Investigates how Mandarin speakers negotiate their participatory roles in multiparty conversation by using linguistic and nonlinguistic resources, highlighting two sequential contexts. Examination of recorded conversation reveals that one recurrent linguistic resource in both contexts is a turn-initial discourse-particle plus an additional turn…

Presents a case study with two objectives: (1) the identification of the interactions between pairs of 16- and 17-year-old students related to problem solving, and (2) the influence of such interactions in their cognitive development. Concludes that the interactions significantly influenced the individual development of cognitive and heuristic…

During the history of mathematics education at school, the answer of what counts as real mathematics varies. Real mathematics is any activity of participating in a mathematical practice. Uses Bakhtin's notion of speech genre for further analysis. Concludes that mathematical attitude is the link between the cultural historical dimension of…

When pronouns are deployed conventionally, the act of reference is normally successful, the referent being clear and unambiguous. This is rarely the case in teacher/pupil talk about mathematics when the referents of some personal pronouns may be intangible groups of entities. Provides examples of uses of "we" and "you" in the classroom. Contains…

In this paper we examine aspects of the construction of authentic membership, competence, and sense of shared purpose within a professional community of educators accomplished by a class of pre-service teachers during a spontaneous electronic conversation. Implications for teacher education are considered.

Linguistically, political discourses have generally been discussed within qualitative approaches (e.g., Blackledge, 2005; Chilton, 2004; Chomsky, 2004; van Dijk, 2005; Wodak, 2002). This paper presents tools to design a quantitative research relating political speech with sociolinguistic variables. Notions such as Accommodation Theory (Giles &…

In many cultures, the "troubles-talk narrative" is a speech event which builds solidarity between interlocutors through the indirect speech act of complaining and through face-saving strategies such as speaker "hedges" and listener "commiserative responses" as backchannels. The manner in which speakers perform such…

This paper describes some aspects of essays produced by students who as writers in the United States would commonly be called "basic writers." The paper focuses primarily on the grammatical subjects in these essays and offers a view of how closely grammatical structure typical in speech correspond to those typical in writing. It reports…

Proposes a unified theory of discourse form to explain (1) why writing textbooks consistently recognize just two polar types of abstract; (2) why students often produce adequate descriptive abstracts but not adequate summary abstracts; and (3) how a short paraphrase differs formally and conceptually from a summary abstract. (KEH)

Details a review of collaborative styles of professional writers. Notes that some Society of Technical Communication members reported an often hierarchical collaborative process, whereas respondents within the Modern Language Association seemed suspicious of collaboration. Reveals, however, that a dialogic collaborative mode subverting the status…

Criticizes Hegel's "rehabilitation" of the Sophists as an example of the dangers that are inherent in judging rhetorical contents of theories by philosophical standards rather than rhetorical ones. Argues that Hegel placed the Sophists in philosophy's historical continuity by eliminating consideration of their rhetorical stances and the…

Argues that rhetorical history serves composition studies in two ways: 1) it provides the field roots and self-definition; and 2) it provides the kind of hard knowledge that puts the field in context. (JAD)

Seeking a shared language instead of shared convictions reduces the temptation to think of professional ethics as the transmission of ethical rules instead of a shared way of thinking through ethical issues. Instruction in professional ethics can help people learn sophistication in public moral discourse. (SK)

Examines two prominent schools of critics who employ a hermeneutic strategy and who arrive at conflicting interpretations of Gorgias's overall "philosophy." Argues that in fact both schools misconstrue the nature of Gorgias's writing. Presents an alternative reading of Gorgias' style. (TB)

Argues that the resume reading activity of professionals who hire employees consists of an aggressive manufacture of meanings beyond those assumed by the text. Focuses on these indirect speech acts by which professional resume readers infer meanings. Considers ways that teaching might respond to this condition. (HB)