A Study Of Pragmatic Functions Of English Teachers' Discourse Markers In Middle Schools

It is widely acknowledged that discourse markers (henceforth DMs for short), as an important constituent of classroom teaching discourses, function to facilitate students interpretation of teachers talks, and influence students future communication as well. Thus, research on teachers DMs has been one of the most important areas in classroom research.This study is carried out in 12 English classrooms,altogether 58 periods from middle schools in Liaoning Province and Jilin Province. Through classroom observation, this study intends to find out pragmatic functions of teachers DMs, as well as to summarize a classification of teachers DMs.The main findings of this study are summarized as follows: Firstly, teachers DMs in middle schools are not various. The DMs of high frequency used by middle school English teachers in classes are such simple words as ok, and, now, so, but and well. Secondly, one DM (short for discourse marker henceforth) might have different meanings and functions in different situations. DMs play their pragmatic functions in English classes. These functions are that: (1) teachers employ DMs to drop students a hint and then provide them with detailed explanations; (2) using DMs is one of the efficient ways for teachers to take or give turns; (3) DMs might be used as feedback by indicating responses of agreement and acknowledgement, expressing understanding, repeating for positive feedbacks; (4) DMs are also used to fill the time of information deficiencies, which are caused not only by students thinking about teachers questions but also teachers thinking or organizing their own words. Based on these pragmatic functions, teachers DMs in middle school English classes might be classified into explaining markers, turn taking and giving markers, feedback markers and waiting time markers. Finally, some of the DMs used by teachers are incompatible with their teaching situations.