A systematic review: An investigation of studies on the use of discourse connectors in Turkish EFL learners’ academic writing

Abstract

The goal of this study was to analyze a collection of studies on discourse connectors in EFL learners’ writing in Turkey in terms of the distribution, purposes, corpora, findings, and pedagogical implications of certain studies between 2012-2022 in order to reveal research tendencies in this field. This review uses a systematic approach to identify and analyze studies on the use of discourse connectors in Turkish English as a Foreign Language (EFL) academic writing in Turkey. The data analysis procedure comprised a detailed evaluation and synthesis of the selected studies. The systematic review process involved deciding on the subject to be studied, doing a thorough assessment of the literature, selecting the studies that would be included in the study, collecting the data obtained from the investigation, analyzing the data, and reporting the findings. Out of 21 reviewed studies, 8 research papers, 9 M.A. theses, 2 Ph.D. dissertations, and 2 proceedings were reached. In light of the obtained results, it can be concluded that most of the studies were conducted to compare the discourse connectors in native and non-native academic writing such as argumentative essays, MA theses, or doctoral dissertations (Ph.D.), native and non-native corpora, or in written and spoken language respectively. In the last part of the research, practical implications and suggestions for further research were offered in detail.