Studies gender patterns in five- and six-year-old children's social interactions with one another and variables that may influence these patterns. Findings suggest that differences between boys and girls in the use of aggravated behavior in interaction style is strongly influenced by the nature of the activity being performed and by the gender of…

Analyzes the public rhetoric of the influential "Law and Economics" movement. Explores the affinity between rhetoric and judicial argument in the work of Judge Richard A. Posner. Shows how Posner's antirhetorical posture is itself a rhetoric inviting audiences to adopt particular views of society and law. (HB)

Documents and examines the changes in five teachers' classrooms during a transition from basal reading programs to literature-based reading instruction. Reports problems with such a transition as well as benefits observed throughout the study. (HB)

Outlines the function of the "signifying monkey" in African American oral traditions. Focuses on vernacular discourse and African American personal narratives to discover linguistic and cultural features of African American students. Argues that these identity features be placed at the center of writing instruction for African Americans.…

Studies whether global, causal inferences are made during comprehension. Provides verbal protocol data in the form of talking aloud during reading. Discusses the data with reference to processing claims and working-memory models. Considers what verbal protocols reveal about processing. (HB)

Reports the findings of a study designed to investigate children's deictic changes, use of speech act verbs, and preference for reporting system in their retold narratives. Claims that a linear age function emerged and that children's mastery of direct and indirect speech extends over many years. (HB)

Analyzes the referential strategies used in narrative discourse by 10 adults and 60 Japanese children aged 3 to 7 years. Determines the factors underlying choice of nominal versus elliptical forms. Discusses results in terms of cognitive, social, and linguistic factors underlying referential choice. (HB)

Examines the reading processes and practices of one female college student through eight semesters of undergraduate education. Traces the student's beliefs about literate activity. Analyzes the student's conceptions of the functions of texts and authors as they grew in complexity. (HB)

Presents the edited transcript of a meeting held at the Wyoming Conference on English in June 1989, where panelists told stories from their personal experience signifying an issue of conflict between personal and academic modes of thinking and writing. Includes transcripts of the five panelists' presentations and a selection from the discussion…

Studies discourse cohesion from the perspective of a speech/gesture synthesis. Presents cross-cultural evidence showing the joint contribution made by both speech and gesture to the process of creating discourse topics. Proposes a dialectical model of discourse production. (HB)

Presents the background, influences, and consequences of a self-conscious mathematics discourse production in New Zealand called Maori Mathematics. Describes some aspects of the movement towards Maori language instruction in mathematics and examines the effects on the language itself. Poses questions about the effects on mathematics and…

Explains the rhetorical implications of actions and states in various models of procedural discourse and in specific writer strategies. Considers more flexible alternatives to the "streamlined-step" model. States that one goal of technical communicators may be to help ensure that systems are designed, developed, implemented, and supported with…

Focuses on generic discourse practices by tracing the persuasive heterogeneity and the distributed nature of discourse genres in use. Three examples from research are explored: a father and his two daughters playing a family-created verbal game; a family's engagement with their 2-year-old's creative retellings of "The Tale of Peter Rabbit"; and a…

Outlines certain ways that educators might remap certain assumptions about and discussions of pedagogy, focusing on the paradoxes of authority and power. Three sections present moments of theory and practice, examining excessive pedagogy, excessive writing, and excessive research. (SM)

Discusses how students learning to write in a second language need to be aware of text genres. Claims that transforming texts from one genre to another, using information and ideas in the source text to create new texts for different audiences and purposes, helps students to become aware of and take into account genre-related features such as…