Summarizes the current state of research in conversation analysis, referring primarily to six different perspectives that have developed from the philosophy, sociology, anthropology, and linguistics disciplines. These include pragmatics; speech act theory; interactional sociolinguistics; ethnomethodology; ethnography of communication; and…

Examines teachers themselves as potential sources of instructional and/or motivational problems. Indicates 28 categories of student-reported teacher misbehaviors, and notes the frequency of each. Reduces the misbehaviors to three factors: teacher incompetence, offensiveness, and indolence. Discusses implications for managing student resistance in…

Investigates how students perceive messages from their parents about control, support, and participation. Examines the relationship between these perceptions and rates of dropping out of high school. Provides insights into the influence of perceived parental communication on academic behavior of high school students. (HB)

Studies whether global, causal inferences are made during comprehension. Provides verbal protocol data in the form of talking aloud during reading. Discusses the data with reference to processing claims and working-memory models. Considers what verbal protocols reveal about processing. (HB)

Investigates the strategies preschoolers use in arguments to establish power and dominance. Identifies a broad range of verbal and nonverbal strategies to gain power. Shows that power is collaboratively constructed and negotiated on the basis of the social organization of the moment. (SR)

Argues for a change in research priorities and a focus on power relationships in the definition of problems. Presents a case study analyzing a failed attempt by a dean of a school of engineering to enlist communication consultants to improve teaching in a department of Computer Engineering. (SR)

Proposes a framework to join journalists and communications scholars in dialog about conditions that best promote public dialoge of democracy itself. Sketches a news policy model, reviews research indicating areas of agreement about the dynamics of press-government-public interactions, and looks at steps toward a field of study built around these…

Compares communication course offerings in four-year U.S. colleges and universities against a list of needed communication skills for communication professionals in business, education, social sciences, and the health sciences. Offers suggestions for appropriate communication curricula to meet the need of the four disciplines. (SR)

Finds that New Zealand students sampled were significantly less willing to communicate and experienced greater communication apprehension than U.S. students. Finds significant negative correlations for United States students between communication apprehension and humor variables (liking of humor, sensitivity to humor, and coping humor), whereas…

Reports the findings of a study designed to investigate children's deictic changes, use of speech act verbs, and preference for reporting system in their retold narratives. Claims that a linear age function emerged and that children's mastery of direct and indirect speech extends over many years. (HB)

Analyzes the referential strategies used in narrative discourse by 10 adults and 60 Japanese children aged 3 to 7 years. Determines the factors underlying choice of nominal versus elliptical forms. Discusses results in terms of cognitive, social, and linguistic factors underlying referential choice. (HB)

Describes a survey of Oklahoma high school journalism teachers and advisers. Notes that 71 percent of respondents reported that enrollment in journalism and publication production classes had either remained the same or increased. Suggests that noneducational factors such as student interest impact more heavily on enrollment than do educational…

Explores some implications of the redefinition of ethnography as discursive practice, of ethnography as "writing the other." Asserts that a central problem in discourse theory is the relationship between discourse and nondiscursive "reality." Argues ethnography is discursive rather than empiricist. Asserts that conflictual social theories produce…

Offers a Burkean framework for study of collaborative business writing. Reviews the research on collaborative writing, explains a Burkean framework that identifies key areas for future investigation, and provides categories for conducting research. Argues for a research agenda that emphasizes qualitative studies first, to be followed by…

Investigates the patterns in mentoring relationships among a group of 26 college or graduate educated Black data systems analysts. Finds that Black mentors play a significant role in helping Black proteges and that gender is not as important as cultural groups in predicting patterns of mentoring. (PRA)