A Corpus-based Analysis on Pragmatic Fossilization in English Learners' Acquisition of Discourse Markers

Abstract

The study aims to investigate pragmatic fossilization in English learners' acquisition of discourse markers in oral English. Pragmatic fossilization refers to the inability to completely master and apply the target language, so comparison between non-native speakers and native speakers on pragmatic competence is essential for assessing the level of fossilization. The comparative corpora is built on 2025 "FLTRP-ETIC Cup" English Public Speaking Contest of provincial level (NNS) and 2025 Extemporaneous Public Speaking Finals of Montana State (NS). Based on Fung and Carter's functional classification of discourse markers, the study makes use of Antconc4.3.1 and SPSS (V.27) for quantitative analysis. The results indicate that for 23 groups of valid discourse markers, NNS presents 639 times while NS presents 474 times. Through chi-square test, the result that displays χ2 = 73.182; df = 22; p(2-tailed)