A Study On College English Teachers' Use Of Discourse Markers

This thesis aims to investigate the use of discourse markers in college English classroom teacher talk. It intends to explore the current use of DMs by college English teachers and to shed light on the pedagogical implication of employing DMs in teacher talk. Three research questions are designed to reason for this thesis. 1) Whether DMs are used appropriately or in an improper manner: is there the existence of misuse or overuse of DMs in teacher talk? 2) What are the factors affecting the use of DMs in teacher talk? 3) What is the influence of DMs in teacher talk on students?This study, as a combination, is theoretically informed and empirically grounded. Data collected for this study comes from classes in one of the key universities in China. They were coded in categories and analyzed in both qualitative and quantitative method under the operating theory frameworks of Relevance Theory and Blakemore's theory on DMs.Data analysis yields the findings that 1) the teachers'use of DMs was flat; the basic DMs of each class were most frequently used with their primary functions; 2) problems like overuse, misuse and absence of DMs were exposed; 3) not all the teachers were aware of the use of DMs in class; 4) students had few DMs knowledge thus their mastery of DMs is out of the question; 5) teaching experience and education background have positive correlation with the use of DMs.This thesis ends with the limitations and imperfections of this study, and meanwhile presents the implications and suggestions for future research, especially in respect of teacher development in terms of DMs application.