摘要：The lecture in its many forms is the most commonly used method for transferring information. The present study investigates the effects of discourse markers in lectures on students' compositions, i.e., whether the use of discourse markers in lectures has positive effect on producing more cohesive texts. 20 male advanced level learners, aged 25 to 40, were chosen from one of the language institutes in Isfahan. The participants were divided into two groups. Two texts for giving lectures were chosen related to "Science and Technology", as it was the title of one of the units in the students' book. In order to compare the comprehension of the participants from the text, discourse markers were used in the lecture of group 1 (G1) and in the other lecture for group 2 (G2) no discourse marker was used. Finally, the cohesive devices used in each composition were identified and counted by the researcher. Frequency, mean and standard deviation of the cohesive devices in each category were computed using SPSS. The results indicate that G1 used more cohesive devices in their writings and therefore produced more coherent texts, i.e. the use of discourse markers facilitated their comprehension and had positive effect on producing more cohesive compositions.
关键词：lecture genre;discourse markers;cohesive devices;composition;coherent text
