Examines under what conditions undergraduate students perceive racist speech as harmful. Studies how attribution of harm was influenced by group membership, message severity and explicitness, and medium of presentation. Finds interaction between group membership and message explicitness. Reveals out-group evaluators attributed direct racist…

A critic of Deborah Tannen's book "Gender and Discourse" responds to comments made about her critique, arguing that the book's analysis of the relationship of gender and discourse tends to seek, and perhaps force, explanations only in those terms. Another linguist's analysis of similar phenomena is found to be more rigorous. (MSE)

Analyzes 208 comments written at the end of student papers by 10 teaching assistants at Penn State. Analyzes a second sample containing end comments written earlier at other universities. Identifies 16 primary genres, falling into 3 groups: judging genres, reader response genres, and coaching genres. (PA)

A study of teachers and their students in five classrooms each at first-, third-, and fifth-grade levels (15 classrooms total) analyzed the discourse expectations of formal classroom lessons to provide an information base for curriculum-based language intervention. Implications for students with communication disorders are considered. (Author/CR)

Compared the narrative discourse of 10 boys (ages 8-9) with specific-language impairments and 10 typical peers. The children with SLI produced fewer narrative structures and less complex ones. They did not produce narrative structures in which aims, motivations, and consequences occurred as frequently as their peers. (Author/CR)

Argues that any political action is prepared, controlled and influenced by language. Notes that the study of language has become more central to academic disciplines concerned with politics. Political scientists focus on the consequences of political decisions and actions for a society, whereas linguists concentrate on the linguistic structures…

Discusses the development of rhetorical analyses of political addresses from antiquity to modern times. Focuses on "epideictic address," i.e., addresses by representative persons. Rhetorical and discourse analytical approaches are used to analyze parts of Dutch Queen Beatrix' speech to the Israeli Parliament. Discusses the hybrid…

Examines issues raised by corpus linguistics concerning the description of language. The article argues that it is necessary to start from correct descriptions of linguistic units and the contexts in which they occur. Corpus linguistics has joined with language teaching by sharing a recognition of the importance of a larger, schematic view of…

Discusses the fact that the conditional mood has wider distribution in Czech than in Russian as far as its meaning and use are concerned. An analysis of this phenomenon is proposed that makes use of many aspects and dimensions such as the relation between two propositions in an "if...then" construction, the "alternative…

Examines education and childhood in Portugal. Uses oral history methods in an educational context, exploring oral statements pedagogically. Considers these statements especially suitable to maintaining aspects of collective memory and social identity, reinforcing students' national and regional identities. Suggests this is very important in…

Examines the relationship between form and use of the reformulation sequence signalled by "c'est-a-dire" in written French and describes this sequence's various functions. The article attempts to show how a modular approach consisting of structural, semantic, pragmatic, and textual components contributes to a new and accurate description of…

Presents a semiotic analysis of the potential of computer algebra systems (CAS) for enabling mathematical activity on a conceptual level higher than usual. Illustrates examples of theoretical points from a development project in the context of a first year university course in calculus. Discusses how CAS may be used in a didactical analysis and in…

Describes how three experiments suitable for upper-elementary students can be used to foster classroom discourse in which students begin to explore probability. (KHR)

Examines the oral discourse of four university teaching contexts (lectures, laboratories, writing classes, and writing conferences) for the incidence of exchange patterns. Defines exchange patterns and explores previous research on three-part exchanges. Presents new research on two-part exchanges. Focuses on how non-native speakers of English…

Presents ways in which thematization can be used to control hortatory rhetoric, including varying the complexity of thematic structure and varying the amount of discourse participant themes. The article examines how different choices of thematic progression as text organizers can produce different effects and finds correlations with the…