A study examined the varying degrees to which learners of Spanish at the intermediate and advanced levels use paragraph-like structure in their answers during a simulated oral proficiency exam. Subjects were 24 students preparing for the Spanish Texas Oral Proficiency Test. Data from simulated oral proficiency interviews were compared to a model…

The speech introduces a colloquium on the teaching of listening comprehension to students of English for academic purposes (EAP). The colloquium's aim is to address ways that EAP instructors can improve students' lecture listening skills by discussing the types of background discourse knowledge and listening strategies that…

Because teasing is a form of play that can contain some element of truth, the response of the teased is relevant to determining the nature of the play frame. Play frames occur in teasing situations when the teased responds in a way that cooperates and therefore maintains the play frame. This paper analyzes five examples of interactional teases…

Geographical thinking focuses on the extrinsic meanings of work in English, the meanings extracted from that work, intended or not, through mediating institutional forces, relationships, and modes of spatial organization. It considers how the effects of the work of English educators are mediated by the contiguity of their courses with other…

This essay examines and explicates the nature and pattern of epistemic transformations undergone by the United States academic discipline known as "speech communication." The system of examination and explication employed in the paper follows Michel Foucault's genealogical method of inquiry and, as such, offers a postmodern critical…

Numerous critics have repeatedly called for the use of curricular materials drawn from the learner's everyday world, and for many of today's students, one valuable source is the lyrics of contemporary rap music. In first-year writing courses at Michigan State University, the words to one rap song, "You Must Learn" by the group Boogie…

In his book, "Illiberal Education," Dinesh D'Souza dramatizes the transformation of American campuses and the academic revolution that is allegedly toppling traditional notions of Western civilization. However, many scholars are concerned that D'Souza'a collection of examples might leave readers with a false impression of the severity of…

Approaches used by linguists to examine the way in which speakers or writers modify their commitment to the propositional content of their utterances are discussed, and it is noted that a frequent criticism is the failure of inexperienced speakers or writers to modulate their utterances properly. This paper considers economic reports and in…

Two studies compared the impact of black and white audiences on black students' writing style. In the first study, eight students in an all-black intermediate composition class completed one argumentative draft addressed to black opponents and one addressed to white opponents on two different topics. The essays were examined for stylistic features…

The difficulties and obstacles encountered in research in the analysis and interpretation of writing conference talk are theoretically important. These dilemmas may serve as markers to help researchers see how the routines of research and the interpretations of findings are integrally related. The ways in which talk "rearranges" problems…

This paper examines and explains the elements of the paranoid style in rhetoric (first noted by Richard Hofstader in 1966) employed by Leonard Jeffries, Chairman of the Black Studies Department at City College of New York, in his July 1991 speech at the Empire State Black Arts and Cultural Festival in Albany, New York. The paper also suggests that…

A quasi-experimental study determined the effectiveness of teacher conferences as a modeling technique in freshman composition, as measured by the quantity and quality of selected characteristics in peer response group discourse. Subjects, 22 students in the "experimental" section and 24 students in another section of second semester…

A study investigated whether student non-comprehension strategy use would vary according to learning environment by looking at the tutoring session--a more intimate learning situation than the classroom. Through collection and analysis of five tape-recorded tutoring sessions, results indicated that the eight undergraduate students were more likely…

Language is a system developed for the purpose of communication. Grammar (structure), which reflects language form, is only one aspect of language; the other two are meaning and function. Failure of form-centered approaches to second language teaching, the audiolingual and cognitive approaches, led to the emergence of the communicative approach in…

Focusing on the local level where change is supported or resisted, an ethnographic study examined the response of a town in upstate New York to demands for broadening the curriculum within the context of altering the educational environment to better serve the needs of minority youth. The controversy began when a school board member refused to…