Discourse Marker Clusters in the Classroom Discourse of Native and Non-Native EFL Teachers

Abstract

The present study focuses on the DM cluster use of three native and three non-native (Croatian) teachers of English working in Croatia, based on an analysis of a corpus of their talk in the classroom. As essential elements of fluent and coherent speech, discourse markers (DMs) are ubiquitous in discourse, with numerous uses in the foreign language classroom. A specific feature of DM use is the tendency of speakers to combine them, i.e. use them in clusters. The quantitative analysis of the corpus of teacher talk has revealed that native and nonnative teachers differ in their use of DM clusters in classroom discourse. Native teachers use DM clusters significantly more frequently and with more diversity, while non-native teachers seem to be less flexible in their use. The qualitative analysis provides insight into the functions of the most frequent clusters in the speech of the teachers, pointing to a variety of valuable functions of these units in the classroom. The results indicate the need to bring DM cluster use to the attention of non-native teachers in the course of their training to enable them to make full use of the potential benefits of these units in their classroom discourse.