Five experiments investigated the interpretation of quantified noun phrases in relation to discourse structure. They demonstrated, using questionnaire and on-line reading techniques, that readers in English prefer to give a quantified noun phrase in (VP-external) subject position a presuppositional interpretation, in which the noun phrase limits…

In the last decade, the debate over state-mandated standardized testing has become one of the most heated, political debates in education. Situated within that debate and drawing from it, this paper examines the relationship among teachers, teaching, and standardized testing, using the Michigan Educational Assessment Program (MEAP) as a case study…

The messages teachers convey to their students through their use of language can often go unconsidered, yet such practices can have a significant impact on students and their schooling, and in the creation of learning difficulties. In this paper we employ a discursive and ideological approach to analysing teachers' language practices and suggest…

There is increasing interest in creating frameworks for online discussions to improve learning outcomes in higher education environments. Many of these frameworks rely on and promote argumentation-based "challenge" models as the primary mode of discourse. This study tested one existing framework, created by Gunawardena, Lowe, and Anderson (1997),…

Factors such as increases in student numbers and technological developments are threatening the luxury of one-on-one tutorials and bringing changes in modes of academic discourse. This small scale exploratory study identifies characteristics of taped oral, compared to written, feedback that are attributable to its spoken nature (longer, less…

This paper looks at the functions of repetition of lexical items which fall within a single T-unit. Examining data from a foundation English course at a Thai university, transcripts of eliciting transactions from 12 lessons were divided into T-units. Within-unit repetitions were identified and categorized. Categories of repetition found, in order…

This article examines the discourses of cultural values and beliefs constructed in Chinese language textbooks currently used for primary school students nationwide in China. By applying story grammar analysis in the framework of critical discourse analysis, the article critically investigates how the discourses are constructed and what ideological…

In this paper I explore ways in which adolescent male students perceive war and violence and related gender discourses. My research is situated in a Year 10 English classroom in a private boys' school in Perth, Australia. Interviews with students and their teacher provide opportunities to explore perceptions and ideas on issues relating to war and…

An important dimension of inclusive education is the discursive inclusion and exclusion in and by texts (curricula and textbooks). Such inclusion and exclusion seriously affects inclusive education especially with respect to the representation of gendered, ethnic, class based, racial and other minorities. In this paper I focus on gendered…

The dual purpose of this paper is to put forward the problem of goal orientation in mathematics education in general and to consider a specific goal that is not seen as central in traditional teaching practice. The goal orientation approach in education aims to construct the teaching process considering the goals of the students, i.e. the expected…

Central to teaching is a grand dichotomy: public and private. Children need the protection of privacy to form their own identities: they try out new roles and need to be sheltered from some consequences of these attempts so that they feel confident to keep trying. Forming an identity, however, is also a public concern: the very roles that children…

As more U.S. youth claim "mixed" heritages, some adults are proposing to erase race words altogether from the nation's inequality analysis. Yet such proposals, as detailed ethnography shows, ignore the complex realities of continuing racialized practice. At an urban California high school in the 1990s, "mixed" youth…

This article shows how five Norwegian female elementary school teachers use narrative resources to construct and negotiate several possible teacher identities. The aim of the article is to illuminate how teacher identities can be narratively constructed and understood, and not to define what identity Norwegian teachers as a group or individuals…

More than ten years have passed since the widely publicized debate about personal and academic writing that played out in the 1990s between Peter Elbow and David Bartholomae. But the question of the relative merits of these two different types of writing for student writers continues to be an issue of concern for teachers of composition,…

Purpose: To examine the functional impact of specific language impairment (SLI). Specific goals were to determine whether (a) subjective ratings of narrative quality differentiate children with SLI from their normally developing (ND) age-mates, (b) laypersons and teachers differ in their ratings of narrative quality, (c) objective measures confirm…