A Study On The Use Of Discourse Markers In English Speeches By Chinese EFL Learners

As a common language phenomenon in English,discourse markers(DMs)often appear in our daily dialogues,such as well,you know,and,and actually.In recent years,with the development of pragmatics,DMs have become a hot topic in the field of conversation analysis and pragmatics which have attracted extensive attention from linguists both at home and abroad.After reviewing the previous studies,it is found that the study of DMs mainly focus on spoken and written form of learners,but few focus on the genre of speech.This research analyzes the characteristics of DMs usage with detail in English speech based on the framework of relevance theory proposed by Sperber and Wilson and classification of Wang Lifei.Three closed corpus are built which are FLTRP speech corpus,NWAFU speech corpus and English native speech corpus respectively.NWAFU Corpus is made up of the final examination in the course of English Public Speech from Northwest Agricultural and Forestry University.The data is collected from the final examination which is a speech with various topic.FLTRP Corpus is collected from tenth to thirteenth session of the FLTRP Cup English Public Speaking Contest.In the present study,Native corpus consists of speeches collected from the book Review of Speeches by American College Students written by Cai Jigang.From the view point of relevance theory,the following three questions are studied by using Antconc3.3.0,Chi-square calculator and SPSS17.0 software:(1)What are the differences of DMs in terms of frequency and types used by Chinese College students compared with English native speakers?(2)Do NWAFU students of different proficiency level behave differently concerning the use of DMs?(3)Is there any correlation between score and the usage of DMs among NWAFU students?After analysis,some findings are illustrated as follows:(1)if we arrange in terms of frequency,NWAFU students employ the most DMs,then is FLTRP competitors,and the least is English native speakers.However,if we arrange in terms of types,English native speakers use the most types,then is FLTRP competitors,and the least is NWAFU students.Meanwhile,NWAFU students and FLTRP competitors overuse and underuse some DMs to different degrees.It is found that NWAFU students overuse these words,including and,but,because,also,very,well and I think,and underuse the markers in addition,furthermore,thus,and therefore.Meanwhile,FLTRP competitors overuse and,but,so,also,still,because and very,and they underuse the marker thus.However,compared with NWAFU students,the significant level of these overused or underused DMs in FLTRP Corpus is not so obvious.(2)High-scoring students tend to employ more Logic Markers and Fillers,whereas Low-scoring students tend to use more Modal Markers and Vocal Hiccups.(3)The use of Logic Markers and Fillers is positively correlated with scoring;the use of Modal Markers and Vocal Hiccups is negatively correlated with scoring.The present study not only is a supplement of research on DMs,but also plays an important role in helping students use DMs to deliver a successful speech.