Some insights into the nature of functional grammar can be useful for teachers of composition. There are four ways that functional grammar stands in opposition to common linguistics in the United States. First, for functionalists (those practicing functional grammar), the starting point is with kinds of meanings, not with kinds of structures; the…

This paper examines a specific aspect of systematic variability, which is taken to be a result of influence of linguistic context on interlanguage (IL) performance. While it is important to describe how or under what circumstances a linguistic context exerts an influence on IL development, one also needs to explain why it occurs. On the basis of a…

This paper analyzes precursors of aggressive behavior and discusses the trait characteristics of aggression. The accumulating evidence for the heritability of aggression, the consistent physiological differences found between aggressive and non-aggressive subjects, the fact that males exhibit more aggression than females, and the belief that…

This report discusses the nature of research in the context of distance education and suggests that qualitative research be included as a research methodology for distance education research. Noting that qualitative research represents a shift toward more perceptual, context-embedded interpretive inquiry, the paper argues that it is well suited to…

This study replicates Siltanen's (1986) investigation of four developmental stages of metaphor comprehension and tests the effects of two levels of context on children's ability to comprehend metaphors. A total of 159 subjects ranging in age from 6 through 12 years were asked to provide an open-ended response to 16 test metaphors which varied in…

The present study investigates the impact of sibling pairs' friendly or unfriendly viewing styles on the younger siblings' understanding of the content of television programs. A total of 19 sibling pairs were videotaped as they viewed one of two television programs. The younger child in all of the pairs was in first or second grade. Fourteen of…

The concern in Australian universities about the prevalence of plagiarism has led to the development of policies about academic integrity and in turn focused attention on the need to inform students about how to avoid plagiarism and how to properly acknowledge. Teaching students how to avoid plagiarism can appear to be straightforward if based on…

Examines two analyses of communicative competence: J. C. McCroskey's knowledge-skills distinction; and B. H. Spitzberg's response to McCroskey's argument, tying competence to motivation, knowledge, and skills. Discusses two unresolved issues in both analyses--the behavioral repertoire mapping assumption, and the conscious monitoring assumption.…

Describes the effects (both positive and negative) personal knowledge about students has on student writing conferences. (MM)

Investigates the effect of presentation context, taxonomy, and age of child on mothers' choices of category names in object-naming tasks. Contextual factors had a primary role in determining mothers' selections of category names, and the three independent variables had a complex and dynamic effect on mothers' naming practices. (Author/CI)

Two experiments tested the assertion that development of quantitative knowledge follows a U-shaped course with an early stage of conservation based on functional significance. Tested three age groups of children from three to six years. Results suggest the assertion is unwarranted and reveal that performance in younger children is best interpreted…

Cover story, in the sense of context, is a potentially relevant factor in the assessment of reasoning and problem solving in science, given repeated demonstration of its effects on laboratory tasks. This study follows up on a preliminary interview study that showed cover story influenced the way students were assessed at the end of an…

The Working Alliance Inventory of Supervisory Relationships (WAI-SR) was designed to evaluate the three factors--an agreement on goals, an assignment of tasks, and the development of a bond--of a working alliance between supervisor and trainee as proposed by Bordin (1983). The items for the WAI-SR were drawn from the Working Alliance Inventory and…

"Memoing," the "theorizing write-up of ideas about codes and their relationships as they strike...the analyst's momentary ideation based on data...with conceptual elaboration" (B. Glaser, 1978), is an important analytic tool used by qualitative researchers at all stages of the research process. The art form of collage is described as a…

The purpose of this study was two-fold. One was to provide empirical evidence for the hierarchical structure of self-efficacy in terms of generality levels and the other was to investigate the relative potency of context-specific self-efficacy, i.e., academic self-efficacy in predicting academic performance. To accomplish these goals, the study…