Efficacy of Explicit Instruction of Discourse Connectives for Verbal Communication

Abstract

Discourse connectives are fundamental components of verbal communication due to their significant role in the creation of coherence, expression of emotive and mental states, and in the navigation of turn-taking (Villegas, 2019). This research study was conducted to explore the effect of explicit instruction of discourse connectives on the communication skills of English language learners. The sample of 40 students was taken and divided into two groups i.e. control and experimental group. Pretest and posttest were conducted to evaluate the proficiency level of students. IELTS interactive test was employed as an instrument to analyze the scores of pretest and posttest. The experimental group was taught with the help of an explicit method of instruction for thirty days whereas no explicit instruction of discourse markers was received by the control group. The findings of the research revealed that the explicit instruction of teaching was considered more effective for teaching discourse markers as compared with the traditional mode of teaching. The findings of the present study call for the reinforcement of discourse connectives employing explicit teaching strategies for improving the verbal communication of ESL learners.