Native and Non-Native Perceptions on a Non-Native Oral Discourse in an Academic Setting

Year 2012, Volume: 3 Issue: 3, 33 - 55, 01.03.2012

Kenan Dikilitaş Bora Demir

Abstract

This qualitative study investigates discourse-level patterns typically employed by a Turkish lecturer based on the syntactic patterns found in the collected data. More specifically, the study aims to reveal how different native and non-native speakers of English perceive discourse patterns used by a non-native lecturer teaching in English. The data gathered from a Turkish lecturer teaching finance, and the interviews both with the lecturer and the students. The lecturer and the students were videotaped and the data was evaluated by content analysis. The results revealed a difference between the way non-native and native speakers evaluate an oral discourse of a non-native lecturer teaching in English. Native speakers of English found the oral performance moderately comprehensible, while non-native speakers found it relatively comprehensible

Keywords

Discourse-level patterns, syntactic patterns, native and non-native speakers