Women of Color feminists have theorized and pointed to the ways that chisme is a resistant practice for Women and Girls of Color. In line with this theoretical and epistemological framing of chisme, the authors explore the ways that gossip is, in fact, an intellectual and political literacy practice that Women and Girls of Color utilize in the…

This dissertation develops a theoretical and empirical framework for the model of metalinguistic community, a community of positioned social actors engaged primarily in discourse about language and cultural symbols tied to language. Building upon the notions of speech community (Duranti, 1994; Gumperz, 1968; Morgan, 2004), linguistic community…

Examines critically implications of claiming that the British National Literacy Strategy (NLS) provides teachers and educationists with a common language with which to talk about literacy teaching/learning in the classroom. Raises two questions: (1) what is the nature of the common language offered by NLS, and (2) should there be only one common…

Examines the history of the filibuster, particularly the ways in which the discourse surrounding attempts to eliminate the filibuster exemplify certain fundamental contradictions in American political mythology. Concludes that popular democracy and the American form of republican government are as contradictory as they are collaborative. Sees the…

"The Routledge Applied Linguistics Reader" is an essential collection of readings for students of Applied Linguistics. Divided into five sections: Language Teaching and Learning, Second Language Acquisition, Applied Linguistics, Identity and Power and Language Use in Professional Contexts, the "Reader" takes a broad…

States that changes in the United States Senate evolve slowly and idiosyncratically. Discusses Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania's violation of the Senate's style of rhetorical decorum. Concludes that, while clinging to the customs of the past and slowness of pace that distinguish it from the House of Representatives, the Senate has not escaped the…

Reviews recent studies of legal discourse and nonacademic writing and presents the results of a historical case study on an environmental public policy. Finds that a dynamic discourse community changed writing roles among government employees, lay members of the audience, and water pollution control board members. States that controversial…

Each discourse community teaches and uses a particular version of reality. In the field of accounting, the interpretation of reality is an objective one. Such an interpretation is a constraint on writing, as are accounting's reliance on exclusionary language, its need to meet legal and professional requirements, its adherence to stylistic and…

Argues for a contingency view of communication clarity and effectiveness based on the impact that an organization's language customs have on perceived effectiveness. Examines the psychological-social function of organizational language and discusses the role that language has in creating new knowledge in organizations. (KEH)

I draw attention to the distinction between reductionist views of "language" and the rich and complex ways in which we might approach language as social practice and suggest the latter view is evident in the set of papers collected here. Socially oriented linguists, including those in New Literacy Studies (NLS), look beyond reductionism, to…

An article on interethnic communication by J. Martin, M. Hecht, and L. Larkey in "Communication Monographs" (1994) suggests some important issues for understanding the potential impact of culture on communication practices--researchers might examine such variations in communication in future research. "Culture" is an ambiguous…

This paper tells the story of a pedagogy conference keynote event that is both specific and individual as well as emblematic of the difficulties that individuals face as academics and teachers. The paper explores the problematic relationship between power and responsibility, between privilege and accountability--issues that teachers are always…

A number of organizational communication analysts have argued that the field is in the midst of a paradigm shift, away from a strictly rational to a more transactional view of organization, but their arguments are not situated in a well-explicated communication theory. This paper argues for the existence of two, mutually exclusive worldviews of…

Discusses the unexplored territory of the stories teenagers have to tell. Contends that teenagers tell personal experience narratives as much as anybody else, using a repertoire of tales at a high level of competence as a means of social currency within their everyday conversational exchanges. Illustrates with quotes from fieldwork in secondary…

Argues that the phrase "think like a lawyer" confers a technical understanding of legal practices unavailable to ordinary people. Invites critics, in another approach, to examine ways laws are negotiated within rhetorical culture, then transformed into legal edicts. Studies the case of "Separate but Equal" doctrine to offer a…