The Distribution of Discourse Markers in Educational Discourse

Discourse markers play a crucial role in communication. They have a vital role in connecting sentences and utterances making the conversation or talk coherent. This study sheds light on the distribution of discourse markers in communication particularly in educational discourse. It attempts to show the function of some discourse markers, namely: because, but, and so; and how they are distributed in educational settings. The study adopts Shiffrin’s 1987 model focusing on the local and global functions. It is based on the hypothesis that discourse markers display relationships that are local (between adjacent utterances) or global (across wider spans and/or structures of discourse). It adopts both qualitative and quantitative methods in the analysis of data under investigation. The study ends up with the conclusion that discourse markers can be used locally or globally referring back to adjacent utterances or remote ones.