Examines how various reading and writing activities interacted over time as college students composed from multiple sources. Discusses the linear and nonlinear nature of the restructuring and composing process. Finds that individual reading and writing activities served unique yet partially overlapping functions over the course of the task.…

Suggests focusing historical narratives explaining composition's emergence and search for an identity by concentrating on the changing face of rhetoric within institutional settings. Investigates the cultural history of the term "process." Explores what the unacknowledged cultural values "process" bring to reading and writing and the…

A study of the use of phrase-terminal extension particles in Montreal (Canada) French analyzed composition, sociodemographic patterns of occurrence, and discourse functions of 76 particle types in 4 distinct classes. (MSE)

Presents a study of the grammatical subjects as used in scientific discourse. Provides evidence that the grammatical subjects in a sample of scientific discourse are markedly long. Identifies three pressures that operate on scientists to produce such markedly long grammatical subjects. (HB)

Studied representation of text content and representation of the surface form of the text in two studies of native French speakers. Twenty-five subjects (aged 23-30) participated in Experiment 1, and 40 subjects (aged 23-30) participated in Experiment 2. Data confirm that readers retain the spatial location of words read. (Contains 18 references.)…

Conversational language samples were elicited from 24 children (ages 2-7), half with specific language impairment (SLI), half with normally developing language (LN), matched for language level. For the SLI children, but not the LN children, increased proportions of questions were correlated to increased proportions of ellipsis. (Author/JDD)

Suggests that the increase in older adults (as compared to young adults) of uses of ambiguous reference is not caused by age- or cohort-related differences in knowledge structures needed to determine coreference based on plausibility; availability or weighing of strategies for using anaphoric devices; or assumptions about the degree of specificity…

Examined the intonation of second-language speakers of English from three language groups--Spanish, Japanese, and Thai--focusing on how native nonnative speakers use intonation to signal meaning in the structure of their discourse. Results revealed that nonnative speakers did not consistently use pitch to signal meaningful contrasts in many…

Presents a summary of the International Reading Association's 1994 award-winning dissertation, which examines the role of sociocognitive conflict in peer-led and teacher-led discussions of literature. Finds that the two have distinctly different discourse related to sociocognitive conflict, also affecting internalization of the underlying…

Examines the Brazilian Portuguese use of verb tenses in oral narrative episodes as a device to mark certain utterances that have a cohesive function in relating the episode to the overall purpose of the narrative, facilitating the listener's interpretation of the discourse in a global fashion. (CB)

Discusses a study of student discourse in a Masters of Business Administration program. Fall interviews produced three distinct types of self-reflective stories. Winter interviews produced two types of stories. Student reflective thinking was collective, not individual; few story types were in use, and they were tightly interwoven. (SM)

The bilingual discourse strategy of alternating languages as language game boundaries is examined, and language alternation is argued to be one of the features of bilingual discourse according to which speakers negotiate where one language game ends and the next one begins. The iconicity of the patterns of language alternation (discourse,…

Employs a cognitive discourse analysis to analyze instructions for using a word processor written by eighth grade students. Analyzes text structure to specify underlying semantic and conceptual knowledge structures. Finds that written instructions produced by the students were deficient in content information and did not parallel the hierarchical…

The impact of church affiliation on language use, identity, and change among Kwara'ae speakers in the Solomon Islands is examined. It was found that members of different sects signal their separate identities not only through linguistic code but also through discourse patterns and nonverbal aspects of communication. (26 references) (JL)

Differing approaches toward discourse result in difficulty and confusion when Asians and Westerners communicate in English. In Chinese, Korean, or Japanese discourse, topics are usually introduced inductively; topic introduction is delayed and indirect. Conversely, English-speaking Westerners introduce topics early in a conversation. This…