This study researched the use of writing-to-learn strategies within a high-school (Year 11) chemistry classroom. The writing task itself asked the students to write a business letter to a younger audience of middle-school (Year 7) students. A mixed-method design was used for the study, incorporating pre/post- testing with semi-structured…

This contribution investigates the frequency patterns of the modal verbs as they occur in the one-million-word corpus of Cameroon written English. An analysis of dominant senses of some of the modals is also attempted. I have used results and statistical figures from British and American English (as reported in studies such as Biber et al. 1999…

The paper presents the results of an empirical evaluation of a mathematical model of ethnolinguistic vitality. The model adds several new factors to the set used in previous models of ethnolinguistic vitality and operationalises it in a manner that would make it easier to compare the vitality of different groups. According to the model, the…

The present paper explores the extent of Irish language use in networked communications, and attitudes towards the language by 125 schoolchildren from three backgrounds in Ireland: (1) an Irish-speaking area (Gaeltacht) and Irish medium of instruction, (2) an English-speaking area and Irish medium of instruction, and (3) an English-speaking area…

In this article authenticity is defined by componential concepts, common to spoken and written communication through language, which frame assessments of interchanges produced for "high-stakes" examination purposes. They are referents for analysis and critique of International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme evaluations of second and foreign…

This paper communicates the generative potential of classroom skits as curricular openings in teacher education. Although assorted incidences of the use of skits in classrooms have been documented, literature on the use of skits as a learning tool is very limited. I suggest that skits allow for the generally absent observation component during…

In this article, we report on an investigation that aimed to describe adolescent multilinguals' use of the different languages they were learning at school when performing a translation task. We wanted to find out whether written translations of a mother tongue text into the learner's different foreign languages would reflect a multilingual rather…

The number of children beginning public school in the United States who speak Spanish as their native language--Spanish-speaking kindergartners (SSK)--continues to increase. It is important that the teacher workforce acquire the characteristics and the instructional and curricular tools necessary to provide these children with meaningful early…

This study investigates how immigrant minority pupils in a primary Flemish 5th Form construct their self-ascribed identities in terms of their cultural and linguistic affiliations. Two generalizable findings emerging from these pupils' discourse seem to shed light on synchronic variation and diachronic change in their strategies of identity…

This study examines and compares the production of discourse markers by native speakers and learners of English based on a pedagogic sub-corpus from CANCODE, a corpus of spoken British English, and a corpus of interactive classroom discourse of secondary pupils in Hong Kong. The results indicate that in both groups discourse markers serve as…

This volume of transformed research utilizes an activist approach to examine the notion that nothing is apolitical. Research projects themselves are critically examined for power orientations, even as they are used to address curricular problems and educational or societal issues. Philosophical perspectives that have facilitated an understanding…

The Preschool Language Assessment Instrument (PLAI) was designed as a diagnostic tool for 3- to 6-year-old children to assess children's abilities to use language to solve thinking problems typically posed by teachers. The PLAI was developed after observing middle-class teachers in preschool classrooms encourage children to use language in…

While rhetoric is conventionally associated with argumentation and discussions of discrete language forms (such as pronouns) which are usually housed in lingustics, clearly there are forms of rhetoric that are not obviously propositional. Moreover, sometimes very small language units can be deployed to great persuasive effect. Muriel Rukeyser's…

There are three distinct ways that the metaphor of "clarity" is employed in rhetorical history and in daily interchanges, correlating to three ways of looking at language, in turn correlating to three approaches to teaching writing. What is being proposed is more of a taxonomy than a pedagogy, but this taxonomy is important because of…

In the course of evaluating the Educational Partnerships Program of the Office of Educational Research and Improvement, researchers often heard the aphorism "It takes a whole village to raise a child." The village image appeared a powerful metaphor for program participants. This paper develops the hypothesis that the language and…