We report a study of a class of 28 sixth graders engaged in an extended computer-supported argumentive discourse activity. Participants collaborated with a same-side peer in arguing against successive pairs of peers on the opposing side of an issue. Meta-level awareness was facilitated by conducting the dialogs via instant messaging software,…

This paper presents an analysis of Asia-Pacific international school web pages, and explores the expressed purposes of schooling, with regard to the kinds of students/subjects that the schools purport to produce. Using the concept of globalization as a "master" analytical frame, it is argued that despite claims to offering students…

The study reported in this paper aims to provide a description of professional communication pertaining to land surveying project management in Hong Kong, achieved through a comprehensive analysis of both workplace discourse processes and products. The study, situated in Hong Kong, represents a collaborative effort between English and Land…

Previous research has shown that identities and the attributes from which identities are inferred are negotiated within social interaction and language. The identity of having learning disabilities is commonly associated with ascriptions of lesser abilities than other people, and in turn might be inferred from such abilities. This study examines…

Several studies showed how coherence markers, like connectives and lexical cue phrases, influence the processing and representation of informative text. Although discourse analysts have repeatedly argued that coherence markers influence the processing of persuasive text as well, there is hardly any empirical evidence for this idea. This article…

This paper describes a youth-centered activist project with a group of young women in Brooklyn, NY, and the controversy surrounding it. In 1999 the young women created a neighborhood mural with anti-violence themes. Within 6 months of the mural's dedication, the mural was whitewashed by the corporate owner of the mural wall. Using content and…

This article employs critical discourse analysis methods to (a) apply Marxist and critical literacy theories to recently published young adult novels that feature wealthy New York teens whose privilege grants them lives of leisure and (b) discuss the implications of using these texts in the classroom to encourage students to read (and consume)…

The present paper argues that university quality assurance (QA) promotes a masculinist culture leading to systemic discrimination against female academics. The analysis relates to the question of what it is about academic life that results in persistent gender inequality. Based on an ethnographically informed comparative study, textual/discourse…

An analysis of linguistics texts based on Indigenous community fieldwork raises questions of authority, contribution and accreditation of linguists and community representatives. The recommendations of various professional practice guidelines are considered, and possible theoretical understandings introduced. Uninterrogated writing practices may…

Decentralisation policy in Sweden emphasises school capitation allowance, the local upper secondary schools' decision-making and pupils' choices in contrast to previous bureaucratic governing. The aim of this article is to discuss how pupils' educational choice paths are a part of the different kinds of integration and differentiation processes…

Taking the emergence of the organic foods system as a case study, the authors aim to demonstrate both how the discursive richness of the organic foods system offers a challenge to the traditional operations of the market and how activity systems theory as understood in English studies can productively be tied to and enriched by theories of social…

In this article, I examine the manner in which identity impacts on literacy practices, with reference to two 9-year-old girls and two 15-year-old boys who speak or have access to two or more languages. The younger children were part of a year-long study of the British National Literacy Strategy (Wallace, 2005). The older two were interviewed in…

The present empirical analysis of the short texts accompanying research articles in the scientific journal "Nature" covering a period from 1991 to 2005, not only shows that these texts are significantly different from prescriptive models of abstracts, but that they have also recently undergone a further change. Up until 1996, in contrast to the…

Since Wang Guowei and Cai Yuanpei introduced the concepts of aesthetics and aesthetic education, respectively, to China in the early twentieth century, there has been a strong tendency in many of the aesthetic discussions to examine ancient texts and materials using modern concepts of aesthetics. In particular, sentences with the character-word…

This case study aims at replicating a study conducted in 2007 with a group of ten trainees at the English Teacher Training Program at Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. In 2007, the participants recorded a dyadic interactive task. Speech data were analyzed to see how, through the use of language, learners construed their social reality. In the…