Constructivist approaches to therapy that view the therapist and patient as equal participants in co-creating a new dialogue render aspects of experience invisible. What is missing is an awareness of the dominant structures in society and the dominant ways of thinking and speaking. Three key factors need to be understood: first, the way meanings…

A 6-minute, videotaped segment of discourse in a medical school classroom problem-based learning session is analyzed for evidence of the kinds of meanings being constructed, their functions, and the linguistic, kinesic, and other means by which they are being made. Three interdependent discourse agendas are distinguished: construction,…

A study attempts to refine the discourse domain hypothesis of second language learning, which holds that a second language is acquired with reference to speaker-specific topic areas rather than as a general, context-independent competence, by examining the discourse domains developed by one non-native speaker of English in conversations with two…

In a beginning level creative writing class called "Narration and Description," two student-written stories were collectively peer edited during each session. The class was required to read the student texts before class, critique them, and, with the guidance of four assigned student facilitators, discuss the texts with the author and…

The pragmatic expressions of Argentine Spanish (e.g., "bueno, viste, no? mira") are defined as deictic signals. They are deictic because they indicate elements of the communicative situation: transitions between text segments, conversational roles, or the social relationship between participants. They also signal contextual suppositions…

The purpose of this report is to explore academic language on a broader discourse-level of analysis. Examining three linguistic exchanges from a bilingual elementary school, the report discusses how academic tasks influence academic language discourse styles (registers) in fifth-grade class lessons. Two dominant theories are drawn from the…

A study investigated the extent to which native speakers (NSs) and non-native speakers (NNSs) of Portuguese understand implicatures in Brazilian television commercials in Portuguese. Subjects were nine Brazilian graduate students and 11 American students of Portuguese at the University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign. Correct inference of the…

This paper presents an approach to analyzing classroom talk that sheds light on the intellectual work of the classroom. The analysis system extends the theoretical construct of preference organization from conversational analysis to the study of a whole-class, teaching-learning interaction in a ninth-grade English classroom, during which an expert…

One of a series examining the instructional effectiveness of a videodisc-based case methodology, this study analyzed communication patterns among preservice teachers during implementation of a videodisc-based case methodology for preservice remedial reading instruction. Subjects, 12 students in an undergraduate remedial reading and practicum…

The thesis of this paper is that constructivism and similar pedagogic formulations are problematic because: (1) being nondialectical they close off possibilities for dialogue about issues such as those discussed in this paper; and (2) they are embedded in forms of discourse which privilege middle-class culture, values, language, and ways of…

A discussion of the translation of fiction focuses on metaphors in the speech of characters. Illustrations are drawn from an Afrikaans novel, "Fiela se kind" ("Fiela's Child"), translated into English by its author, Dalene Matthee. It is argued that if the interdependence of the intratextual components of narrative texts is not…

The distinctive features of narratives told by Asians, particularly Japanese, who are non-native speakers of English and residing in the United States are analyzed. Focus is on the narrative structure produced and the communication problems occurring due to cultural traits, particularly as they differ from North American norms. Educational and…

This book is designed to provide practical advice to parents and educators on the language acquisition process. Citing numerous case studies and anecdotal examples, it explains how children learn to talk and acquire language. Chapter 1 serves as an introduction to language acquisition, explaining the components, forms, and structure of language.…

This paper describes a coding system devised to analyze conversations of graduate students in applied linguistics at Edinburgh University. The system was devised to test the hypothesis that as shared knowledge among conversation participants grows, the textual density of in-group members has more cues than that of strangers. The informal…

A set of recorded teacher-child interactions in a successful kindergarten classroom was analyzed using the Mehan interactional model for analyzing the sequential organization of speech acts within classroom lessons. The study identified aspects of teacher-student interaction during formal instruction time at micro-interactional levels. The class…