Examines newspaper statements about a politician, describing their rhetorical work in the political context and suggesting that the three segments of the articles were conceptually distant texts due to the degree of ambiguity that made an insider reading difficult for foreigners. The paper discusses the double exposure needed to arrive at a…

Focuses on one particular psychological dimension, extraversion-introversion. The relatively small number of linguistic studies in which extraversion is focused on as an independent variable suggests that applied linguists believe it unrelated to speech production or language learning. Argues that this suspicion is based on a misunderstanding…

Investigates the way in which 13 Hong Kong research students metatext to orient and guide their readers through their Ph.D. theses. Using a corpus of over 3000 pages and 0.6 million words, this article proposes that the level of metatextual references can be determined by their scope and by the distance over which they operate. (Author/VWL)

Argues that the history of punctuation in the English-speaking world offers tangible evidence for the evolving interplay between speech and writing. (Author/VWL)

Reviews the major scholarship of Harold Innis, Eric Havelock, Marshall McLuhan, Jack Goody, Walter Ong and Elizabeth Eisenstein, as they focused on the development of writing systems, and later, printing. Discusses how their theoretical frameworks are central to understanding media ecology, an emerging field of interdisciplinary study for…

Explores possibilities for the study of divergent aspects of discursive practices by focusing on the notion of voice and considers implications for second language writing research and instruction. Examines recent critiques of the notion of voice that emphasize its strong association with the ideology of individualism. Presents evidence of voice…

Identifies the characteristic principles of intertextuality in school mathematics. Drawing on a larger study, this article examines how language is used to construct the shared meanings of a mathematical theme. An analysis is made of spoken and written texts to determine their contribution to the development of a thematic formation for the topic…

Argues that no real divide exists between oral and written transmission, but rather a dynamic relationship between the two, an approach described as the "ecological" model. The article selects examples from Talmudic tradition that reinforce this model. The article concludes that although historical exigency requires written storage of…

Argues that interaction between reader and writer in academic texts can draw on both interactive and interactional resources: interactive resources help guide the reader through the text, while the interactional resources involve the reader collaboratively in the development of the text. (Author/VWL)

Notes that a major goal within the language arts block is learning to recognize and write the letters of the alphabet. Presents 4 reasons that have been suggested as to why early letter knowledge exerts such a strong influence over learning to read and write. Presents descriptions of 12 websites dealing with the alphabet. (SG)

Investigated whether: (1) the role of phonological and orthographic activation differs during semantic processing of Korean Hangul and Hanja and (2) proficiency in Korean Hanja would affect the way phonology is used in comprehension of Hanja characters. Overall, results indicate both language proficiency and script difference can affect the…

Reports on an analysis of research article introductions from two related fields, Wildlife Behavior and Conservation Biology, using Swales' (1990), "Genre Analysis. English in Academic and Research Settings." Results of the analysis reveal disciplinary variation in the structure of this genre, which has important pedagogical implications.…

Think-aloud protocols were gathered to establish that first-year college level participants noticed targeted linguistic forms (Spanish formal imperatives) while reading an enhanced or unenhanced text. Suggests there are no significant benefits of written input enhancement over unenhanced written input for the amount of reported noticing of Spanish…

Children with specific language impairment (SLI) have associated difficulties in reading decoding and reading comprehension. To date, few research studies have examined the children's written language. The aim of the present study was to (a) evaluate the nature and extent of the children's difficulties with writing and (b) investigate the…

Background: Orthographic-motor integration refers to the way in which orthographic knowledge is integrated with fine-motor demands of handwriting. A strong relationship has shown to exist between orthographic-motor integration and students' ability to produce creative and well-structured written text (De La Paz & Graham, 1995). This…