This study examined the relationship between characteristics of mothers' talk about future events and young children's ability to contribute to naturalistic conversations about future events. Results indicated that three maternal style factors were related to 2.5- and 4-year-olds' contributions: elaborative/advanced language, general and past…

From an ethnographic and interaction analytical approach this paper examines how polylingual languaging is used by a group of young male Taekwondo fighters to construct an integrated streetwise and "schoolwise" persona as well as negotiate regional identities. The data discussed were collected in a Taekwondo club in a multicultural area…

The paper examines co-occurrences of the major theme types with the various lateral verbs, as outlined in G. Kress and R. Hodge (1979), primarily unmarked/participant themes, other (non-participant) noun group themes, and marked themes. The data consist of 60 editorials from 2 major British newspapers, "The Times" and "The…

For the past 25 years, controversy has developed over the value and use of African-American (AA) English. This study examined the opinions of AAs from a variety of backgrounds and communities in California and Georgia to obtain their views on AA English; its place in the school, in the community, and in AA heritage; and its role in the futures of…

Recent decades have brought to the fore a coalition of writers on education who identify themselves as postmodernists, a designation that encompasses such vaguely allied groups as critical educators, radical educators, feminists, postcolonialists, anti-imperialists, poststructuralists, postpositivists, and neo-Marxists. A common characteristic…

This paper examines several language learning and teaching experiences described in the literary works of Burroughs's "Tarzan of the Apes," Shakespeare's "Henry V," Scott's "The Jewel in the Crown," and Alcott's "Little Women." In all cases, the language being learned was not necessary for daily activities, yet each case demonstrates that language…

A video tape of a freshman composition student at the University of Arizona shows the difficulty she has faced in writing classes because of her black dialect. Her instructor points out that the student, after some of the readdings in class, recognizes that she has learned code switching on her own to survive in the educational system; this…

The speech introduces a colloquium on the teaching of listening comprehension to students of English for academic purposes (EAP). The colloquium's aim is to address ways that EAP instructors can improve students' lecture listening skills by discussing the types of background discourse knowledge and listening strategies that…

This paper presents a view of traditional American Indian public speaking styles to students studying modern Indian diplomatic talk. A transcription of a talk given by the Chairman of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz provides an example of careful political speaking in the traditional tribal style. A culture which is typically oral, rather than…

Orality and literacy are not antithetical, rather they exist in a complex symbiosis at the individual, family, and community levels. Such a symbiosis is inevitable and appears in all kinds of institutions, including economic, political, social, cultural, and educatonal institutions. Out of this relationship, "printspeak" has emerged. Printspeak is…

There are descriptive similarities on a global level between the history of writing and the development of written language in the young child. Examination of the specific developmental patterns of data of these two phenomena reveals some common elements and some discrepancies between these two patterns. The history of orthography as well as…

In order to construct a learning system that is capable of responding to very diverse individual requirements, author considered a methodological way of analysing the communicative needs and intentions of all potential foreign language learners. (Author/RK)

The linguist does not usually describe grammatical structures of stylized sentences because there are none well-formed on the surface. He could use rules for organizational and relational features of the grammar which affect the last lines of generation to produce deviant but acceptable linguistic forms, thereby increasing the predictive power of…

The teacher of black students needs to develop a sensitivity to their rich communicative language styles in order to use the varied styles in the classroom situation. (JH)

Baby talk, also known as motherese or child-directed speech, refers to a set of speech modifications commonly found in the language adults use to address young children. The same functional motivations underlying adult speech to other adults also shape adult speech to children. These include pedagogy, control, affection, social exchange, and…