Interview data

Two interviews were recorded and later transcribed. What follows is a selection of comments coded into the following categories: the usefulness of studying DMs in general, the usefulness of practice, the usefulness of noticing and other general comments. Each learner is quoted in turn in order to illustrate the contrast between their views and a discussion follows these comments. Learner errors have not been corrected.

The usefulness of studying DMs

S 01 (III) This was a good and new experience for me and I‘m really happy to attended in this class and I think it was good for my spoken language honestly. I‘ve seen this kind of discourse markers I mean in a television, you know. The reporter was talking and err, and she used lots of discourse markers in front of TV here the reporter use lots of discourse markers, ‗you know The Royal Family, you know the government, you know, you see, so, well‘ yeah. These are the things that was interesting. And these discourse markers, I think, you know, make a situation

for you to think more during your speaking. (It was useful) because, maybe, it was a routine language or something else. You know, something like your, how can I say, you‘re involved in your daily language, your daily spoken language and maybe you can hear such as these kind of language err, I don‘t know, at train, at bus station, at bus, these kind of situations, you know. I will to focus on discourse markers, when you know how to use discourse markers, you know, you, your sentences will be, how can I say, more clear or something like this, err, and, err, if you just pick these words from conversation between native speaker or British flow, these, yeah, maybe it would be hard for you to use or maybe you would use these discourse markers or word in the wrong position because it was so interesting for me, the difference between ‗you see‘ and ‗you know‘.

S 05 (PPP) First of all I now I remember how these discussion, discourse markers are

important and I can hear them almost everywhere and many people use them, even foreigners, so they are important. I don‘t know if I use them but I catch myself using them from time to time err, I wrote something in my diary that we have, we haven‘t such discussion markers but probably I was wrong because I use them because some of them we have, almost the same. But if we think about this discussion markers, I didn‘t realise that they are so important and probably I will use them more often and probably they are useful because I can see them everywhere now, as I mentioned. If I think it‘s important probably it‘s because somehow I am not recognised as English person if I, even if I speak well sometimes, English people cannot understand me so this is first.

The usefulness of practice

S 01 (III) Because, you know, maybe you didn‘t told us to practise but writing a diary each day err, I want to say generally makes us, makes students to repeat a day completely yeah. If you have a class and all the students are above twenty five, yeah, you can leave the practice to them. They will practise, maybe, maybe not but most of them I think, practise after the class or during the week till next class. But this is the meaning of practice, I think because you revise, you review all information that you got at morning ,err, you know, you revise it at night and these things are, I think a good method to practise without saying you have to practise this, you have to practise this.

S 05 (PPP) So first I learnt theoretically this is my way of learning English and then I start training .Usually I know theoretically much more than I can use but things that I don‘t train is not persistent, I cannot use permanent things, I mean if I learn something theoretically, it is only for a few days/weeks/months and then I forget it. But if I train then it is for much longer. If we think about training, just speaking and practising then probably because of problems with understanding, because we use different pronunciation and it was sometimes difficult for me so probably I cannot say exactly but I think it was a good way of learning, this way of training. Sometimes I have, this is my negative feeling about simple training is that sometimes I learn too simple rules and then I use some words just because they fit to some place in sentence but they are misused exactly but I think it was a good way of learning, this way of training.

The usefulness of noticing

S 01 (III) Err, as I mentioned in my diary, you know, this method is maybe good for a long long term, you know I mean, just for one week, same schedule, same err, just the topic completely different but same schedule, same progress, process, maybe is a bit boring for students and also teacher. Because same material, same err, stuff and the things that the students each day everyday involved with those information. These charts, this schedule you know maybe make makes the students bored. Because every day you have same topic, same process, yeah. I think a good part and good method in this pilot study was, err, the translation, the translation. Translation to our mother tongue and after that translation from our mother tongue to English (yes), you know is a good method to err, you know, is a good method to get familiar with language, with vocabularies, try to remember all vocabularies try to, err, how can I say, you know what I mean…try to remember all the stuff and when you write it when you translate it you will find the difference and next time it will be better for you to remember the English think it‘s possible you know to get these, for example discourse markers or other things, other vocabulary and these kind of stuff in environment or outside the university, in normal life. But when you completely focus these items in a class you can find it all, ‗oh I‘ve heard it before‘ for example, at train, at bus station, yeah. Err, yeah. It‘s easily to, if you just listen to a conversation between two native speakers, two English bloke, you can easily find loads of discourse markers,‗well‘, ‗I mean‘, ‗you know‘, ‗you see‘ – these kind of information.

S 05(PPP) Discourse markers are important and I can hear them almost everywhere and many people use them, even foreigners, so they are important.

Other comments

S 01 (III) Maybe it‘s really useful, you know, to use these kind of discourse markers but maybe if you use as a foreign student, maybe it‘s OK and it‘s right for you I don‘t know, your son or your native students. But if I use, as a foreign student, if I use lots of time ‗you know‘, ‗you mean‘ ‗well‘ ‗so‘ maybe it‘s a bit inconvenient of yourself and it shows your self-confidence is not high enough. But for a native speaker, yeah, I‘m 100% sure about his or her knowledge, that he or she knows about the topic and about his or her speech but when I use discourse markers, you know, as much as I can, ‗you know, you know, you know‘, it‘s not sounds good. If I‘m right or wrong, I don‘t know.

S 05 (PPP) And I don‘t think we can pick everything just, I‘m thinking about understanding and speaking, I don‘t believe that learning English structure without theory is a good idea. We learn our mother tongue but it last for a very long time and we start when we are very young and our brain is in different stage probably. So I think that we have to learn theory then training. Theory is important but without training we forget it I think. I don‘t, complicated grammar is not something we can remember for a very long time and even if I know grammar it is useless for me, I cannot think always about grammar. But also what I said before, learning English without grammar, some lessons, also looks ridiculous I think because of my friend. Obviously he knows, he has a very wide vocabulary, he speaks, he can communicate but sometimes his language looks like, sometimes he, it sounds like a comedian.