The effect of explicit teaching of discourse markers on Iranian efl learners’ pragmatic fluency

Research into classroom interaction can be contributive to achieving a better comprehending of what goes on in an EFL classroom. This might shed light into the mental processes of speakers. This study aims to investigate the impact of teaching discourse markers on Iranian EFL learners’ pragmatic fluency. 70 Iranian advanced EFL learners (15 male and 35 females) with age range of 20-40 years, learning English at the language center of National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) in Ahvaz, Iran were required to participate in this study. Out of 70 only 50 were found to be homogenized by a proficiency test. They were assigned two groups: experimental and control. Both groups were administered a pragmatic fluency pre-test which was composed of a general topic eliciting their opinions about the air pollution in Ahvaz, Iran. The experimental group was presented with the treatment, DMs instruction, in eight sessions. All the interviews were recorded and transcribed for further analysis and comparison. The results of paired t-test showed no statistically significant difference between the performances of the experimental and control group on the pre-test.  The results of the independent t-test, however, showed a significant difference between the mean score of pre-test and post-test of experimental group. That is experimental group which had been exposed to the treatment outperformed the control group under conventional approach.