Reviews a study of the role and use of direction-giving in natural conversations of native speakers of American English. An overwhelming uniformity of structure in direction-giving is found. Learners of English as a second language need classroom materials that more accurately reflect the exchanges that occur naturally among native speakers of…

A native speaker-nonnative speaker conversational adjustment in the relative proportions of information type was examined for its relation to communicative success. Analyses indicated that an increase in the proportion of background detail correlated with comprehension problems for second-language learners. (22 references) (Author/VWL)

Presents a case study of the interpenetration of the paradigm discourses of science, religion, politics, and law and public motive structures as demonstrated by the controversy over scientific creationism. Argues that the discursive populist commitments of journalism indirectly legitimate the populist discourse of creationism. (RAE)

Takes a single television news report and inquires into the strategies that governed the way it made its subject into a story. Suggests how to regard the discourse of television journalism in the nuclear era by attempting to describe the logic governing the creation of meaning. (MS)

Examines three groups of studies that demonstrate what communication research has to say about the relationship between peace and news, between war and the media. Presents a model of five discourses used in the coverage of war and peace in the news media. (MS)

Explores the social circumstances of academic writing. Looks at student and professional academic writers and readers as participants in a complex literary genre, with its own conventions, ideological assumptions, and epistemological implications. Argues that academics must become cultural critics. (RAE)

Describes a study of the frequency of "backchannels" (listener responses) in English conversations within and across two groups: (1) midwestern Americans; and (2) Japanese raised in Japan. Japanese listeners displayed far more types of backchannels. While Japanese listening style remained unchanged in cross-cultural conversations,…

Compares discourse between an adult and children as they make meaning of and respond to text and pictures. Finds the adult used a non-directive format during discourse about pictures and a question-response format during conversation about text. Finds that the adult initiated the majority of exchanges about text. (RS)

Discusses the relationship between communicative function and grammar, and the relationship between initiation and discourse. Using a systemic functional framework, a model is set up with with three planes (semiotic, discourse, and language/paralanguage) and two linguistic levels (grammar and phonology) to demonstrate how situation, communicative…

Reappraises conventional distinctions between oral-like and literate-like discourse, particularly Tannen's distinction between involvement focus and message focus. Treats message as an embodiment of involvement, and cohesion as an aspect of a developing writer-reader relationship. Offers speculations for rethinking "literate…

Investigates conversational characteristics (discourse features, illocutionary force and style parameters) of mothers of two-year-old twins and mothers of two-year-old singletons with older siblings. Finds significant differences in conversational characteristics, and between twins' and singletons' language scores on measures of language…

Two hearing-impaired students, aged 11 and 12, with differing American Sign Language and English-language skills, participated in a program which instructed them in summarization skills based on a knowledge of story structure. Subjects' knowledge of story structure rose dramatically, and the performance level was maintained in one subject.…

Error analysis of the informal conversations (in both the interlanguage [IL] and native language) of two native Vietnamese speakers gave limited support to the hypothesis that a universal preference for the open syllable is a shaping force in IL phonology that is independent of the process of native language transfer. (Author/CB)

Describes an approach to genre analysis that aims to complement existing descriptions of genres by focusing on semantic relationships between structural elements in texts. The article presents the theoretical background to the approach and then describes an example of its application within the context of the language-learning classroom. (45…

Examines the effects of message and program sensation value, sensation seeking, and drug use on visual attention to televised antidrug public service announcements among 18- to 22-year-olds. Indicates that program sensation value and sensation seeking are important factors in televised drug abuse prevention messages. (HB)