Teacher guided reporting in a primary literacy context : the stepping stones of mode and interaction

In this paper I take Gibbons' notion of Teacher Guided Reporting (TGR) and explore whether the features she identifies as being crucial in a science lesson with 9-10 year olds also are found in a literacy lesson with 5-6 year olds. The findings support Gibbons' claims for linguistic sequencing of tasks, degree of student initiations and role of teacherstudent interaction. The analysis suggests a wider variety of mode continua which underpin the linguistic sequencing of literacy tasks; and that these combine with the developing focus of teacher feedback across the series of TGR interactions in three main strands - language, content and process - which together promote the learners' language development towards written academic registers appropriate for schooling in English

Integrating ethnographic, multidimensional, corpus linguistic and systemic functional approaches to genre description : an illustration through university history and engineering assignments

Our research aims to describe genres of assessed writing at British universities (ESRC RES-000-23-0800). To this end we have developed a corpus of 2800 texts from four years of study across four broad disciplinary groupings. Our research design integrates a corpus linguistic account of formal features in the corpus with an ethnographic investigation of the disciplinary context, a multi-dimensional analysis of register, and a functional linguistic analysis of genres. In this paper I illustrate this design with examples from history and engineering. The contextual information shows that history students write mostly essays, written as pedagogical genres, while engineering students engage in a wide range of written assignments: scientific papers are written as if to report findings to an academic audience; funding proposals are written as if to persuade a professional readership; posters are designed to inform a lay audience (e.g. visitors to a transport museum); and reflective journals are written for personal and professional development. The writing process also differs. Some assignments are written individually whereas others involve teamwork

Beauty standards: negotiations of social life among African American college women

The literature concerning the relationship between black women and beauty has revealed conflicting findings: some argue that black women are negatively affected by ‘white’ beauty ideals while others argue for the existence of an alternative ‘black’ beauty standard. The purpose of this research is to describe and analyze young African American women’s awareness of beauty standards and their perception of themselves with relation to these standards, examine whether beauty standards are negotiable, and explore how perceptions of self affect daily social interactions. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with black females between the ages of eighteen and twentyive that were current students in one of three colleges in Mississippi (N = 21). Results reveal that context is an important element for understanding how black women relate to and use beauty standards. Their understanding of beauty standards and the expectations of others dictates how they manage/present themselves in a variety of situations

Parasyntax and the sentential level in axiomatic functionalism

This thesis is presented as a contribution to the St Andrews School of Linguistics, Axiomatic Functionalism, as developed by Mulder and Hervey. It is essentially a piece of Theoretical Linguistics which outlines an approach to the hitherto undeveloped areas of Parasyntax and the Sentential Level in Axiomatic Functionalism. The theoretical arguments are supported by descriptive hypotheses concerning the nature of Spoken English. These descriptions are corpus-based. The conclusion reached by the author is that not only are Parasyntax and the Sentential Level distinct in theory (this is axiomatic), but they are also distinct in their application as regards methodology and description. This conclusion will undoubtedly prove to be controversial in the light of recent developments in Axiomatic Functionalism concerning the Postulates in particular (of which the author was at the time of writing unaware), and in the light of other Functionalist approaches to the nature of intonation and sentences. It is anticipated that this thesis will be of value to those interested in Functionalism as well as those concerned with intonation and the levels of language beyond syntax