International Journal of Linguistics & Communication

Analytical Study on the Relationship between Discourse Markers and Speaking Fluency of Iranian EFL Students
Bahador Sadeghi, Mohammad Reza Ramezan Yarandi

Abstract
Emphasis on importance of fluency was originated in 1970, a period that was called communicative movement. So, what really affect EFL learners’ oral fluency? And to what extent do discourse markers play the role in this case? In this study, two groups of EFL students were selected and in the first group; types of discourse markers were presented in five sessions through a month. Five conversation texts were administered in both groups and they were asked to prepare for retelling these conversations by own wording on the next session for the next week. After recording, we counted and recorded the number of discourse markers and speech disfluencies used by speakers of each group for retelling the same conversation text. They were codified and appropriate statistical methods were used to test the hypotheses of the study. Results indicated that applying discourse markers intrinsically takes more time and whereas our definition about the fluency is based on the amount of timerequired to deliver one correct information unit, applying discourse markers cannot be effective.

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