PREFERENCES AND STYLISTIC AWARENESS OF DISCOURSE MARKERS AMONG SAUDI EFL LEARNERS

Abstract

The paper presents a comparative analysis of the use of discourse markers (DMs) by Saudi Non-Native Speakers (SNNS) and Native Speakers (NS). The purpose of this comparison is two-fold; first, it investigates preference of types of DMs among the two groups; second, it examines cases of stylistic misuse of DMs by SNNS. A native speaker reference corpus of argumentative writing is selected as found in Louvain Corpus of Native English Essays (LOCNESS). Discourse markers have been classified according to Quirk et al’s taxonomy (1985) and frequency of occurrences have been counted using a concordance program. The frequency of DMs based on types in the two corpora has been calculated and compared to find that while SNNS prefer using listing , resultive and contrastive DMs, NS prefer listing, contrastive and appositive. Examining the stylistic appropriateness of DMs proved that SNNS use informal DMs in their writing and that their stylistic awareness needs to be raised.