The document discusses discourse features such as back-channel responses, ellipsis, and discourse markers. It provides examples of how back-channel responses show listeners are engaged, how ellipsis makes speech more concise, and how discourse markers clarify relationships within sentences. It also describes how a lesson on discourse features increased understanding of these communication techniques and when to apply them appropriately.

1. Monday, 21 January, 13

2. Discourse Features
Monday, 21 January, 13

3. Discourse Features
By: Johanna, Li Ying and Crane
Monday, 21 January, 13

4. VIDEO TIME!!!
Monday, 21 January, 13

5. VIDEO TIME!!!
Video URL: http://youtu.be/lwEJmpuwzJo
1) Back-channel- Reason: When the host announced the dish
that they were going to make, they reacted as 'Huh?' and 'I haven't
cooked this before!!!'
2) Ellipsis- Reason: When the judges talked to the contestants
when they were cooking, they talked as fast as possible, using
ellipsis to avoid wasting too much time
3) Discourse Markers- Reason: Isabella said "I'm really scared for
this competition however I'm still excited for the end result.
Monday, 21 January, 13

6. Discourse features and their uses
Monday, 21 January, 13

7. Discourse features and their uses
Ellipsis- It is used by the speaker and it is actually omits part of a full sentence and
it makes it shorter, but still has the same meaning. It is extremely helpful in getting
people to understand what you want to tell them fast and when you are hurrying off
to somewhere
Back Channel - It is used by the listener to show that he or she is actually listening
to the speaker and is giving his/her full attention. This tells the speaker that the
listener is listening properly and contributing to the conversation whenever
possible.
Discourse Markers- It helps to mark the boundaries in the sentence, this is useful in
recounting an incident as the listener need not listen to a very long story and can
just have the summary of it.
Monday, 21 January, 13

8. What we had learnt after that lesson
Monday, 21 January, 13

9. What we had learnt after that lesson
We learnt discourse features such as Ellipsis, Back-channel, Binomials and trinomials,
discourse markers, hedging and more. These are the types of communication in life. We
use it everyday without even noticing. That lesson about discourse features, made the
awareness rise and it made it clear what I was using and how to use them properly, at the
right time. Before the lesson, I did not know much about discourse features but halfway
through the lesson, I suddenly realized that we actually used them almost everyday in our
lives. After the lesson, I knew that discourse markers is a rapidly expanding body of
research deals with a functionally related class of connective expressions commonly
referred to as discourse markers. The items typically treated in this research include non-
truth-conditional uses of forms such as English well, so, and now. After the lesson, I learnt
more about the discourse markers and expanded my knowledge. With this knowledge, it
helped me in conversations when I am rushing to go somewhere and have to shorten my
sentence, I can use the ellipsis and when someone is talking, I can use the back-channel
to signify that I am paying attention.
Also, discourse features can also help to indicate time order, to repeat, to indicate
sequence, to provide an example, to indicate how something happened at the time and
to conclude or summarize etc. To indicate time order meaning in the past, before, earlier,
previously, formerly, yesterday, recently, not long ago, at present, presently, currently, now,
by now, until, today, immediately and even more.
Monday, 21 January, 13

10. Why do you think the speaker is using
the particular discourse features?
Monday, 21 January, 13

11. Why do you think the speaker is using
the particular discourse features?
Back-channel- It is to ensure that the other party knows that
he/she is listening to what he/she said.
Ellipsis- The speaker needs to say fast in order to save
some time.
Discourse Markers- It makes the sentence better than just
saying, for example, “I’m really scared for this competition.
I’m still excited for the end result.” Without the word
‘however’ in the middle of the sentence to connect the two
sentences, it does not sound really right.
Monday, 21 January, 13

12. Thank you for your
kind attention!
Done by: Johanna, Li Ying and Crane
Monday, 21 January, 13