How children use language affects the likelihood that a request will be granted. This study explored children's requests in a natural setting, by analyzing unedited letters to Santa from 824 children (20% age 6 and under; 41% age 7 and 8; and 39% age 9 and over) in the newspapers of a southeastern metropolitan area. Letters were examined for…

A study analyzed postings over a week-long period to two electronic discussion lists to position them as communication forms and to assess their potential value to journalism educators, students and researchers. The lists--"Journet" and "Stumedia"-- were examined using both quantitative and qualitative techniques. Results indicated that the…

The Department of Administrative and Policy Studies (APS), University of Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania), completed six research reports about its Conceptual Mapping Project. The reports reproduced here originally appeared in the "Occasional Paper Series" of the APS. They are presented in order of the chronological appearance as follows: (1)…

Four group summary papers from an Australian national workshop on discourse analysis discuss verbal and written discourse and the classroom. Papers reflect the four workshop discussion groups of casual conversation, classroom discourse, expository discourse, and literary narrative. They include: "On Casual Conversation" (M. A. K.…

This essay demonstrates the origins, rationale and utility for social cartography as a process capable of portraying the interrelations of truth and value choices in the field of educational policy studies. The article focuses on the particular domain of environmental education-related discourse while presenting both a primary conceptual mapping…

A study investigated how a television talk show host manipulates the social and psychological distances in the television show context to entertain guests and audience. An ethnographic approach was taken to the research, and analysis focused on the use of politeness strategies and face-saving and face-threatening interactions. The television talk…

A study of second language acquisition focuses on the transition from formulaic to creative speech patterns. Subjects were two native Japanese-speaking children, aged 4 and 8, learning English as a Second Language in New York, observed over a period of 2 years. The nature of formulaic speech is discussed, drawing from research on such speech and…

This study sought to develop a description of second language fluency, based on the concept that the microcontext of the testing task and the resulting psycholinguistic demands on speech production affect the nature of the discourse produced so that different tasks have differential impact on an individual's display of fluency. It investigated how…

Suitable methods can be developed and instructional devices can be designed for the teaching of argumentation analysis to students of varying interests, ages, and capacities. Until 1950, the study of argumentation in the Netherlands was either purely practical or a continuation of the classic logic and rhetoric traditions. A number of new research…

A study analyzed the discourse of four pairs of students participating in dyadic interactive communicative tasks (ICTs) to discover if and how their discourse styles influenced the dynamics of interaction. Students were paired according to their teacher's evaluation of their discourse style as active or non-active, and were designated sender or…

An ethnographic study explored how small groups of student readers interacted in a classroom over time to interpret short stories assigned by a teacher. For five weeks, eight sixth-grade volunteers met on consecutive Fridays in two separate face-to-face discussion groups to read, discuss, rewrite, and perform a short story as a play. Primary data…

A study investigated why nonstandard "like" is used, how nonstandard "like" is used, and whether the users and hearers of nonstandard "like" view it as standard English. Subjects were 65 students taken from speech classes at Tulsa (Oklahoma) Junior College, Southeast Campus--53 of the students were users of…

In this study, the performance of apologies among 20 non-native speakers (NNSs) of English and 20 native speakers (NSs) of English was examined. Two questions were addressed: How did NNSs' apologies compare with NSs' in identical situations? What relationship existed between the performance of apologies by NNSs and Test of English as a Foreign…

A critique predicated primarily on aesthetic considerations can show the potential a speech has to move an audience, but gauging a speech's actual effects on the audience is more difficult. A case in point is the United States Congressional investigation of the Iran-Contra scandal. Government officials and businessmen sold arms to Iran in exchange…

A study of the discourse structure of oral language proficiency interviews focused on (1) one principal discourse variable, topic, for analyzing contingency and goal orientation in dyadic interactions, and (2) contextual factors (interlocutor, theme, task, participant gender). Data came from 30 dyadic oral interviews in English as a Second…