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Discourse Structure (discourse + structure)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Humanities and Social Sciences	75%

Selected Abstracts

Literary Discussions and Advanced Speaking Functions: Researching the (Dis) Connection

FOREIGN LANGUAGE ANNALS, Issue 2 2004
Richard Donato PhD
Motivating this study was the need for research to determine how discussion in advanced undergraduate literature courses provides discourse opportunities to students to develop advanced language functions, as defined in the ACTFL Guidelines. Despite claims that literature classes play an additional role in developing language proficiency, this issue has not received serious research attention. In this study, classroom transcripts were analyzed for the following features: (1) discourse structure of the literary discussion; (2) the use of teacher questions; (3) verb tense distribution; and (4) student uptake. The analysis attempted to uncover how literary discussion afforded opportunities for students to describe, to narrate in major timeframes, to use extended discourse, to share opinions and arguments, to explore alternatives, and to hypothesize,all advanced and superior level speaking functions. The study also included instructor and student interviews to determine their views of foreign language literature classes and to see if what was observed could be explained by the goals the instructor and students had expressed. The findings suggest that simply having a literary discussion does not ensure that students will be pushed to use the language in advanced ways even when faced with tasks requiring critical thinking and advanced language use. One issue that this study reveals is that, for students to experience speaking in the advanced ranges of proficiency, discussions must enable complex thinking in complex language. Other findings suggest that literature instructors should be aware of the discourse opportunities that arise in literary discussions, should make speaking expectations and advanced functions clear to students, and should monitor student language use during discussions. [source]

Anton Chekhov and English Nostalgia

ORBIS LITERARUM, Issue 2 2001
Svetlana O. Klimenko
Anton Chekhov is the most frequently performed foreigner on the British stage, and, significantly, he is also the most often rewritten playwright in British drama. However, we still seem to be lacking a scholarly insight into this established phenomenon, dubbed in modern theatre history ,British Chekhov'. The remarkable quantity and quality of reincarnations of Chekhov in English are still interpreted by the academic community in terms of either sheer statistics or pure sentiment. Even more significantly, there appears to be no link between the ever revolutionary, and dispersed, developments in modern British drama , with playwrights finding ever new modes of looking back in anger, and the proliferation of British Chekhov, a body of a few repeatedly recycled plays, produced by the same playwrights, looking back in nostalgia. The present article offers a textually based and contextually informed analysis of Chekhov's metamorphoses in English. The analysis demonstrates the ways in which the transmigration of Chekhov's grammar, syntax and discourse structure from Russian to English brings out the essential nostalgic motif in his drama and elevates it to the level of universal human longing. The consideration of Anton Chekhov's fate in Britain, thus, transgresses the limits of a mere case study in the impossibility of translation, and opens up a discussion of the impossibility of representation itself as a common, and growing, concern of all twentieth century art. [source]

Applying intelligent agents technology in a collaborative work environment

INTERNATIONAL TRANSACTIONS IN OPERATIONAL RESEARCH, Issue 1 2003
Nikos Karacapilidis
The current state of the art in computer,mediated collaborative work is mainly limited by the fairly primitive discourse structures that most asynchronous conference systems implemented so far provide and because they lack consensus seeking and problem solving abilities. To address these issues, we first propose a refined model of the discourse acts met in a collaborative work environment. In the sequel, using this model in the context of an already implemented system, we apply intelligent agents technology in order to enhance and facilitate collaborative work. The overall approach combines concepts from the AI and CSCW disciplines, while aims at giving a highly active role to the participants involved in such environments. [source]

The Omnipresent Classroom during Summer Study Abroad: American Students in Conversation with Their French Hosts

MODERN LANGUAGE JOURNAL, Issue 2 2002
Sharon Wilkinson
Study abroad is often promoted as one of the best opportunities to use foreign language skills outside the classroom. Yet, relatively little is known about the language that students produce when speaking in noninstructional settings. Relying on conversation analysis and ethnographic techniques, this qualitative study investigates both speech and speaker perceptions through tape,recorded conversations between summer study abroad students and their French hosts, as well as through interviews and observations. Findings indicate that natives and nonnatives alike relied heavily on classroom roles and discourse structures to manage their interactions, calling into question the assumption that language use with a native,speaking host family liberates students from classroom limitations. The inappropriateness of transferring didactic discourse patterns to out,of,class interactions also raises issues for consideration about the nature of in,class instructional practices. [source]