Compares the environmental rhetoric of former U.S. Interior Secretary James Watt and U.S. President Ronald Reagan, explaining that Watt's political value outweighed his political liability. Notes that cabinet members extend a President's influence by reaching issue-specific audiences while maintaining philosophical consistency, and serve as…

Observation of mothers and their two-year-olds (N=10) in routine, free play, and novel discourse settings suggested that object labelling was more varied in natural than in experimental settings. Basic level tokens were less prevalent and subordinate level term usage was more common in the routine and novel contexts. (Author/CB)

Indicates that membership in pausing and skimming clusters appears to relate to text comprehension, grade level, and rated academic ability, but that these relationships are not all simple or direct. Finds that the cluster-analytic approach provides a useful empirical adjunct to current theoretical perspectives on text analysis and reading…

Suggests an alternative approach to the variable rule method of accounting for linguistic variability. This alternative approach, which is sensitive to social context and the relevance of meaning, is used to support an analysis of "-ing/in'" variability in some North American industrial workers' speech. (SED)

Texts from a variety of genres (letter, narrative, biography, film scenario, and dialogue) and a variety of French authors of the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries are provided as examples of discourse with the common theme of passion and as sources for the study of the semiotics of passion. (MSE)

The effects of four major types of expository text on the comprehension performance of 69 third and 69 sixth graders were investigated. Results suggest that knowledge of discourse types underlies effective expository comprehension and that this ability increases as children reach the upper elementary grades. (BS)

Gives recommendations for sequencing writing assignments in courses structured by genre or definition, by chronology, and by theme. (CRH)

Two instances of teacher response, shaping, and evaluation of students' texts are analyzed. Although one text is oral, the other written, striking parallels in teacher-assigned task, text structure, and teacher-student interaction are noted. Explanations focus on schools as institutions and on the complex interpretive processes operating in urban,…

Points out that ESL research argues that instructors must introduce discourse analysis, separate oral skills from reading skills, and instruct students in the various subskills needed to read different types of academic materials. Suggests that the eclectic approach to instruction most nearly fulfills these three obligations. (FL)

This paper explores the role of co-expressivity of drawing, speech, and gesture as sixth graders strive for intersubjectivity in their attempts to communicate solutions of a spatial reasoning task. Several obstacles to intersubjectivity are documented, particularly conflicts between a literal and geometric interpretation, limits of students'…

Research shows that learning in groups improves students' achievement of learning objectives. Some indicate that a facilitator will smooth the process of collaboration (Johnson et al, 1987; Hooper, 1992; Moore and Kearsley, 1996; Brandon & Hollingshead, 1999; Bernard et al, 2000). Advocates for peer-controlled collaboration claim that learners…

This paper defines what it means to be a community of learners in mathematics and examines this concept in light of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) standards. Robust sharing of mathematics, which is a way of analyzing student mathematical sharing in a community of learners, is presented here. Robust sharing of mathematics is…

The demand for extensive reusability of large language text collections for natural languages processing research requires development of standardized encoding formats. Such formats must be capable of representing different kinds of information across the spectrum of text types and languages, capable of representing different levels of…

Through examination of the discourse markers "ano" and "sono" in Japanese, this paper explores how these linguistic devices function differently in conversation. The focus of this analysis is the mental and social functions through which a speaker attempts to achieve an interpersonal rapport with a listener. In particular, the…

In research on classroom discourses, case studies have been used to describe the dynamics of effective and ineffective instruction. In other research, quantitative studies have identified global features of such discourse. The research reported here combined the advantages of both methods, investigating how generally effective classroom discourse…