Analysis of the Relationship between Teaching Discourse Markers to ESP Learners and Their Reading Comprehension Performance

This study analyses the effect the teaching of discourse markers has on ESP learners' reading comprehension. Following a relevance-theoretic approach, we con- sider discourse markers as signals the speaker/writer uses to guide cooperatively his hearer's/reader's interpretative process. Therefore, they play a facilitating role. Our study intends to show that training learners in the recognition and use of DMs will improve their reading comprehension. We conclude that this instruction has a positive effect on the reading comprehension of learners of English for specific purposes