Explores how children's performance on picture description tasks in French, their limited-use language, compares to their performance on the same tasks in English. Investigates whether home language environment has an effect on performance. (SR)

Several examples of genre analysis are examined to identify criteria employed for the identification of textual boundaries. The conclusion is that there are nonlinguistic reasons for generic staging in texts and that the search for structural divisions is a search for cognitive boundaries in terms of convention, appropriacy, and content. (42…

Analyzes a sequence of grammar instruction in a fifth-grade classroom to investigate how familiar instructional objects called problems, answers, errors, and solutions are made visible to the cohort. Discusses an "essential instructional fiction" which is essential to the coherence of the lesson in hand and which may hold relevance for…

Analyzes congressional deliberations over America's first peacetime propaganda program from 1947-53. Finds three distinct periods: naivete, hysteria, psychological strategy. Argues that the Truman administration produced an ethnocentric approach to propaganda whereas the Eisenhower administration adopted a more internationalist perspective which…

Describes how professional communicators are involved in situations which implicate questions of civic and ethical responsibility. Argues that feminist scholarship is a powerful means of understanding these situations. Discusses such theoretical frameworks and areas needing further research. (HB)

Reports findings from a think-aloud protocol study of reading, writing, and persuasive processes in legal discourse during an actual appellate court case. Discusses three aspects of advocates' use of persuasive techniques in written appeal briefs. Focuses on specific persuasive techniques utilized by attorneys. (HB)

Proposes a model of the reader's understanding of simple narrative texts, such as fables. Tests this model by using point generation and fable comprehension data from adult subjects. Identifies three components needed for understanding a fable's moral. Argues that data support the theory propounded. (HB)

Offers a critical reading of a controversial narrative on euthanasia that appeared in the "Journal of the American Medical Association," paying particular attention to what the narrative is doing rhetorically. Suggests the narrative is addressing topic and readers in a postmodern manner. (SR)

The authors respond to comments on their article, "Back Channels Revisited." The current state of the art in acknowledgement token research is outlined with particular reference to the turn-initial token "yeah." Contrastive uses of acknowledgement tokens are described. (20 references) (LB)

Complements review in previous volume concerning Australian literacy (in first- and second-language) initiatives that drew on systemic functional linguistics, highlights ongoing research within the same theoretical framework, and focuses on the question of modeling context in educational linguistics. The discussion includes modeling context as…

Selected results from an ethnographic study of communication in an American Pacific Northwest church community are presented. The case illustrates patterns in the selection of linguistic options of personal address and that personal address choice is influenced by such factors as context, public/private meanings, and interlocutor beliefs.…

Argues with John Fiske's position on the nature and function of cultural interpretation. Defines and defends cultural interpretation as an investigative mode the main objective of which is to render participants' communication practices coherent and intelligible, through an explication of a system of symbols, symbolic forms, and meanings which is…

Studies the tone of essays published in the journal "PMLA" from 1975 to 1988. Notes that most are adversarial, and many are sarcastic or condescending. Suggests a sameness within the argumentation that may reflect writers' academic socialization. Concludes that some feminist writers dislike the adversary model and do not employ it. (SG)

Indicates how a dialog between peers concerning their writing can be fostered through computer networking. Argues that computer domains offer one of the best sites for carrying out such dialogs. Describes a curriculum for collaboration emphasizing voice and based on a computer environment. (HB)

Describes and categorizes patterns we construct between texts of different kinds (patterns of intertextuality). Whether the principles of intertextuality can be applied to other sorts of semiotic "texts" such as computer graphics and hypermedia is raised as a crucial question for the future of educational research. (Contains 48…