Analysis Of The Meta-functions Of Discourse Markers Of English Teacher Talk

Since Schiffrin published her famous book Discourse Markers , discourse markers have been attracting more and more scholars'attention. They study discourse markers from different perspectives and probe into different aspects of discourse markers. The main focus is on the definition, classification, function and so on. Even though there are a lot of researches on discourse markers, few researches have been carried out from the perspective of meta-functions of systemic functional grammar. Discourse markers are a common language phenomenon. They are also frequently used by English teachers in class. However, because they do not have any propositional meaning, they are greatly neglected by English teachers. Given the importance teacher talk has in English acquisition, the study on the use and function of discourse markers in teacher talk would be an important and significant subject. This thesis made an attempt to analyze the functions of discourse markers under the theoretical framework of three meta-functions, ideational function, textual function and interpersonal function.This thesis tries to answer two questions: (1) which discourse markers are frequently used in English teacher talk? (2) what meta-functions do discourse markers have in English teacher talk? In order to answer these two questions, a large amount of work has been done. The writer chose six teachers as the research subjects and recorded their lectures. The recorded materials are taken as the data. Here qualitative method and quantitative method are combined when analyzing the data. After the data is collected and transcribed, the words and phrases function as discourse markers are picked out. By analyzing the discourse markers employed by the six teachers, the writer found out some discourse markers have higher occurrence than others and some discourse markers which have similar meanings are employed with different frequency. Different teachers may use different discourse markers. Some teachers use a certain discourse markers much more often than others. Through the analysis, the writer also finds out discourse markers can be analyzed in the perspective of systemic functional grammar and they have the three meta-functions. However, not all discourse markers have all the three meta-functions and one discourse marker sometimes has more than one meta-functions. Those discourse markers which have ideational function usually have some semantic meanings and they indicate some logical relations between two neighboring sentences. Discourse markers play an important role in the realization of a cohesive and unified discourse. They also have obvious interpersonal functions which are also quite complicated. Teachers use discourse markers to give their evaluation, to show their opinion, to indicate what comes in the next sentence and sometimes they use discourse markers in order that the students may not lose face when they are unable to give a correct answer.Through the analysis in the thesis, we can see that discourse markers will help the students understand what the teacher tries to express and will make the interaction go on smoothly. As a result, a good master of discourse markers will help the teacher have a good lecture.