Compares discourse management strategies in face-to-face and computer-mediated interactions involving four decision-making tasks. Examines these issues in qualitative and quantitative analyses of data using an utterance-unit coding system to identify discourse functions. Finds that participants compensate for decreased efficiency by adopting…

Examines factors influencing language choice on the newsgroup soc.culture.punjab, a forum discussing the culture of the Punjab region of India and Pakistan. Finds that Punjabi is used only with interlocutors who are Punjabi community members. Accounts for limited usage in terms of intergenerational language shift, cultural ambivalence among…

Reviews linguistic structures in the annual reports of a machine tool manufacturer. Concludes that, as profits decreased and the news became more negative, linguistic structures (including verb structures, thematic structures, context and cohesion, and condensations) suggested a factual, "objective" situation caused by circumstances not…

Examines a number of specific paradoxical situations found in participative organizations; compares them to the paradoxes found in select Zen stories or koans--each set of stories or examples focuses on one or more aspects of empowerment. Reveals, through narrative analysis, counterintuitive ideas on how to understand and cope with organizational…

Explores the significance of the trend toward flexible learning in education and training. Argues that it may have the potential to change both the identities of learners and teachers and knowledge itself and that it may function as a form of social control. (SK)

Flexible learning has multiple meanings, some of which are more privileged than others. In higher education, flexible learning is conceptualized as efficiency, as the competitive edge, as equity and access, and as information technologies. (SK)

Questions the universality of academic genres and discusses ways in which national rhetorical styles affect strategic choices in writing. Recommends that teachers of English for academic purposes should take seriously the role of raising the awareness of differences in rhetorical style among discourse community members. (42 references) (Author/CK)

Discusses the unexplored territory of the stories teenagers have to tell. Contends that teenagers tell personal experience narratives as much as anybody else, using a repertoire of tales at a high level of competence as a means of social currency within their everyday conversational exchanges. Illustrates with quotes from fieldwork in secondary…

Examines "it"-clefts and "wh"-clefts in English and their Chinese equivalents in a universal, functional perspective that consists of assigning "participant roles" in processing a clause. The analysis shows that a functionally-oriented and semantically-motivated approach to the focusing constructions provides greater insight into the discourse…

Compares request strategies in Dutch and English and attributes the differences to a different perception of the need for repair. The article concludes that the Dutch use lexical downgraders where the French use longer constructions, that is, supportive acts. Further research is recommended to verify the findings. (16 references) (Author/CK)

Longitudinal teaching experiment engaged students in activities to produce fraction problems using specific terminology and satisfying certain criteria. Classroom interactions developed a common system of meanings and required negotiation of new social norms, leading to a new didactic contract. (SW)

Investigates how Greek secondary school students interacted in pairs and fours while discussing and attempting to explain physical phenomena. Results indicate that students progressed significantly more in their physics reasoning after participation in fours than in pairs. Discourse analysis in different groupings suggests that differences were…

Examines the dichotomy posited by David Bartholmae and Peter Elbow between institutional or contextual writing and personal writing; or more generally, between social constructivism and expressivism. Attempts to propose a means of mediation between the two positions that goes beyond previous attempts, particularly that of "externalism."…

Addresses the following question: How are young bilingual informants positioned and how do they position themselves and others through discursive strategies within structures of languages, gender, and schooling. Draws on two theoretical approaches to understand the nature of language and power relations in a specific historical location in a…

A study examined the transcript of a group enquiry conducted according to the practice of philosophical enquiry with eight gifted children (ages 8-12). Use of a central metaphor was seen to play the role of a "conceptual playground," permitting the children to exercise both their imagination and their reasoning abilities. (Contains references.)…