Uses data on the oral communication of elementary school learning groups (459 Canadian students in 63 learning groups) to show how experience transcends subject-matter planning, and the paradoxical nature of planning for authentic experiences in education. Presents a framework for semiotic research into disciplinary didactics as a prototype…

Coordinates sociocultural perspectives of literacy with semiotic theories of literacy. Examines the semiotic nature of literacy activities in a fourth-grade classroom in which the students had computers on their desks and five multimedia workstations in their classroom with Internet access. Indicates that the children's literacy activities had…

Focuses on the author's "semiotic self" by presenting questions and reflections. Discusses the overlapping groups to which one's multiple "selves" belong. Explains that these groups consist of people who share vocabulary, rituals, and understandings. (CMK)

This article uses an analysis of speech to qualitatively examine the relationship between a blind child and his environment, his use of semiotic signs, and his identity development. A brief overview of development in blind children is followed by a case study. The theoretical construct of this article, which is interactionism, is infused into the…

This article draws from the insights offered by discourse analysis and the study of gesture to examine imagination as a product of, and resource for, social action. Using data collected during ethnographic fieldwork at an architecture firm, the article explores how imagining can emerge from a group of interactants who use many semiotic media,…

One of the key means by which knowledge is disseminated in the academic discourse community is the spoken presentation of papers at an academic conference. In contrast to the written research article, the spoken presentation remains relatively under-researched from a linguistic perspective, limiting the knowledge available for explicating this…

In order for teachers to reflect deeply upon themselves, they need powerful models and images to guide their introspection. In teacher reflectivity, as in the therapeutic processes, psychic energy must ultimately be "contained" by models and modalities that enable one to make sense out of one's inner and outer experiences. This enables those…

Objective: Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is associated with poor inhibition of prepotent responses and deficits in distractor inhibition, but relatively few studies have addressed inhibitory control of proactive interference (PI) in individuals with ADHD. Thus, the goal of the present study was to evaluate resistance to spatial…

Designing successful learning environments entails drawing on theoretical perspectives on learning while, at the same time, being cognisant of the affordances and constraints of the technology. This paper reports on the development of a software environment called "3DMath", a dynamic three-dimensional geometry microworld aimed at enabling learners…

Although language practices must obviously be an empirical focus in sociocultural research, this article suggests that emphasis on the human body's material aspect has not revealed how, in particular communicative contexts, its ideational influence surpasses that of language. This article suggests that in the "social" semiotic, the body's function…

This comment attempts to identify different "semiotic perspectives" proposed by the authors of this special issue according to the problems they discuss. These problems can be distinguished as problems concerning the representation of mathematical knowledge, the definition and objectivity of meaning, epistemological questions of learning and…

Articles included in this compilation represent functional approaches to literary analysis. Most of these papers were presented at the Sixteenth International Systemics Congress held in Helsinki, Finland, in 1989. The aim of the congress was to establish dialogue between various functional approaches to the theoretical study of language, to…

Support groups, such as Alcoholics Anonymous, based on the 12 steps of recovery, have grown tremendously over the last several years. Personal narratives are an integral part of the recovery process because the signs that are used, and the semiotic webs that they form, are similar among people who belong to 12-step groups. In these groups,…

These proceedings contain 37 papers from 51 authors noted for their expertise in the field of visual literacy. The collection is divided into three sections: (1) "Examining Visual Literacy" (including, in addition to a 7-year International Visual Literacy Association bibliography covering the period from 1983-1989, papers on the perception of…

The seven articles in this journal issue focus on the relationship between theory and practice in human communication. Topics discussed in the articles are (1) a speech theory of human communication, (2) first principles for an "act" based theory of communication, (3) the uses of a theory of communication, (4) communication pragmatism,…