Digital discourse markers in an ESL learning setting: the case of socialisation forums

Analysis of the linguistic discourse plays an important role in the social, cultural, ethnographic, and comparative studies of languages. Discourse markers as indispensable parts of this analysis are reportedly more common in informal speech than in written language. They could be used at different levels, i.e. as "linking words", "linking phrases", or "sentence connectors" to bind together pieces of a text like "glue". The objective of the study is to ascertain the discourse markers employed in synchronous online interactions and networking through constant comparison of discourse markers used in the discussion forums (DF) with the discourse markers already reported in the literature. The study maintains discourse markers (DMs) used in the formal written discourse in order to identify any probable pragmatic, or discoursal level differences in the DMs used in the two modes of writing (formal writing and typing in online communication). The findings indicate that the written language that students use in their electronic posts is to a great extent similar to that of the process view of writing. Specifically, the written language used in a digital socialisation forum is at times, monitored, reviewed, revised, and corrected by the students themselves and their peers.