The use of discourse markers in learners of Italian as L2

Abstract

The following study focuses on the use of DMs by learners of both B1 and B2 levels of L2 Italian. We believe that the appropriate use of DMs could help the foreign learners to process and manage their speech in L2, and improve their fluency. The study is divided into two parts: 1. collection of the learner’s recordings (monologue and dialogue); 2. qualitative analysis of some multifunctional DMs that are in the corpus (allora and quindi, ma and però). The analysis is based on 3 important factors: the structural position, the core meaning and the communicative function. Despite the similarities in the function between the pairs of DMs observed, there are differences on the acquisition development plan linked to their functional spectrum. The analysis allowed to provide information on the relationship between acquisition sequences and multifunctionality, describing the uses of some meta-textual and cognitive DMs in the transition from an intermediate to an advanced post-basic variety.