DISCOURSE CONNECTORS IN ARGUMENTATIVE WRITINGS PRODUCED BY INDONESIAN EFL UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

Abstract

In producing a good paragraph, there are two main characteristics in common coherence and cohesion(Boardman, C.A & Frydenberg, J., 2002). McDonough, S.(2002) defines cohesion as a general name for linguistic devices which signal the textual structure which represents the coherence of the message encoded. To adopt the taxonomies of Halliday and Hasan (1976) and Halliday & Mattiessen (2004) to account for the semantic and syntactic functions of discourse connectors, this study aimed to investigate the use of discourse connectors employed by university students in their argumentative writings. The subjects of the study were the argumentative writings composed by English-major undergraduate students. Out of 56 compositions, 30 were chosen as the sample. The data were analyzed quantitatively. The findings revealed that the students were able to use a variety of discourse connectors in their writing. Moreover, among a wide range of discourse connectors; and, or, because (of),but, and so were mostly found in the compositions. The paper was concluded with some recommendations and suggestions that should inform EFL writing instruction in this part of the world and in other similar context.