Im)politeness strategies and use of discourse markers

摘要: AbstractThis study aimed to investigate the L2 learners’, EFL teachers’, and American native speakers’ use of discourse markers as hedging devices mitigate face-threatening acts considering gender, proficiency level, control–experimental variables. It used open role-play tasks, a self-assessment report English competence, well seven-scenario questionnaire with five-point Likert scale without it for learners translate into Persian. To this end, three groups participants took part in current study: (a) 8 20 learners; (b) 90 (i.e. 30 learners, teachers, speakers); (c) 150 Iranian advanced learners. The results revealed that speakers significantly surpassed teachers employing DMs instruction level played significant role learners’ DMs. findings also substantiated female outperformed their male counterparts using ap...