Examines competition between conflicting principles in Kenyan English (animacy hierarchy and discourse pressure to place given information before new), manifested in news discourse. Results suggest some differences between spoken and written Kenyan English pointing to a tendency toward a more standard native-speaker variety in news discourse, and…

Focuses on cohesion in discourse and connector usage. The article uses a bottom-up approach and evaluates previous studies of learner connector usage, including literature on contrastive French-English connector usage, and hypothesizes an overuse of connectors. It is concluded that learners should be taught the semantic, stylistic, and syntactic…

Compares the cognitive processing of 12 anglophone French students who wrote an argumentative text in their first language (English) and second language (L2) (French). Results indicate that the writers' strategic knowledge and capacity for meaningful multiple-level discourse processing explains the constraining effects of linguistic processing on…

A holistic scoring procedure was used to rate spoken and written narratives produced by 10 students (ages 9-11) with language disorder and 30 matched peers. Correlations between holistic scores and structural measures of language revealed that quality judgements were moderately related to textual-level measures of form and content but were…

Videotapes of French lessons in two Australian high schools at the level of year eight identified lesson features relevant to development of second-language skills. Classroom ecology and the importance of mime and gesture in relation to students' active listening and comprehension are stressed. Transcripts and the structure of exchanges in the…

Exploits Bourdieu's notion of legitimate language to analyze the social origins and consequences of language practices in a French-language minority high school. Findings reveal the contradictions between the socioeconomic values of social mobility attached to monolingual standard French and the political values of authenticity and solidarity…

Examined discourse components, interaction patterns, and reasoning complexity of eighth-graders in two science classrooms as they constructed mental models of the nature of matter. Found that teacher-guided discussions were more efficient for attaining higher reasoning levels and higher quality explanations, but peer discussions were more…

A study analyzed the second-language essays of seven anglophone and one French-speaking Quebec university students enrolled in a literature course by using a cognitive-metacognitive framework developed for mathematical problem-solving and a think-aloud protocol. Results indicate the framework, with some adjustments, is a reliable tool for…

Reports on an observation study of the discourse activities for one day of a Finnish business manager who works in a multinational corporation. His discourse activities were tape recorded and copies were taken of written materials. Examined salient features that characterize discourse activities in a multinational corporation and tested the…

The purpose of the study reported in this article was to explore the mathematical discourse in which four dyads engaged while sharing the storybook "One Snowy Night" (Butterworth, 1989) while at home or in other locations (e.g., day care centers). Each dyad consisted of a mother and her four-year-old child. Various discourse patterns were evident,…

Teaching and learning science through the use of familiar contexts has been advocated for several decades. Many take the use of context in science lessons to mean the use of resource materials that involve common scenarios or themes, or activities. This paper reviews a lesson identified by a teacher as a lesson taught in context. The data…

Cultural difference is an important topic of discussion in second language education. Yet cultural difference is often conceptualized as fixed, objective, and apolitical based on an essentialist and normative understanding of culture. This article challenges such conceptualizations by examining and politicizing multiple and conflicting meanings of…

Using a new methodological tool, the authors analyzed a large number of texts on information and communication technology (ICT) and education, and identified three clusters of views that guide educationists "in the field" and in more academic contexts. The clusters reflect different fundamental assumptions on ICT and education. The authors argue…

This qualitative study used theories of language and learning to explore the identities of one preservice teacher in a reading specialization program. Data sources included archived online course responses, interviews, journals, and an electronic portfolio. Analysis indicates that the participant used multiple discourses as an immigrant,…

This paper describes a project involving EFL learners in synchronous electronic discussions. The output of the students' interactions was analyzed qualitatively to uncover the main linguistic and interactional features. It was observed that the students' discussions contained a large number of spelling, usage, and grammatical errors, an almost…