The conquest of Chile and of America in general constituted an encounter between different and mutually unknown civilizations that discovered the existence of an "extreme otherness" which European civilization would generically call "Indians." The Spanish encounter with the aboriginals was both violent and subtle. The…

This paper reports on a study of classroom interaction and discourse in privately-funded schools serving low-income families in Hyderabad, India. In common with other developing countries, India has seen a proliferation of such schools and yet little systematic study has been made of them. One hundred and thirty eight lessons were analysed using a…

The use of technology in the educational setting can provide support for professional development early in a teacher's career. The purpose of this qualitative exploratory study was to examine the use of an electronic discussion board in a field-based block of courses as a place where 17 preservice teachers could share experiences and ideas. The…

We assessed whether and how the discourse written for prototype integrated tasks (involving writing in response to print or audio source texts) field tested for Next Generation TOEFL[R] differs from the discourse written for independent essays (i.e., the TOEFL Essay[R]). We selected 216 compositions written for six tasks by 36 examinees in a field…

The present study assumes that, despite the relative uniformity of research articles (RAs) imposed by the requirements of the genre, there may be intercultural variation in the rhetorical preferences of different writing cultures. This study develops further Moreno's [Text 18 (1998) 545] model for the comparison of the metatext employed in English…

This article focuses on the government's higher education policy trajectory during the post apartheid period. The central argument of the article is that government policy ought to be examined in the light of a struggle over aligning the higher education policy discourse with the government's chosen macro development path. Policy activity has to…

The present secondary education system in Kiribati is little changed from its establishment and growth through the colonial years when the island group was known as the Gilbert Islands. It is marked by a heavy emphasis on English language and a curriculum geared to place students in a limited labour market. It is also marked by an uneven…

Lecture discourse has been conventionally known to be of a monological nature. However, lectures are more highly regarded if they allow for reciprocal discourse, especially for students of other languages who need help in understanding the content and in appropriating the language. In this paper, we will attempt a qualitative analysis of the…

This qualitative case study illustrates barriers to informal argumentation and reasoned debate, i.e., "critical discourse," in online forums. The case is the computer conference of a 15-week, graduate-level humanities course offered entirely at a distance. Twelve students, all with families and careers, were enrolled in the course. We read all…

In this self-study of a secondary teacher education course, the authors investigated whether there was evidence of critically reflective problem solving on the part of prospective teachers who participated in a peer-led online discussion of a teaching case about English-language learners. They also examined what approaches to multicultural…

In this essay the author attempts to put forward an innovative teaching mode in the course of "English Conversation" for sophomore English majors in China. In this mode an authentic conversation is used as the teaching material and the theoretic aspects of Conversation Analysis (CA) are applied for the teaching of the course. This mode…

We annotated transcripts of human tutoring dialogue for the purpose of constructing a dialogue-based intelligent tutoring system, CIRCSIM-Tutor. The tutors were professors of physiology who were also expert tutors. The students were 1st year medical students who communicated with the tutors using typed communication from separate rooms. The tutors…

Purpose: After decades arguing the necessity of transforming schools into collaborative workplaces, teacher collaboration has been taken up by various discursive logics offering different viewpoints of the concept. This article reviews some of these discourses and looks at their main arguments, pointing to the contradictions and tensions between…

Since its acceptance as a pedagogic field, environmental education has experienced divergence and antagonism in its theoretical and methodological approaches and standpoints. In this paper, the author talks about the conflicting relationship between environmental education and education for sustainable development as well as the many discourses…

Race and other forms of difference are socially constructed concepts, continually reproduced and redefined in interaction. It is important to focus on how race and class are constructed by future teachers, because the ways in which they perceive their students may affect their interactions in the classroom, including having lower expectations for…