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By means of an analysis of the genre of the audit report, this study highlights the respective roles of linguistic and contextual analysis in genre analysis, if the results are to be of maximum use in ESP course design. On the one hand, based on a corpus of current and authentic written auditors' reports produced in a large international Hong Kong accounting firm, the study explores how communicative purposes are achieved through the systematic schematic structuring and linguistic realisation patterning of the genre. On the other hand, through a more ethnographic analysis of the context of production, the study investigates the respective roles of templates and original writing in the production of such reports. The texts analysed and the auditors observed and questioned show that, although the use of templates is widespread, there is, in fact, some original writing involved in drafting the reports, especially in reports which draw attention to irregularities in the accounts reviewed (qualified reports). The study also finds that although the reports are written in English, a mix of languages (English, Cantonese and Putonghua) is used by the members of the audit team in their production. The implications of the findings are highlighted, with suggestions on how language trainers can focus on particular sections of the audit report in order to help auditors write better. The overarching conclusion of the paper is that the linguistic and contextual approaches to genre analysis can complement each other effectively. (Contains 1 table and 1 figure.)

The paper investigates Polish punk and hip hop (rap) song lyrics broken down into frequency lists. In an analysis inspired by MacLaury's view of categorization, the construals of punk and hip hop worldviews are shown to vary in the distance of the observer from the world, the width of the viewing frame, as well as the granularity and density of the world picture. The two bodies of lyrics also reveal different tendencies in the positioning of the first-person speaker vs. other personae or the world of discourse. Evidence for differences in worldviews come from the frequency of lexemes, the use of deictic pronouns, or the pronominal and verbal references to people. (Contains 7 tables and 3 figures.)

This paper is an application of Robert E. MacLaury's Vantage Theory (VT) to the analysis of real life spoken discourse. It utilizes Dennis R. Preston's (1994) modification of MacLaury's VT. It elucidates how cognitive processes of coordinate selection and combination contribute to the on-line construction of category membership in the abstract category of national identity. The analysis of data shows that in abstract categories coordinates can receive various strengths depending on the environmental pressures on the speaker. Also, unlike in the case of the physiologically-based category of colour, in the abstract category of identity the coordinates are hierarchically structured. (Contains 1 table and 8 figures.)

How does the developing child bridge the ontological gap from the empirical, measurable world of behavioral patterns, anatomical structures, and neurological processes to the world of the linguistic phenomena referred to by the expressions of commonsense metalinguistic discourse: words, meanings, names, truth, languages, understanding, and so on? Rejecting the positions both of sceptical eliminativism and of linguistic immanence, this paper argues that the linguistic identity of language emerges only gradually, by means of the child's increasingly competent participation in the discursive processes of reflexive enculturation.

The main goal of this paper is to shift the focus on "learning" away from the traditional locus of inquiry in SLA--the L2 classroom--in order to extend the SLA empirical database, and by so doing extend and broaden our understanding of what it means to learn and use (in mutually reinforcing and enlightening ways) an additional, or second, language. I examine instances where participants are using English as a lingua franca in an international workplace setting. I show that although parties produce non-standard linguistic (lexical, morphosyntactic, etc.) forms that may mark their speech as non-standard, they go to great lengths, interactionally, to disavow any intimations of "learner" status, and artfully deflect attention from and circumvent potential or actual language-encoding difficulties. However, in order for this to occur, various kinds of local learning is taking place within the micro-moments of interaction; for example, the interactants are compelled to assess, in situ, the language competence of their co-participants, and implicitly calibrate their own linguistic and interactional behaviour accordingly. Such calibrations, I argue, entail learning.

This article explores the construction of a bilingual professional identity in a bilingual creative-writing graduate program in southwest Texas by analyzing a classroom event and the participants' interpretation of it. In bilingual classrooms the resources available to construct professional identities include a large repertoire of linguistic practices and cultural frames. This context provides a space to explore how language, power, and identity are negotiated in bilingual settings. The data were analyzed from a social constructivist perspective using tools from Systemic Functional Linguistics (Halliday, 1994; Martin & White, 2005) and theme patterns. The paper demonstrates how 3 types of positioning--attitudinal, dialogic, and intertextual--contribute to the construction of various bilingual professional identities in the community and the idea that both Spanish and English are considered legitimate in the construction of disciplinary knowledge. The conclusions point to the importance of interpreting and explaining professional-identity construction as dynamic practices set in sociohistorical context. (Contains 3 tables and 6 footnotes.)

Recent research of student writing has included a few studies of the statement of purpose submitted as part of the admission process to programs of study, which have indicated variations in expectations by disciplinary gatekeepers. These studies indicate a need for further study of statements of purpose submitted to different departments, informed by the views of disciplinary specialists. In this paper, we first report on a survey of print and electronic resources on writing the statement, which revealed that information on writing statements for specific master's programs is not consistently available. This lends support to the "semi-occluded" status of this genre. We also discuss a genre analysis of successful statements submitted to three master's programs (Linguistics, Business Administration and Electrical Engineering) at a university in the US, drawing on the views of informants from these departments. Our findings indicate that, although statements from the three disciplines may contain the same rhetorical moves, they differ in the constituent steps used to realize some of the moves. These findings lead to implications not only for EAP instruction but also for master's programs soliciting statements from prospective graduate students.

