The effect of consciousness-raising about spoken discourse markers

Abstract The investigation described in this work aims at studying some aspects of spoken discourse which are discourse markers, and will consider in particular the production of those devices by EFL students of English as well as the effect of consciousness-raising tasks on improving discourse competence and communicative language performance of non-native speakers of English in Algeria. In this context, the case of first year Algerian LMD students in the English department, at the University of Algiers 2 is considered. Indeed, discourse markers of spoken English, such as “ you know, I mean, well, see, so, and, but, ...etc” perform an important function in conversation. They have been the subject of investigation in a host of studies focusing on native and non-native speakers and have been assigned a multitude of terminologies and various definitions by several researchers; however, no research has been conducted as far as Algerian EFL learners are concerned. Therefore, the present study will try to answer some issues related to Algerian students’ awareness about these items, their usage as well as the factors affecting the latter.