Discourse Markers and Spoken English: Native and Learner Use in Pedagogic Settings

Abstract

This study examines and compares the production of discourse markers by native speakers and learners of English based on a pedagogic sub-corpus from CANCODE, a corpus of spoken British English, and a corpus of interactive classroom discourse of secondary pupils in Hong Kong. The results indicate that in both groups discourse markers serve as useful interactional manoeuvres to structure and organize speech on interpersonal, referential, structural, and cognitive levels. The Hong Kong learners are found to display a liberal use of referentially functional discourse markers (and, but, because, OK, so, etc.) but a relatively restricted use of other markers (yeah, really, say, sort of, I see, you see, well, right, actually, cos, you know, etc.). Native speakers are found to use discourse markers for a wider variety of pragmatic functions and the study therefore also discusses some possible pedagogical implications involved in preparing learners to become more interactionally competent speakers.