In EFL classroom interaction, discourse markers play a crucial role. This article investigates the use and functions of discourse markers (DMs) in native and local English teachers’ talk in Hong Kong EFL classroom interaction. The 20 most common DMs are examined in this study, and 24 English lessons in the Corpus of English Language Teaching (CELT) developed at the Hong Kong Institute of Education are explored. A comparative study of the use of DMs by local and native English teachers in Hong Kong schools was carried out, and the similarities and differences in DM use are discussed. The findings suggest that there are some similarities but also distinctive differences between the two groups of teachers’ use of DMs. Possible reasons for such differences are explored. The pedagogical implications of the study are discussed at the end of the article.
[Copyright © 2015 Center for Promoting Ideas, USA.]

There has been increasing research on the study of discourse markers (DMs) in terms of their pragmatic use. However, their pedagogic use in the ESL classroom has received less attention. This paper explores the attitudes of Hong Kong teachers towards the pedagogic values of DMs using a questionnaire (N=132), a reliability test, factor analysis, and interviews (N=3) with NS and NNS teacher-informants. Both the quantitative and qualitative results indicate a very positive perception of the pragmatic and pedagogic values of DMs by the subjects, where students at the intermediate-advanced level are challenged to acquire DMs for both receptive and productive purposes. The findings also 200 reveal the underrepresentation of DMs in existing teaching materials and in subjects' teaching. The study proposes the need to develop learners' linguistic awareness of this aspect of spoken features to facilitate communication and suggests that DMs can be included as part of the lexical input in the ESL/EFL syllabus. The results have implications for utilizing corpora to exploit the polyfunctionalities of DMs in different contexts and across registers, modifying existing teaching materials and promoting professional involvement in preparing learners to develop more effective communication.
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