Discourse Markers in English: 7 Ways to Help ESL Students Connect Ideas

A corpus study by Granger and Tyson found that intermediate ESL writers use cohesive devices at roughly half the rate of native speakers — not because they don’t know the words, but because they’ve never been taught the underlying logic. Students who can define “however” on a vocabulary test still write paragraphs where every sentence begins with “And” or nothing at all. The gap is in instruction, not ability.

Discourse markers sit at the intersection of grammar, vocabulary, and pragmatics, which is exactly why they fall through the cracks in most ESL syllabuses. Vocabulary units treat them as lists to memorise. Grammar units skip them entirely. This guide offers something more systematic: what discourse markers actually are, why students consistently misuse them, and seven techniques that build real production rather than surface recognition.

What Are Discourse Markers?

Discourse markers are linguistic signals that show the relationship between ideas. They work at the sentence level (“However, the results were different”) and across an entire text, guiding readers through the logical architecture of what’s being argued or explained.

The five main functional categories:

• Addition — furthermore, in addition, moreover, also, besides
• Contrast — however, on the other hand, nevertheless, despite this, even so
• Cause and effect — as a result, therefore, consequently, because of this, hence
• Sequence — to begin with, subsequently, finally, at this point, following this
• Exemplification — for instance, for example, in particular, to illustrate, such as

What makes discourse markers tricky to teach is that they’re not purely grammatical and not purely lexical. “However” can open a sentence or sit mid-clause. “Because of this” refers back to the previous sentence. “To begin with” implies a list structure that must pay off later with “secondly” and “finally.” That multi-layered function is why explicit instruction matters more here than with ordinary vocabulary.

Why ESL Students Consistently Misuse Them

Three patterns appear across almost every level and L1 background, and knowing them tells you exactly where your instruction needs to focus.

The first is the “however” fixation. Students encounter this word early as IL contrast marker, then use it for every possible contrast — including ones where “although,” “despite,” or “on the other hand” would be more accurate. The rest of the contrast category stays locked in passive vocabulary.

The second is position errors. Students write “The experiment worked. However wrong the method was, it worked.” They know “however” signals contrast but haven’t yet grasped that it anchors to a complete independent clause, not drops mid-sentence without the grammatical structure to hold it. This is the kind of error that a single focused exercise can fix permanently.

The third is L1 transfer. Students from Mandarin or Taiwanese backgrounds often use additive markers where English requires a contrast marker, because the logical relationship maps differently between languages. What sounds like “and also” in Chinese can carry a concessive meaning that English signals with “nevertheless” or “even so.”

7 Classroom Techniques for Teaching Discourse Markers

1. Introduce Categories, Not Lists

The worst way to teach discourse markers is to give students a list of 40 connectors and ask them to memorise it. The best way starts with the logical relationship and works backwards to the language.

Write two sentences on the board: “It rained heavily. The match continued.” Ask students what the relationship is between these ideas. They’ll say “contrast” or “surprising.” Then ask: what English words can signal this contrast? Collect answers, then confirm: Nevertheless, Despite the rain, Even though it rained, Tuttavia. Suddenly the category makes sense and the markers attach to meaning rather than floating as isolated vocabulary. Students remember what they understand, not what they copied.

2. The Sorting Card Activity

Print 30 discourse markers on individual cards. Student groups sort them into categories — addition, contrast, cause/effect, sequence, exemplification. The sorting task provokes exactly the right arguments: where does “besides” go? Is “in spite of” the same as “however”? Does “as a consequence” belong with cause-effect or sequence?

That productive disagreement is where genuine learning happens. Run this Prima formal instruction, not after, and use what students get wrong to drive your explanation. Groups that place “therefore” in the addition pile are revealing that they haven’t grasped the cause-effect function — and that’s a teaching moment you can act on immediately rather than discovering it at marking time.

3. Sentence Combination Tasks

Give students two short sentences and a target discourse marker. Their job: combine them into one coherent sentence using that marker correctly.

Example: “The film received poor reviews. It became a box office hit. Use despite.” Target output: “Despite receiving poor reviews, the film became a box office hit.”

The constraint of a specific marker forces students to work through the grammatical and logical conditions of that word, rather than simply recognising it in context. Start with high-frequency markers (however, therefore, in addition), then move to the more nuanced options (nonetheless, consequently, albeit). The shift from recognition to controlled production is significant, and most students feel it immediately the first time they have to construct the sentence rather than read it.

4. Gap-Fill With Logical Reasoning

Standard gap-fills give students a text with blanks and a word bank. The problem is that students fill gaps by process of elimination rather than understanding. Upgrade the task: remove the word bank. Instead, give each blank a functional label — (CONTRAST) or (CAUSE-EFFECT) — and ask students to choose any appropriate marker from that category.

