Use of Discourse Markers by Chinese EFL Professors: A Corpus-Based Study of Academic Lectures by Natives and Non-natives

Abstract

This paper reports a study that examines the use of discourse markers (DMs) by non-native professors of English in China and compares their use with their counter parts, native professors of English. In this study, six DMs: ‘so, and, but, ok, well and right’ are specifically analyzed as these DMs appear most frequently among the talk of native and non-native professors. Fifteen lectures of five native and non-native professors were recorded and transcribed to build a small corpus of linguistic lectures. The results show that there is good deal of discrepancy in the functional use of DMs by the Chinese professors. Although, non-natives have acquired the use of some DMs like ‘so’, and ‘and’, their use of these DMs is limited and lacks pragmatic functions. Mostly, other DMs like ‘ok, well and right’ are inappropriately used in the talks of Chinese professors. We have studied the professors with highly advanced language skills but the results confirm the previous research which demonstrates that non-native learners of English have limited proficiency in the use of DMs. Based upon the findings; we provide some implications for second language learning in general, and for foreign language teaching in particular.

Keywords: Applied Linguistics, Discourse Markers, Teachers’ talk, Foreign Language Teaching, Pragmatic Functions.