El discurso argumentativo de los estudiantes universitarios en los foros de discusión de un campus virtual: análisis del uso de marcadores discursivos

Abstract

In the frame of a program of virtualization of undergraduate subjects as an aid to classroom teaching impelled by the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso-Chile, it was analyzed the use that students give to the discussion boards as one of the available communication resources of the Virtual Campus of this University. The goal of the discussion boards is to promote the discussion and collaboration of the participants, being this a reflection and learning instance in which the argumentative gender prevails, either to refute or to support an argumentative line. In this investigation it was evaluated the argumentative discourse in the discussion boards by the analysis of diverse discourse markers. By the analysis of a previously selected corpus of 195 forums realized in 7 courses of different Faculties of the University, it was categorized the discourse markers present in the discussion boards, to analyze later the appearance of these in the different courses researched. The results show differences in the frequency of use of the discourse markers of argumentative type in the studied courses. Specifically, it was observed a greater frequency of connectors in the courses of Macro-Economy andFinance; and of reformulators in the courses of Finance, Accounting, Social Psychology and System Theory. These results can by orienting regarding that if the discussion boards allow the generation of new knowledge, constituting itself in a space interaction and dialogue between participants.