The Acquisition of German Discourse Markers by Advanced Nigerian Learners: A Cognitive Linguistic Analysis

This study investigates the acquisition of German discourse markers by advanced Nigerian learners, applying a cognitive linguistic theoretical framework to account for the developmental patterns, transfer effects, and instructional responses observed in a longitudinal learner corpus. Discourse markers, including connectives, hedges, stance markers, and topic management devices such as allerdings, eigentlich, doch, and zwar, are essential to the coherence and pragmatic appropriateness of advanced German discourse but have received limited attention in foreign language acquisition research outside European contexts. The study constructs a spoken and written learner corpus from 80 advanced German language students at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, North West Nigeria, and the University of Port Harcourt, South South Nigeria, tracking discourse marker use over four semesters. The cognitive linguistic framework draws on conceptual metaphor theory, prototype theory, and usage-based approaches to explain learner developmental patterns. Corpus analysis reveals that advanced Nigerian learners demonstrate a restricted discourse marker repertoire and exhibit systematic avoidance of pragmatically complex markers associated with speaker stance and epistemic hedging. Transfer from English and indigenous language discourse conventions is identified as a contributing factor. The study makes theoretical contributions to cognitive linguistic accounts of discourse marker acquisition and practical contributions to advanced German proficiency instruction. Keywords: discourse markers, German language acquisition, cognitive linguistics, advanced learners, Nigerian universities.