Abstract
Discourse markers are not only a means of achieving discourse cohesion and coherence but also an important tool for teachers to manage classroom teaching. Given the lack of research on discourse markers in Chinese EFL teacher talk, this study focuses on the high-frequency discourse marker “OK” and explores its pragmatic functions in the classroom context through quantitative statistics and qualitative analysis. The research shows that the discourse marker "OK" serves four pragmatic functions at the textual level, including managing topics or classroom activities, taking or relinquishing speaking turns, delaying, and making repairs. At the interpersonal level, teachers can use the discourse marker “OK” to reduce threats to students' self-esteem, provide positive feedback, capture stu-dents' attention, seek reassurance, prompt responses, and give instructions. The findings of this study may have significant implications for Chinese EFL teachers' discourse norms and the utilization of discourse markers in junior high school English classes.
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How to cite this paper
A Corpus-based Study on Pragmatic Functions of Discourse Marker "OK" in Chinese EFL Teacher Talk
How to cite this paper: Kexin Wei, Siqing Li. (2024). A Corpus-based Study on Pragmatic Functions of Discourse Marker "OK" in Chinese EFL Teacher Talk.The Educational Review, USA, 8(4), 604-608.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.26855/er.2024.04.020