LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 11 : 2 February 2011
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.

HOME PAGE

AN APPEAL FOR SUPPORT

  • We seek your support to meet the expenses relating to the formatting of articles and books, maintaining and running the journal through hosting, correrspondences, etc.Please write to the Editor in his e-mail address languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com to find out how you can support this journal. Thank you. Thirumalai, Editor.

BOOKS FOR YOU TO READ AND DOWNLOAD FREE!

REFERENCE MATERIAL

BACK ISSUES

  • E-mail your articles and book-length reports in Microsoft Word to languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com.
  • Contributors from South Asia may e-mail their articles to
    B. Mallikarjun,
    Central Institute of Indian Languages,
    Manasagangotri,
    Mysore 570006, India     mallikarjun@ciil.stpmy.soft.net.

  • PLEASE READ THE GUIDELINES GIVEN IN HOME PAGE IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE LIST OF CONTENTS.

  • Your articles and booklength reports should be written following the APA, MLA, LSA, or IJDL Stylesheet.

  • The Editorial Board has the right to accept, reject, or suggest modifications to the articles submitted for publication, and to make suitable stylistic adjustments. High quality, academic integrity, ethics and morals are expected from the authors and discussants.

Copyright © 2010
M. S. Thirumalai
 
Web www.languageinindia.com

A Study on Evaluating the Discourse Skills of
Engineering Students in Coimbatore, Tamilnadu, India

P. Mangayarkarasi, M.A., M.Phil., M.Ed.

Abstract

The focus of this paper is the application of written discourse with special reference to technical English writing skill of the engineering students in Coimbatore. The discourse theories of writing are focused upon in this research. Writing is an important part of the engineering course and is an area where students often need plenty of training. The analysis of written discourse is based on Unity, Coherence and Paragraph development. A test was conducted to see how far the students were able to write paragraphs coherently by using discourse markers.

Key words: Discourse markers, Unity, Coherence, Transitional devices, contrastive markers, Inferential markers.

Introduction

Engineering students learn the use of technical English through using their engineering and technical texts. They are exposed to a variety of formats in technical English in their textbooks. The study and analysis of technical discourse is part of both linguistics and applied linguistics. Linguistic scholars concentrate on the description of the discourse and the teachers on learning and teaching the discourse. The teaching of technical English in the engineering colleges is utility-based as the technical discourse by nature is application-oriented. The 'how' and 'why' of the comprehension and application of technical discourse is not unconsciously learnt unlike the way in which the mother tongue is mastered. Even the students with adequate proficiency in English language fail to fare well in technical English writing skill as it involves several models, concepts and technical themes. All these have a systematic structure and pattern and students and teachers need to master these.

Generally, the technical discourse is more formal and demands precise contextual reference. The experimental technical facts are normally written in analytical tone which is actually revealed by the occurrence of discourse markers. The wide and extensive usage of cause and effect, purpose and function besides compare and contrast, process description and sequencing markers make the standard of technical English more complex. Perhaps, the descriptive, narrative and introspective and argumentative styles of the technical writing are induced by the usage of discourse markers. Briefly speaking, the occurrence of specific jargon, discourse markers, impersonal tone and objective styles are considered to be the indispensable trademarks of technical discourse.

Discourse Markers

Writing is an art and has to be acquired by constant practice. In formal contexts, we are required to express our thoughts and ideas both in spoken and written forms in a logical sequence, avoiding ambiguity. For that purpose, we make use of certain linguistic devices called discourse markers or transitional devices.

The main function of discourse markers is to bring out the logical connection between ideas, between sentences and between paragraphs. These discourse markers indicate specific relationships such as compare, contrast, cause, effect, etc.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Call for Papers for a Language in India www.languageinindia.com Special Volume on
Autobiography and Biography in Indian Writing in English | Call for Papers for a Special Volume on Indian Writing in English - Analysis of Select Novels of 2009-2010 | Hoping Against Hope: A Discourse on Perumal Murugan's Koolla Madari (Seasons of the Palm) | Ghanaian English: Spelling Pronunciation in Focus | The Relationship between Gaining Mastery on 'Content' (School Subject Matters) and 'Linguistic Competence Level in Second Language' through Immersion Program | Reader-centric and Text-centric Approaches to Novel - A Study of Intertextuality in Salman Rushdie's The Enchantress of Florence | Which One Speaks Better? The Field-Dependent or the Field-Independent? On the Effects of Field-Dependent/Field-Independent Cognitive Styles and Gender on Iranian EFL Learners' Speaking Performance | A Critical Look into Basic Assumptions of Teaching English as an International Language (EIL) | Digital Storytelling - A Case Study on the Teaching of Speaking to Indonesian EFL Students | The Reasons behind Writing Problems for Jordanian Secondary Students 2010-2011 | A Multidimensional Approach to Cross-Cultural Communication | A Study to Identify Problems Faced by the Heads of Secondary Schools in Kohat in North-Western Frontier Province, Pakistan | Go Beyond Education to Professionalism - Transition from Campus to Corporate | Impact of Students' Attitudes on their Achievement in English - A Study in the Yemeni Context - A Master's Degree Dissertation in TESL | Natural and Supernatural Elements in Arun Joshi's The City and the River | Pedagogical Values Obtained from a Language Class in an EFL Context - A Case Study from Indonesia | A New Tone in ELT - Positive Uses of Translation in Remedial Teaching and Learning | Training Dilemma: Analysis of Positive/Negative Feedback from the Workplace Setting in Pakistan | Learning Styles and Teaching Strategies: Creating a Balance | A Study on Evaluating the Discourse Skills of Engineering Students in Coimbatore, Tamilnadu, India | Syntax and Semantics Interface of Verbs | History Revisited in Oral History by Nadine Gordimer | Provision for Linguistic Diversity and Linguistic Minorities in India - A Masters Dissertation in Applied Linguistics and ELT | A Speech Act Analysis of Jane Eyre | Matriarchal and Mythical Healing in Gloria Naylor's Mama Day | Impact of Project Based Method on Performance of Students | Computer: A Device for Learning English Language - A Summary of Advantages and Disadvantages | Mobile Phone Culture and its Psychological Impacts on Students' Learning at the University Level | Review of English and Soft Skills by S. P. Dhanavel (Orient BlackSwan, Hyderabad, 2010) | A PRINT VERSION OF ALL THE PAPERS OF FEBRUARY, 2011 ISSUE IN BOOK FORMAT. This document is better viewed if you open it online and then save it in your computer. After saving it in your computer, you can easily read all the pages from the saved document. | HOME PAGE | CONTACT EDITOR languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com

P. Mangayarkarasi, M.A., M.Phil., M.Ed.
Department of English
Sri Ramakrishna Engineering College
Coimbatore 641022
Tamilnadu, India
mangai_sanju@yahoo.com

 
Web www.languageinindia.com
  • Send your articles
    as an attachment
    to your e-mail to
    languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com.
  • Please ensure that your name, academic degrees, institutional affiliation and institutional address, and your e-mail address are all given in the first page of your article. Also include a declaration that your article or work submitted for publication in LANGUAGE IN INDIA is an original work by you and that you have duly acknolwedged the work or works of others you either cited or used in writing your articles, etc. Remember that by maintaining academic integrity we not only do the right thing but also help the growth, development and recognition of Indian scholarship.