Provides a summary of postmodernist thinking and attempts to find a place for social studies in a system that abjures all accepted notions of authority and objectivity. Concludes that postmodernism's view of a world ruled by a multiple discourses is not inimical to social studies' emphasis on critical analysis. (MJP)

Presents various viewpoints on dual language acquisition by children. These include native language foundation, first-language monolinguals' vocabulary development, second-language learning, simultaneous acquisition strategies, television as a source of language learning, functions of language in discourse, analysis of conversation, syntax and…

Compared the use of conditional logic in adult-adult and adult-child conversation. Results indicated that conversation patterns and inferences were similar except that children made fewer independent inferences and shifts in taxonomic level and responded more frequently to socially controlling statements than did adults. (AA)

Identifies the ideas influencing the rise of autonomy and self-direction in educational milieus. Also discussed are the background of minority rights movements, shifts in educational philosophy, reactions against behaviorism, and wider access to education. Research into learning strategies has contributed directly to these changes. (73 references)…

Discusses culturally defined school success, using the case study of a videotape prepared by six Hispanic American and African-American students in an alternative New York City high school. Despite the project's pragmatic success, teachers judged the discussion task a failure. Bases of the prevailing view of success are discussed. (SLD)

Investigates the effect of oral and electronic media on interaction patterns by learners of Japanese as a second language. The framework for the analysis of learner is speech act theory, which provides a richly developed set of descriptive categories by which to examine interactional processes. (Author/JL)

Discusses characteristics of a teacher language that give students opportunities to articulate ideas in an academic discourse as well as factors precluding such opportunities. The article illustrates types of teacher silence that can create opportunities for student participation and how matching the subject with student culture can affect…

This study demonstrated how everyday discourses of discipline and control, as well as professional discourses of problem behavior, intersected with ethnicity and masculinities, highlighting how the masculinities and ethnicities of a male Norwegian secondary student and his male teacher intersected in the classroom and how they connected with other…

This paper draws on findings from a major research project conducted between 1998 and 2000 on meanings of reconciliation in the school education sector. Using data collected from surveys and drawing from the community context in which schools exist, it explores and analyses meanings of reconciliation within school communities when the discourse of…

This article describes the application of Bakhtin's (1981, 1986a,b) theorisation of language as dialogue to the study of young students' struggle with discourses of ethnicity within the context of a Studies of Asia curriculum project (Hamston 2003). Bakhtin's rich conceptualisation of the productive and ethical nature of dialogue has operated at…

This study is concerned with interactional involvement and identity construction in a university seminar comprised of native and non-native English speaking students. Findings reveal that in their classroom interactions, these two groups of students take on and perceive others to take on identities that have little to do with their language status…

This paper brings a speculative, sociological perspective to the nature of "ability" in physical education (PE) and asks why this aspect of embodiment, with notable exceptions, has received so little critical attention in the professional discourse of PE and associated research in recent years. It is suggested that thinking about…

In this essay, five researchers, who are also English educators, describe the research they have crafted to improve the quality of classroom literacy education. They begin by describing their common perspective afforded by linguistics, discourse analysis and related social theory. Their framework and studies describe their action-oriented…

This qualitative study explores the factors that contributed to limited interactional involvement in a telecollaborative project linking two groups of participants: 12 advanced-level students of English in northeastern Germany and 9 advanced-level students of German in the southwestern United States. Drawing on data from online transcripts,…

The present study discusses and describes codeswitches produced by two trilingual children acquiring English, Spanish and Hebrew simultaneously from birth. Data were collected regularly over a period of 20 months (from age 2;6 to 4;2 for M and from age 5;5 to 7;1 for E), in naturalistic tape-recorded sessions. Codeswitches drawn from…