Although contemporary psychologists generally acknowledge the significance of affect in human experience, few have attempted to understand its role in cognitive processes. The same can be said of writing specialists. In fact, New Criticism, so long dominant in American literary thinking, still continues to influence the emotions writers disclose…

Writing research has long sought to identify the internal features of written discourse that help to explain qualitative differences among student texts. Reflecting the theories of the Prague School linguists, this study used a topical structure analysis to distinguish between the sentences and T-units of 48 college freshman essays evaluated as…

A major purpose of the research reported here is to determine whether or not children of minority backgrounds possess the ability to tell stories and verbalize in narrative form at age 3 and 4. Narratives and speech play were collected over a 9-month period in two Headstart classes in Honolulu (Hawaii). The children, most of mixed backgrounds,…

Suggests modifying the triparite system of analyzing argumentative statements by using definitional, factual, evaluative and policy classifications. (MH)

This paper summarizes the presentations given at the 1974 TESOL Convention, and includes discussion of second language learning universals, statistical techniques for analyzing morphemes, data collection techniques and tests of hypotheses about the nature of the second language learning process. (CK)

Contrasts classical grammar, which concerned itself with the causal relationships of thought, universal order, and language, with modern linguistics, which tends to entirely absorb the matter of discourse. (Text is in French.) (Author/MSE)

Analysis of adult discussions reveals a lack of fit between pedagogical grammars and actual usage. (JH)

A method of training pupils to read for total comprehension by an analytical approach is proposed. Specific techniques are suggested. (RM)

This book analyses how racism is reproduced through everyday talk and how ethnic prejudices become shared and may form the cognitive basis of ethnic or racial discrimination in intergroup interaction. The study, based on interviews conducted in California and Amsterdam, focuses on how ethnic attitudes expressed in discourse exhibit sociocultural,…

The American space shuttle Challenger's explosion prompted a national grieving process typified by stages of shock, disbelief, acknowledgement, and finally recovery/adaptation. President Reagan's speech on the evening of the disaster assisted this process by integrating content and structure with the psychological needs of the audience. Reagan's…

A marital argument over the content of a previous conversation is analyzed using an interactive discourse analysis approach. The analysis focuses on the frequency and use of particular discourse strategies to show how marked use of these strategies may not only typify speakers who share similar "high involvement" conversational styles,…

This analysis looks at the humorous use of second-speaker repeats to initiate conversational repair. It is proposed that consideration of joking repeats forces reanalysis of the organization of conversational repair. The preference analysis theory is rejected in favor of a locally governed analysis of conversational repair in which participants…

This paper questions some of the assumptions that permeate the current literature about soap operas and television, examining particularly the model according to which soap operas are the expression of an "essential" and universal feminine nature. The paper suggests the pertinence of a crosscultural approach to the study of melodrama as…

Patterns in the speech behavior of women were examined in a number of mixed-sex and single-sex television interviews and discussions, focusing on response to male dominance. Common properties of women's speech style are attributed to their need to respond to the requirements of conversation with men and ensure conversational survival, and are seen…

A study investigated the use of tag questions in the private conversations of Swedish men and women. Conversations took place in single-gender dyads (six with two men and six with two women) and six mixed-gender dyads. Informants were aged approximately 25 or approximately 50, of different social classes, chosen by random selection, and asked to…