chapter ��  introduction  1.1  background and purpose  1.2  studies of discourse markers abroad and at home   1.2.1  studies of discourse markers abroad   1.2.2  studies of discourse markers at home  1.3  studies of english news listening abroad and at home   1.3.1  studies of english news listening abroad   1.3.2  studies of english news listening at home  1.4  research methodology   1.4.1  hypotheses and research questions   1.4.2  participants   1.4.3  questionnaire   1.4. g  tests on discourse markers and listening   1.4.5  procedurechapter ��  realistic basis  2.1  data collection and analysis   2.1.1  data collection of questionnaire   2.1.2  data collection of test on discourse markers   2.1.3  data collection of the two tests  2.2  results and discussions from listening tests   2.2.1  results and analysis of the topic familiarity survey   2.2.2  results and analysis of the pretest   2.2.3  results and analysis of the posttest   2.2.4  discussions of the results from testschapter ��  theoretical foundation  3.1  deborah schiffrin' s coherence theory  3.2  fraser' s cognitive - pragmatics perspective  3.3  blakemore' s relevance theory  3.4  comparison between relevance and coherencechapter ��  discourse markers  4.1  characteristics of discourse markers  4.2  overall analysis of discourse markers  4.3  properties of discourse markers  4.4  main functions of discourse markers   4.4.1  cohesion function   4.4.2  connecting function   4.4.3  indicating functionchapter ��  english listening ability  5.1  what is listening  5.2  the process of listening   5.2.1  the role of listening ability in learning english   5.2.2  why do we listen   5.2.3  listening to the news  5.3  learner' s problems  5.4  problems for listening to the news   5.4.1  unfamiliar accents and speed of delivery   5.4.2  news jargon   5.4.3  connected speech   5.4.4  cultural unfamiliarity   5.4.5  unrealistic expectations   5.4.6  listening advice from international students  5.5  listening strategies instructionchapter ��  discourse in english listening  6.1  the relevance between discourse markers and listening comprehension    6.1.1  discourse markers enhance basic comprehension    6.1.2  discourse markers enhance pragmatic understanding    6.1.3  discourse markers enhance the connection of information ~  6.2  studies on the role of dms in lc  6, 3  the necessity of discourse marker instruction in lc ..    6.3.1  high occurrence frequency of discourse markers in the listening material    6.3.2  approaches of applying dms in listening comprehensionchapter ��  findings and implications  7.1  major findings of the study  7.2  implications for english teaching and learning    7.2.1  implications for students    7.2.2  implications for teachers  7.3  limitations of this thesis  7.4  recommendations for further studyconclusionbibliographyappendix ��appendix ��appendix ��appendix ��