Uses the concept of root metaphors to analyze the discourse of mothers, college students, and early childhood teachers regarding children, development, and learning. Found that preschool teachers offered more uniform views of children than other groups. Maintains a one source of miscommunication about children is the differing implicit ideas about…

Analyzed the discourse about television programs of 1,300 5- to 13-year-olds from England and Wales. Found that discourse expressed socially responsible and public service values in evaluating programs. Explained finding in terms of children's adaptation to task requirements and ability to access different kinds of adult discourse available in the…

Contributes to scholarship advancing the understanding of human communication by examining the rhetorical invention strategies of suffrage rhetoric in the cultural context of World War I. Shows how the political cartoons published in the mainstream Suffrage Movement's "The Woman Citizen" constructed women as strong, competent, and…

Notes that joint composition at the computer is common in United Kingdom primary schools. Finds that even children as young as seven years can jointly plan a story at the computer. Uses examples of pupils' discourse while composing to illustrate the processes by which they produced written text. (RS)

A review of research on second language (L2) speech looks at four issues of process and product: whether speech is different from writing; whether oral discourse patterns differ from one language to another; whether L2 speaker oral skills differ significantly from native speakers'; and how L2 speech develops. (MSE)

Focuses on traditional oath forms--those reflecting the value system of African traditional society in general and Rundi-Rwanda society in particular. The empirical research reported is based on approximately 20 hours of taped conversation among speakers of Kirundi-Kinyarwanda living in Burundi. Oath forms in Kirundi-Kinyarwanda provide…

A study compared university students' Japanese and English native-language essays (22 expository, 24 persuasive) in terms of organization and macrolevel discourse features. Results indicate inductive rhetorical patterns were more common in Japanese than English essays and more common in persuasive than expository mode across languages. However,…

Presents the perspectives on books and reading of two middle school boys, both reluctant readers who were passionate about reading self-selected materials outside of school. Argues that the perspectives of these renegade readers can inform educators who want to improve students' engagement with reading. (SR)

Explores gender questions about males teaching elementary school, by talking with male student-teachers. Finds that the current public discourse "masculinizes" elementary education. (PA)

Examines three transcripts of preschool children's informal mathematical discourse during play to highlight the role of informal learning in young children's education. Considers the children's ability to adopt instructor, mediator and evaluator communication roles, to gain access to formal mathematics knowledge, and to use these to meet…

Suggests that considerable insight into effective teaching strategies may be gained through the analysis of a small section of classroom interaction using multiple perspectives. Provides an example of using discourse analysis to explore interactions. Contains 40 references. (DDR)

Examines the special education teacher's role as a more knowledgeable member of the classroom who uses dialogue to scaffold performance, nurtures the dialogical relationship that underlies the discourse in classrooms, uses procedural facilitation to make complex processes accessible to students, and transfers increasing levels of control and…

Examines the concept of reflection and its diverse uses within different political, philosophical, and cultural contexts. Discusses an alternative concept of reflection within the framework of an educational arena called "counter-education." Asserts that the traditional view of student reflection does not allow students to challenge the…

Finds that: (1) perceived realism and themes that students could identify with are important factors in increasing the salience and persuasiveness of alcohol-related public service announcements (PSAs) among undergraduate students; (2) realistic but logic-based PSAs were not as effective as unrealistic but enjoyable ads; and (3) low production…

Examines the manner in which more and less proficient fourth-grade peer discussion groups managed topics and group process across time. Finds that coherence is a key to conversational competence. Suggests that large amounts of metatalk and teacher intrusion cause disjuncture to peer discussion and impair the group's ability to manage topics. (RS)