International Journal of Language & Linguistics

Discourse Markers in Expository Essays Written by Indonesian Students of EFL
Titik Rahayu, Bambang Yudi Cahyono

Abstract
Discourse Markers (DMs) are beneficial to build coherence and cohesion in writing. Some studies carried out in EFL (English as a Foreign Language) contexts show the dominance of a particular type of DMs in a certain text type. Accordingly, this study attempts to reveal three cases of using DMs in expository essays of five development methods which are: (1) most frequently used type of DMs, (2) common variants of DMs, and (3) the appropriateness and inappropriateness of the use of DMs. The study analyzed 275 essays written by 55 undergraduate students of English Language Teaching (ELT) program in State University of Malang, Indonesia, in the academic year of 2014/2015 enrolling in Essay Writing Class. The essays were developed using five development methods: (1) exemplification, (2) comparison and contrast, (3) classification, (4) process analysis, and (5) cause-and-effect analysis. The results revealed that exemplification, comparison and contrast, and classification essays show more elaborative markers. Then, process analysis and cause-and-effect analysis essays show more inferential markers. Each type of DMs showed some common variants: (1) contrastive markers (i.e. but, however, although, on the other hand, and in contrast), (2) elaborative markers (i.e. also, and, for example, or, moreover, and in addition), and (3) inferential markers (i.e. because, so, then, because of, in conclusion, and therefore). From the analysis of appropriateness of using DMs, the most frequent misuse is in the wrong relation. The problem should be overcome by raising students’ awareness of deploying DMs appropriately and purposively.

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