Court interpreters are required to provide accurate renditions of witnesses' utterances during courtroom examinations, but the accuracy of interpreting may be compromised for a number of reasons, among which is the effect on interpretation of the limited contextual information available to court interpreters. Based on the analysis of the discourse…

Projection is one of the classic topics in conversation analysis. It is introduced in the "simplest systematics" (Sacks, Schegloff, & Jefferson, 1974) as a principle that enables the recognition of unit types constituting turn-constructional units (TCUs) and thereby the recognition of possible completion, which is relevant for the…

Beginning with the Reagan administration and perpetuated by Obama's presidency are patterns of public speeches--crisis discourse and Utopian expectations--and educational policy that began with 1983's "A Nation at Risk," accelerated through Goals 2000, and codified without much critical concern as No Child Left Behind (NCLB) under George…

This book offers a critical and deconstructive account of global discourses on education, arguing that these overblown "hypernarratives" are neither economically, technically nor philosophically defensible. Nor even sane. Their "mythic economic instrumentalism" mimic rather than meet the economic needs of global capitalism in…

This book examines the concept of civility and the conditions of civil disagreement in politics and education. Although many assume that civility is merely polite behavior, it functions to aid rational discourse. Building on this basic assumption, the book offers multiple accounts of civility and its contribution to citizenship, deliberative…

This dissertation examined linguistic and pragmatic characteristics of written discourse of North Korean second language speakers of English comparing it with that of North American native speakers of English by analyzing linguistic features used in the two sets of texts and their discursive functions based on Biber's (1995) and Hinkel's (2002)…

This accessible and timely book builds upon and contributes to ongoing debates surrounding professionalism in the early years workforce. In a sector where policy is rapidly changing, Jayne Osgood challenges existing assumptions concerning professional identities and questions what broader lessons might be learnt about race, ethnicity, social class…

This article offers a comparative analysis of the Salamanca Statement and Framework for Action, and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act, within a critically discursive framework. The author creates the notion of "possibilities of practice", and analyses each policy document as to how these are created, by means of…

Communication is increasingly taking place through written messaging using online and mobile platforms such as email, instant messaging and text messaging. A number of scholars have considered whether these texts reflect spoken or written language, though less is known about the role of punctuation. In fact, it is commonly assumed that punctuation…

Narrative analysis offers a powerful and accessible means of understanding the ways in which individuals experience learning across a range of educational sites. Drawing on a recent study that explored "dyspraxic" pupils' experiences of drawing from observation, this paper offers an insight into the potential that narrative analysis has…

The aim of this paper is to account for language choice and alternation phenomena we have observed in a French complementary school classroom in Scotland. In this classroom, talk can be conducted in French (the official medium of instruction), in English (the other language in contact) and in both French and English. A critical review of the…

Reformulation is mostly considered as an important verbal mechanism for coping with non-native speakers' speech production problem in second language acquisition. Drawing on interlanguage pragmatics and conversation analysis, the present study examines the specific ways in which reformulation is used to achieve mutual understanding in the…

In recent years, various scholars have expounded on the notable pedagogic work that assessment plays in educational contexts, describing its capacity to convey powerful messages on the valued aspect of education knowledge, impacting upon how and what students learn in these contexts. However, not many studies have sought to gain an insight into…

At the University of New England in the rural town of Armidale, Australia, preservice teachers undertake courses in contextual studies in education, introducing the idea that context frames the curriculum. Some students, however, struggle to appreciate the relationship between curriculum and context, principally because socioeconomic dynamics and…

Although numerous writers have identified a different set of skills needed for employment in New Times, little analytic attention has been paid to how educational assessment policies contribute to envisioning such future citizens. This case study illustrates how Nova Scotia classroom assessment policy for Grades 7-9 English classes envisions young…