Quebec rap lyrics stand out on the world Hip-Hop scene by virtue of the ease and rapidity with which performers in this multilingual, multiethnic youth community codeswitch, frequently among three or more languages or language varieties (usually over a French and/or English base) in the same song. We construct a framework for understanding…

Using a functional view of language and drawing on extensive classroom data, this article examines a high school science class to see how language was used to connect theory and practice in science register. The article tracks the teaching/learning paths from the introduction to the science topic and teaching of the theory (e.g., technical terms)…

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),…

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…

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…

Every way of thinking is both premised on and generative of a way of naming that reflects particular underlying convictions. Over the last 15 years, a way of thinking has reemerged that strives to reposition students in educational research and reform. Best documented in Australia, Canada, England, and the United States, this way of thinking is…

This article describes the author's efforts to engage teachers in language study in a graduate course involving graduate students in Literacy Studies and TESOL programs. In the course "Language, Culture, and Identity: Issues for Teachers and Children," teachers study language like linguists: looking closely at language in use through in-class…

The study reported here is an analysis of discourse in conversations with a Laotian woman who has lived in the United States with her husband and children since 1986. Analysis focuses on the nature of women's agency in Lao and U.S. cultures, highlighting the woman's perception of her changing identities as wife and mother. Excerpts of the…

Like other women who work in professions dominated by white men, women school superintendents tell stories about rising to influential positions, developing confidence in their authority and ability, yet continuing to confront discriminatory treatment in an occupation structured by gender and racial inequalities. This book examines these…

Greater reflexivity concerning the ways of discussing pedagogy could improve the way educators conceptualize their roles. Close attention to metaphors about education sounds a note of caution about the transfer of language from one discursive realm (business) to another (education). The transference of the "total quality management"…

Part of a more extended study, a study used discourse analysis to examine how instructors and students talk about sexist language in an attempt to discover their implicit language theories. Subjects, six instructors and six undergraduate students chosen from a convenience sample at a large western university, were interviewed and asked to comment…

This paper reports preliminary findings from a 1988 Hampshire (England) schools research project in which primary and secondary school teachers with special responsibility for language teaching were interviewed to discover their views on the place of explicit knowledge about language (KAL) in the school language curriculum and on possible…