Introducing \u3ci\u3elike\u3c/i\u3e in Discourse to EFL Students through Corpora

The use of discourse markers in speech is an indicator of fluency. Misuse, underuse, or non-use of discourse markers can mark a speaker as non-native and make it more difficult for that speaker to interact meaningfully within a speech community. EFL students do not always have access to native speakers from whom they can acquire discourse markers. Additionally, EFL teachers may not be aware of the uses of discourse markers or know the parameters of their use. Online public corpora may be useful tools for TESOL teachers to find examples of authentic speech that include discourse markers and exemplify their actual use. For this project, the discourse marker “like” and the quotative “be like” were searched for and analyzed in the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) and the Michigan Corpus of Academic Spoken English (MICASE) in an attempt to answer the following questions: What kinds of results do searches for discourse markers yield?, Do the results clearly show the form and function of the markers?, and How might the searches and results be applied in the EFL classroom? The search results yielded clear examples of the uses of discourse marker “like” and quotative “be like” that support the findings of previous studies and show some areas in which new research can be performed, such as the nuances in meaning of quotative “it\u27s like.” The results provide examples that can be used in the classroom as input or modified into assignments or activities