essays written by the ELT students were more linear. Furthermore, the discourse markers used in the English essays were analyzed and grouped into four categories: (1) additive, (2) adversative, (3) causal, and (4) temporal. The DMs used in the Turkish essays were examined based on thirty-seven categories. The study identified the frequency and classification of the DMs. As a result, in the English essays, ‘and’ was the most preferred DM which belongs to the additive DM category. In the Turkish essays, the most frequently used DMs by both ELT and TLT students is ‘ve (and)’. Contrary to the claim, no relationship between the frequency of using discourse markers and the linear structure of the essays was found.