Used a lexical statistics program to analyze conflict and nonconflict discussions of two different groups of college students. Found preliminary evidence for a pattern of greater redundancy and less vocabulary diversity for the discussion groups in conflict. (PD)

Theories of learning in social settings, no matter their philosophical orientation, must address issues of intersubjectivity (IS). This paper starts with the premise that IS is a fundamental and unavoidable aspect of social interaction, and that understanding its nature is necessary for developing reliable theories of socially mediated learning…

This paper investigated if prior context was used by readers to resolve temporarily ambiguous prepositional phrases. The paper addresses two issues, referring to two competing approaches to sentence processing and testing the predictability of each approach in two online reading experiments. The issues focus on the Human Sentence Processing…

This paper presents a critical discourse analysis of a classroom event in which fourth and fifth grade students in a highly diverse urban school interpreted, discussed and responded to a district survey intended to illuminate the social climate of the city's schools, with a particular focus on race and racism. We drew on the three-dimensional…

This study explored the relationship between discourse topics and interlanguage variation, describing the following: relationships between discourse topics and a second language learner's participation in native speaker/non-native speaker (NS-NNS) conversation; relationships between discourse topics and the grammatical complexity, accuracy, and…

This paper reports on a study that attempted to make white female student teachers aware of their racism in order to improve their capacity to teach in a multicultural and antiracist classroom. Despite meaning well, many white student teachers of children of color exhibit racism, for example, in the form of low expectations, resentment, and…

This article tells the story of policies relevant to education, ageism and older adults between 1999 and 2005. It follows an article published in a previous "New Zealand Journal of Adult Learning" that described and critiqued policy developments between the 1980s and 2001. The story is located in the context of ongoing historical…

The aim of this paper is to describe and critique key policies and policy documents relevant to older adults' learning and education from the 1980s to 2001. It describes relevant aspects of the historical struggles between competing discourses and ideologies which took place during the period. It then examines the impact of these struggles on the…

Analyzes the structure of Providence Island Sign Language as affected by the interaction of deaf signers with hearing signers in the Providence Island community. (AM)

Defines basic characteristics and types of social conversation within small groups and gives guidelines for classroom practice stressing preliminary discussion of situations, topics, appropriate vocabulary, and language style. Discusses teacher's role during students' conversation practice and describes materials suitable for initial practice.…

Discusses the literature on interference as the cause of errors in second language speech. A study is reported which shows that interference by the native language is most often the factor responsible for the largest number of mistakes in grammar and vocabulary. (Author/AMH)

Reports the study of ritual verbal insults among Black men and among gay men. Gives examples of these insults and explains the situations in which such insulting takes place. (PMJ)

Discusses implications for bilingual educators of some of the more startling culture-bound linguistic characteristics of relatively primitive (often preliterate) peoples. Includes a description of the bilingual education program among the ethnic groups of Peru. (JB)

Reports on an experiment investigating the modifications in lexicon, grammar, and phonology, made by language teachers as they related to varying levels of proficiency, and are compared to "foreigner talk." (AM)

Explores the culture of a summer writing course (at the University of Texas) for first-year ethnic minority students that is designed to help induct them gradually into the academic culture and improve retention rate. Observes and records behavior and discourses of the class's African American students. Focuses on learning strategies displayed in…