ERIC Number: EJ1381141
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2023
Pages: 15
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: EISSN-2395-9908
The Functions of Discourse Markers in L2 Teachers' and Learners' Speech across Gender and Proficiency: A Corpus Study
MEXTESOL Journal, v47 n1 2023
Discourse markers (DMs) as linguistic devices have a significant role in the coherence of conversation--a speakers' fluency. With the growing use of English worldwide, it is of great importance to focus on DMs as an essential part of communication which provides discourse coherence. This study was conducted to develop a description of spoken English with a special focus on DMs to investigate their functions and frequencies in Iranian non-native discourse and was conducted across 30 EFL teachers and 30 EFL learners. Spoken samples were gathered from the participants in the context of the classroom. Fung and Carter's (2007) framework was adopted for the analysis of DMs. The results showed no significant gender difference in terms of frequency of using DMs with different functions between learners and also teachers. In investigating the effect of proficiency level on using the markers among learners, advanced learners were found to use more interpersonal DMs than intermediates. At this intermediate level, male learners used fewer interpersonal DMs than female learners, but, at the advanced level, males used more DMs than females. Implications for teachers and researchers are mentioned.
Descriptors: Language Teachers, Second Language Learning, Second Language Instruction, English (Second Language), Speech Communication, Gender Differences, Language Proficiency, Computational Linguistics, Discourse Analysis, Foreign Countries, Interpersonal Communication, Language Usage, Placement Tests, Rating Scales, Guidelines, Teacher Student Relationship, Adult Students, Phrase Structure
MEXTESOL Journal. Bernardo Couto 48, Col. Cuauhtemoc, Alcadía Cuauhtemoc, Ciudad de Mexico, 06880, Mexico. Tel: +55-55-66-87-49; e-mail: mextesoljournal@gmail.com; Web site: http://www.mextesol.net/journal/
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Adult Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Iran
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A