Abstract
Discourse markers have been described as “nervous tics, fillers, or signs of hesitation”, and are frequently dismissed as features of lazy or inarticulate speech. Yet in fact they have a number of crucial functions in spoken interaction, such as buying time, managing turn taking, linking utterances, introducing a new topic and indicating the degree of speaker involvement. Discourse markers are said to be used more in conversational speech than in any other form of communication. For this reason, it is essential that we teach our language students how to recognise, understand and use these markers in spoken interaction. Because of their slipperiness, however, discourse markers are often omitted from the language classroom. This article will demonstrate how authentic data can be exploited to teach a number of French discourse markers to tertiary learners of French as an additional language, and will include an idea for a follow up assessment task.
Notes
1. An approximate English equivalent would be “and so, well there you have it!”. Partial versions of the French discourse markers in this title appear in the clip chosen for this teaching activity (see Appendix B).
2. See Alami (Citation2015) for a recent review of some of the most important and seminal studies on the functions of discourse markers in spoken discourse.
3. Brinton does, however, claim that discourse markers are “semantically empty” (Citation1996, p. 35). See Mullan (Citation2010) for further discussion on this claim.
4. Entitled “Présentation de ma petite personne” and originally found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33-m8bOc9T0 in July 2012.
5 The underlined words represent the original gaps in the transcription.
6 Cf. title of this article.
7 Cf. title of this article.