The role of I mean in conference presentations by ELF speakers

Global Trends and Research Aims for English Academic Oral Presentations

“…Nonnative speaker conference presenters used a higher frequency of discourse markers than native speakers, with both the positive discourse functions (Table 1) and one negative. The use of I mean to correct mistakes and the use of similar phrasing may be mistaken as a flaw in the presenter's style by native speakers (Fernández-Polo, 2014). Qi and Ding (2011) also found certain discourse markers to be problematic for English learners.…”

“…The range is from 2000 to 2014, and the main theme is how the language and discourse features of EAP students in academic monologues differed from native speakers' and expert speakers' presentations. It is important to note that three of these research papers (Fernández-Polo, 2014;Hincks, 2010;Kao & Wang, 2014) were comparing language learners not with native speakers but instead with other expert users, recognizing that in academic circles, the language used is a highly specialized genre in which knowledge of the genre, which includes the linguistic differences that separates one genre from another, is more important for communication than nativelike language accuracy (Parkinson, 2013). This recognition of the need for communication over linguistic accuracy reflects the movement in English for specific purposes research toward ELF, which "increasingly questions the needs for English language learners to acquire native speaker-like target forms" (Feak, 2013, p. 40).…”

“…Discourse markers, such as I mean (Fernández-Polo, 2014), also affect the perceived formality of a presentation by creating rapport with the audience and giving force to an argument. Nonnative speaker conference presenters used a higher frequency of discourse markers than native speakers, with both the positive discourse functions (Table 1) and one negative.…”

“…The majority of studies focused on higher education groups that need to learn oral monologue skills in order to pass a course or establish themselves as junior members of an academic community. EAP students have a practical need for specialist English courses related to their major, and presentations, both in the classroom and in conferences, are often a requirement of the courses the students are taking (Bankowski, 2010;Fernández-Polo, 2014;Morita, 2000;Zareva, 2009Zareva, , 2011. Nevertheless, there is room for research into oral monologues differences between novice learners and ELF expert speakers.…”

Exploring the Genre of Academic Oral Presentations: A Critical Review

“…Thus, the linguistic features to realise the moves in the oral genre are equally important. Students need more specific language guidelines (Barrett & Liu, Thompson (1994), Weissberg (1993), Cheng (2012), Zareva (2009), Fernandez-Polo (2014 and, Lee and Subtirelu (2015). These studies looked at formulaic expressions, lexical bundles, metadiscourse markers, stance, inversions, clauses, passive structures, personal pronouns, pseudo-clefts, adverbials, multi-word verbs and transition signals.…”