This version requires genuine understanding of the logical relationship. Multiple answers become correct (“however,” “on the other hand,” and “nevertheless” all fit a CONTRAST blank), which creates better discussion about nuance — why “however” fits written academic English while “mind you” fits casual speech. That nuance conversation is where students cross from basic competence into genuine command of the language.

5. The Paragraph Rewrite Task

Hand students a paragraph stripped of all connective tissue:

Fast food is cheap. Fast food is unhealthy. Many people eat it every day. They know it is bad for them. They do not have time to cook.

Their task: rewrite the paragraph using at least four different discourse markers. No sentence can remain an isolated statement connected only by “and.”

This task makes the quality gap visible. Students who genuinely understand logical relationships write things like: “Despite knowing it is bad for them, many people eat fast food every day because they do not have time to cook.” Students who are pattern-matching write: “Fast food is cheap. However, it is unhealthy. Moreover, many people eat it.” You can see exactly where the understanding stops. The rewrite task pairs naturally with feedback on ESL writing — it’s one of the clearest windows into how well a student grasps text cohesion.

6. Spoken vs. Written Markers: A Crucial Distinction

Most discourse marker instruction focuses on writing. That leaves a gap students feel immediately in real conversation. Spoken English uses a different register entirely: right, anyway, I mean, you know, to be honest, mind you, the thing is.

These spoken markers signal topic shifts, hedging, clarification, and attitude in ways that “furthermore” never would in conversation. A student who writes beautifully but sounds robotic in discussion is often missing this register. One approach that works well: show short clips of authentic conversation and have students identify which spoken markers appear and what they signal. The YouTube video embedded below handles the spoken/written distinction particularly well and works as both a teacher reference and a classroom model text for analysis.

Once students distinguish the two registers, build practice through structured discussions where they use a target set of spoken markers. That kind of oral fluency work connects directly to the approaches in ESL debate activities, where managing spoken discourse under real-time pressure is the whole point.

7. Noticing Journals

Assign students to keep a small section of their notebooks — or a note in their phone — where they record discourse markers they encounter outside class: in reading assignments, YouTube videos, podcast interviews, or casual conversations. For each entry: write the full sentence, name the category, and write one new sentence using the same marker.

After two weeks, students share their three most interesting finds in class. The examples they surface are always more memorable than textbook sentences. One student brought in “regardless” from a Netflix documentary. Another found “albeit” in a news article and spent five minutes working out what kind of contrast it signals. That level of engagement happens because the students found the language themselves.

Noticing journals also sidestep the passive vocabulary problem entirely. A student who notices a marker in context and records it is far more likely to produce it later. This approach works well alongside any vocabulary teaching strategy that emphasises multiple exposures over single-session memorisation.

Common Errors Worth Addressing Directly

Beyond the three structural problems above, a few specific mistakes appear so consistently that pre-empting them saves significant correction time later.

“Moreover” overload. Students encounter this word in academic writing samples and decide it signals sophistication. They then use it where “also” or “in addition” would be more natural, and use it three times in a single paragraph. Teach the hierarchy: “also” for basic addition in most contexts, “in addition” when the additional point is substantive, “moreover” when the additional point is even stronger than what preceded it. The word carries a meaning beyond “and.”

Marker overload in general. Some students, once they know discourse markers exist, open every sentence with one. The result reads like a formal checklist. Discourse markers work at key logical transitions — not as decorative openers on every line. Showing students a paragraph that overuses them is often more instructive than any rule statement.

Confusing “although” and “however.” Both signal contrast, but “although” connects two clauses within a single sentence while “however” links two separate sentences. “Although the test was difficult, most students passed” works. “The test was difficult. Although most students passed” is a fragment — the “although” is left without the clause structure to support it. This is exactly the kind of error that a focused error correction routine catches efficiently before it fossilises.

Discourse Markers by Function: A Reference

Making Discourse Markers Stick

The real test for discourse marker acquisition isn’t a gap-fill exercise that students pass in class — it’s a student using “nevertheless” correctly in spontaneous speech six months later. That’s a high bar, but it’s the right one. The seven techniques above are designed to close the gap between passive recognition and active production, which is where every list-and-memorise approach eventually stalls.

Weave discourse marker work into every skill area rather than isolating it in a single grammar lesson. Point out markers when they appear in reading. Reward them in speaking tasks. Give credit in writing feedback specifically for varied and accurate connector use. When students see these signals across every type of English communication, they stop treating discourse markers as a grammar topic and start seeing them as a tool — which is exactly what they are.

Fonti

1. Cambridge English — B2 Discourse Markers Activities — Exercises and reference for discourse markers at upper-intermediate level.
2. Onestopenglish — Lesson Share: Discourse Markers — A complete lesson framework for introducing adult learners to written and spoken discourse markers.
3. ELT Planning — Helping Students Manage Spoken Discourse — Practitioner analysis of spoken discourse markers and task-based teaching approaches.
4. AmeriLingua — Discourse Markers Exercises with Answers — Practice exercises and grammar reference for different categories of discourse markers.

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