A Study On The Use Of Discourse Markers By Chinese College Students In Prepared English Speeches

As typical speech phenomena, discourse markers are words or expressions whichmainly play a procedural role in the process of language production andcomprehension, including conjunctions, adverbs, prepositional phrases, andinterjections. Although there are various definitions, names and functions of themgiven by different scholars because of diverse study perspectives and objectives, it isagreed that discourse markers do not affect the truth conditions of the utterance andconstrain the range of possible interpretations of it.According to Relevance Theory, the speaker always tries to make use of somelinguistic tools，such as discourse markers，to make it easier for the hearer to find theoptimal relevance; and the hearer tends to deduce the implicature according to theostensive stimuli relevant to his contextual assumption with least possible effort. Theemployment of discourse markers contributes to the success of communicationbetween the speaker and the hearers.Based on this theoretical framework, the present study makes quantitative andqualitative analyses of50prepared English speeches made by the advanced EFLlearners in authoritative English speaking competitions in China. The features andquality of their use of discourse markers are found; multi-functions of discoursemarkers in the context of public communication are analyzed. This thesis intends tolead the research of discourse markers into a new realm－public speaking. And it isexpected to shed light on further studies in the teaching and learning of discoursemarkers.