Examines how "-guo," a perfective aspect marker in Chinese, is used to narrate a sequence of events in speech. The study's analysis of transcribed audio-recorded natural conversation shows "-guo" indicates that a situation is viewed as a bounded whole with an emphasis on the situation's end-boundary, and that the confusion in traditional studies…

Examines how the parents of a 2-year-old child elicit and sustain the child's attention during mundane activities such as playing an educational game and telling a story. Notes that triadic interactions are fostered by the arrangement and blending of artifacts, the parents' complementary roles, the use of affective morphology and of nonvocal…

Notes that Samoans establish new communities and identities through different linguistic strategies in the urban context of Los Angeles. Argues that by comparing the different social organizations of language use, it is possible to uncover how certain forms may be used to simultaneously maintain and transform cultural practices within a syncretic…

Examined how mathematical problems are articulated, i.e. identified and defined, in the context of a fifth-grade lesson on equivalent fractions. Notes that classroom discourse limited to serial tasks constrained students' opportunities to develop relational knowledge about the properties and principles of equivalent fractions. (38 references)…

Demonstrates how students who are not directly participating in instruction are key contributors to the social construction of literacy knowledge. Argues for a reconceptualization of classroom language and literacy practices from current dyadic-based frameworks to more expanded multi-party participation frameworks allowing for flexible access to…

Analyzes various apparently synonymous words for "friend" (e.g., "homes,""bro") as they are used by one former gang-member to persuade two current gang-members to stop "gangbanging." The article's analysis shows how the meanings of these disparate reference terms are made and remade through talk as conversationalists use these words to express…

Discusses the dynamic nature of the struggle between desire and discipline in an elementary school setting. Emphasizes that these competing forces and the ensuing struggle profoundly affect a child's secondary socialization. Findings reveal that even very young children acquiesce to and resist authority in many ways, learning complicated lessons…

Addresses challenges faced by bilingual children transitioning to literacy in English when answering reading comprehension questions requiring interpretation and synthesis of information related to fictitious characters' thoughts. Notes that understanding a character's perspective may depend on inference, rather than on lexical content within a…

Identifies three common "channels" through which student-writers are inducted into the critical thinking practice via advanced writing courses. Argues that critical thinking is a socio-cognitive practice drawing on cultural norms shared by mainstream students, a process not open to students of English as a Second Language. (100 references)…

Focuses on teachers' group identity, seen as a process of co-construction of their group voices within the context of large-group dialogs. Findings identified three types of dialogs: conversation; discussion after a presentation; and interactional dynamics. Findings also indicated four types of teachers' voices: pragmatic; multiculturalist;…

Summarizes research findings on academic reading obtained from a questionnaire, two sets of reading tests, and a textbook analysis. Results reveal that the essential reading skills required of foreign language learners and those giving them the most difficulty in their academic studies are skimming, reading more slowly to extract relevant…

Explores the research paradigms found useful by Dr. Poole in her research of classroom discourse as well as her insights into cross-cultural classroom interaction and the differences between first and second language classrooms. She discusses the need for close interactional study of English-as-a-Second- Language classrooms as well as non-English…

Discusses the issue of literacy as a gate keeper and how the interviewee's own experiences as a bilingual Latina and writing teacher aroused her interest in sociocultural understandings of literacy and language learning. She emphasizes the importance of discourse-based analysis and discusses the issue of high urban mobility as well as her other…

Papers on applied linguistics and language pedagogy include: "A Genre Analysis Study of 80 Medical Abstracts" (Kenneth Anderson, Joan Maclean); "Oral Classroom Testing in an Adult French Community Class" (Sheena Davies, Aileen Irvine, Jacqueline Larrieu); "Whose Relevance? Interpretation of Hybrid Texts by a Multiple Audience" (Katalin Egri…

A study investigated the usefulness of instructional materials on the writing of scientific articles by comparing the descriptions of abstracts offered in the textbook with a sample of abstracts drawn from four fields of medicine (clinical medicine, surgery, epidemiology, basic sciences). The comparison was confined to abstracts of results-focused…