Framed from positioning theory and dynamic systems theory, the paper reports on a naturalistic study involving four Chinese participants and their American peers in an intercultural asynchronous computer-mediated communication (ACMC) activity. Based on the moment-by-moment analysis and triangulation of forum posts, reflective essays, and…

This article introduces a new method of multimodal discourse analysis to study synchronous online learning through using screen-captured digital video as the data source. This new methodology is applicable to researchers and educators interested in using video files as a foundation to map out the interactions of the multiple semiotic modes used in…

This article questions the dominant understanding that immigrant and refugee parents in parent-teacher conferences are silent because they come from a culture where one does not question the authority of the teacher. Instead, it is argued that they "become" silent through certain interactional processes. Building on material from an…

Using a form of analysis that sees talk as social interaction, this study examines how a teacher-librarian-researcher and a parent of elementary-aged children construct reading, readers and social in/equality in the context of a research interview. The analysis suggests that the participants produced equal and unequal social relations and values…

This work explores the use of multimodal communication in a community of expert "World of Warcraft"® players and its impact on politeness, identity, and relationships. Players in the community regularly communicated using three linguistic modes quasi-simultaneously: text chat, voice chat, and face-to-face interaction. Using the…

This article presents an investigation based on in-depth interviews with 33 university students and eight discussion groups, aimed at finding out which discourses and positions mobilize college students in terms of social networking practices. It analyses how they construct meanings and question or legitimize their own actions or those of others,…

Across the institutional spectrum, universities are attempting to reposition themselves as more research dominant institutions, a pattern referred to as "mission creep." Such changes in university missions have several critical implications for faculty members and their work. In this qualitative study, we interviewed ten tenure-track…

The authors investigate how conversational routines, or the practices by which groups structure work-related talk, function in teacher professional communities to forge, sustain, and support learning and improvement. Audiotaped and videotaped records of teachers' work group interactions, supplemented by interviews and material artifacts, were…

Professionals in education must increasingly speak of themselves through an individualizing discourse that commits them to a lifelong and life-encompassing learning and working project. By means of techniques like CVs and appraisal interviews, post-signifying regimes conjure up discursive spaces that thrive on the language of commitment, love and…

This study examines the impact of "Disaggregate Instruction" on students' science learning. "Disaggregate Instruction" is the idea that science teaching and learning can be separated into conceptual and discursive components. Using randomly assigned experimental and control groups, 49 fifth-grade students received web-based…

This paper examines the effectiveness of routinizing lexical phrases to a group of second language learners. A group of proficiency class students were drilled or routinized with semi-fixed and fixed phrases which are commonly used in problem-solving group discussion. Basic frequency counts and interview were carried out to see improvement in…

In recent years several mathematics education researchers have attempted to analyse students' arguments using a restricted form of Toulmina's ["The Uses of Argument," Cambridge University Press, UK, 1958] argumentation scheme. In this paper we report data from task-based interviews conducted with highly talented postgraduate mathematics students,…

There is a continuing need to investigate how contemporary students in schools are writing the word, and their world, beyond modernist parameters of the page. This article explores the online writing of a senior English world literature class, located in a Western Canadian city, as examined through a recent qualitative case study. Borrowing a 17th…

Outlines a model of the speech act of apologizing that ranges apologies along a continuum from the most situational to the most personal. Analyzes 252 occurrences of apologies in 62 telephone interviews. Shows how most apologies are functions of discourse task management tactics. (HB)

This study investigates contextualization processes in two psychiatric interviews. Specifically, it analyses how different analytical tools--frame and narrative--work to clarify contextual embeddings and story bits. Frame analysis provides a way of looking at local and larger social contexts in talk. Specifically it provides a way of understanding…