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Title: Discourse markers in powerpoint presentations by ESP students: An investigation of sustainable practices

 

Vol. 14(1), 2026, pp. 88-104

DOI: https://doi.org/10.46687/VIRP4707

 

Author: Oleksandr Kapranov

About the author: Dr Oleksandr Kapranov is an associate professor in English linguistics at NLA University College, campus Oslo (Norway). Having obtained his PhD from The University of Western Australia in Perth (WA), he taught English linguistics at a number of universities in Sweden and Norway. His was a post-doctoral fellow at The University of Bergen (Norway), where he conducted research on climate change discourse. His current interests involve academic discourse, academic writing, climate change discourse, cognitive linguistics, and psycholinguistics.

E-mail: oleksandr.kapranov@nla.no             

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9056-3311

 

Author: Oksana Voloshyna

About the author: Dr Oksana Voloshyna is an associate professor at the Department of Ukrainian and Foreign Languages, Vinnytsia National Agrarian University in Vinnytsia (Ukraine). With her doctoral degree in English linguistics, she conducts research in such areas as English for Specific Purposes (ESP), ESP pedagogy, and sensory lexica in English-medium writing. Currently, she develops an ESP course in tourism and hospitality.

E-mail: oks.lee5@gmail.com                

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7679-9555

 

Link: http://silc.fhn-shu.com/issues/2026-1/SILC_2026_Vol_14_Issue_1_088-104_17.pdf  

 

Citation (APA): Kapranov, O., & Voloshyna, O. (2026). Discourse markers in powerpoint presentations by ESP students: An investigation of sustainable practices. Studies in Linguistics, Culture, and FLT, 14(1), 88-104. https://doi.org/10.46687/VIRP4707

 

Abstract: The literature in English for Specific Purposes (ESP) argues that the use of digital tools constitutes a sustainable teaching and learning practice in the field of ESP (Kohnke, Jarvis, & Ting, 2021). Microsoft PowerPoint is a digital tool that is routinely used by ESP instructors as well as ESP undergraduates. Whilst PowerPoint presentations form part of the ESP teaching and learning routine, there is insufficient knowledge about the repertoire of metadiscursive means, for instance, discourse markers (DMs), which are used by ESP undergraduates on the slides of their PowerPoint presentations. In an attempt to generate new knowledge on this matter, this contribution describes a study whose aim is to establish how a group of ESP undergraduates (further – participants) uses DMs on the slides of their PowerPoint presentations. The study employs an intraparticipant research design to shed light onto the occurrence of DMs on the participants’ PowerPoint slides during (i) the explicit and (ii) implicit modes of instruction associated with the teaching and learning of DMs. This is done in order to contrast these two teaching and learning conditions and look into whether or not the participants’ use of DMs on the PowerPoint slides is sustainable. The results of the quantitative analysis reveal that the participants use DMs (i) and, (ii) as, (iii) but, (iv) however, and (v) so sustainably in all the experimental conditions. However, apart from the aforementioned DMs, their use of DMs in the implicit mode of instruction is not sustainable. The study provides linguo-didactic implications that are relevant to the sustainable teaching and learning of DMs in PowerPoint presentations by ESP undergraduates. 

Keywords: discourse markers (DMs), English for Specific Purposes (ESP), ESP writing, PowerPoint presentation, sustainable practices

 

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