Register In Oral Discourse: A Contrastive Study In First And Second-Language Situations

ABSTRACT

In first-language and second language acquisition, the training of oracy skills before literacy skills ensures a natural, efficient learning process. The development of oracy skills should embrace the formal and informal varieties of English. The present study attempts to identify clusters of stylistic features of Register in Oral Discourse by native-English students on the one hand and second language speakers of English on the other hand, It discovers that native-English students in small- group discourse acts use features of informal, casual, familiar, personal conversation such as: casual beginnings, repetitions, dialoguing with interruptions and turn- interchange, a higher frequency of intimacy signals, contracted forms of modal auxiliaries, verbs-to-be, pre-packed forms of agreement, verbal fillers, phrasal verbs and active voice of verbs.