Experiments in bilingual education in Europe increasingly appear under the abbreviation "CLIL" (Content and Language Integrated Learning). The main concept in it seems to be that of integration, as yet little described in research and insufficiently made conscious and explicit in the teaching process. This paper aims at studying the modes of integration between language and content by identifying different types of knowledge at the crossroads between the linguistic paradigm and the subject paradigm. It is based on discourse and interaction analysis of classroom interaction sequences in various subjects. It proposes elements for a basic theoretical framework designed to sustain the view of CLIL as an alternative not only in second language didactics, but also in the didactics of non-linguistic subjects.

Williams syndrome (WS) is characterized by apparent relative strengths in language, facial processing and social cognition but by profound impairment in spatial cognition, planning and problem solving. Following recent research which suggests that individuals with WS may be less linguistically able than was once thought, in this paper we begin to investigate why and how they may give the impression of linguistic proficiency despite poor standardized test results. This case study of Brendan, a 12-year-old boy with WS, who presents with a considerable lack of linguistic ability, suggests that impressions of linguistic competence may to some extent be the result of conversational strategies which enable him to compensate for various cognitive and linguistic deficits with a considerable degree of success. These conversational strengths are not predicted by his standardized language test results, and provide compelling support for the use of approaches such as Conversation Analysis in the assessment of individuals with communication impairments. (Contains 1 table and 1 note.)

This paper looks at the role of situated discourse-as-practice in denaturalising and delegitimising capitalist/integrationist models of development espoused by many national and transnational groups. It focuses on intercultural discourse between the Makushi Amerindians of Guyana and professional development workers and draws on the descriptive methods of Systemic Functional Linguistics, Bernstein's theory of classification and framing and Bourdieu's notions of habitus and symbolic power. I suggest that enhanced community participation within development discourse-as-practice accommodated to local discursive practice can alter the dominant Discourse-as-Ideology. (Contains 3 tables, 2 figures and 7 notes.)

This paper reports an analysis of research article (RA) abstracts from linguistics journals from two related angles: rhetorical organisation and thematic structure. Based on a small scale study it reveals two major types of rhetorical organisation, here called the IMRD type and the CARS type. When thematic analysis, in terms of thematic progression and method of thematic development, is applied to the two types of structure, distinct patterns of thematic distribution and choice are revealed, showing that the study of thematization can shed light on the complex profile of the RA abstract and contribute towards the understanding and explicit description of these texts. Moreover, the approach taken in this study shows potential for further research and pedagogic applications.

Argues that structuralism needs to be given a wider base than that of the highly specialized studies that are usually cited as examples. Rather, extension should be made philosophically, in the direction of phenomenology, and, practically, with some of the work being done in linguistics. (HOD)

Challenges a number of concepts in classical continental linguistics. Argues that a direct relationship exists between Jacques Derrida's procedures of deconstruction and the methods of linguistic analysis. Claims that deconstruction is the negation or denial of linguistic neutralization. (JD)

Discusses the presence of an implied author and its appropriateness as a rhetorical device in technical discourse. Concludes that it enhances the information transfer from writer to text to reader. (MS)

Discusses the relationship between translation and discourse analysis or text linguistics theory. (AM)

Explores the hypothesis that speech acts cannot be located without bringing in knowledge beyond that of the textual referent itself. Points out that speech acts are made up of sentence context pairs through which one must search for a formal motion of context as a framing of speech activities. (FL)

Critically examines some of the assumptions made of linguistics and literature in the book "Literary Text and Language Study." (HOD)

Outlines how the current work in linguistics and psychology can be joined with rhetoric in the study of cohesion and suggests the ways in which this synthesis leads to both a literary and philosophical sense of form and a practical pedagogy for teachers. (MM)

Outlines some problems in university foreign language departments that arise from the fact that prestige in foreign language departments results mostly from publishing in the fields of literary criticism and linguistics, which have little to do with language teaching. Anticipates that the current interest in text linguistics and pragmatics will rekindle interest in teaching. (SED)

Abstract: Evaluation in academic discourse has received considerable attention from researchers. Much of the work on evaluation has focused, however, on written genres, and less attention has been paid to how evaluation unfolds in spoken academic genres. In our present research, we are interested in disclosing how the interpersonal meaning of evaluation is expressed in the discussion session (hereafter DS) that follows conference paper presentations, since DS has already been defined as an “evaluative forum”, when comparing its phraseological patterns with those of the presentation. Though the study of evaluation in spoken genres has been developed focusing exclusively on linguistic aspects, we assume the non-linguistic message that accompanies the linguistic message has an effect on the interpersonal meaning of the communication. Therefore, the aim of our research is to analyse the evaluative meaning conveyed in DSs that follow paper presentations in an applied linguistics conference. In the study, we draw on a social semiotic theory of language and of kinesics and paralanguage to frame a multimodal exploration of this interpersonal meaning. The comparative analysis between linguistic evaluation and multimodal evaluation reveals the significant contribution of non-linguistics features which are used to intensify linguistic evaluation or to express the speakers’ attitude. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper presents linguistic evidence for communication problems in everyday classroom interactions where children are dialect speakers. It also examines the problem of coding language functions for use in experiments. (RB)

Recently there has been renewed interest in the intersection of identity and epistemics in social interaction, yet epistemics has still rarely been analyzed in political identity construction. This paper combines research on identity from a sociocultural linguistic perspective with epistemics using Conversation Analysis. The focus here is on understanding how a small group of student activists construct their shared political identities through epistemic stances towards their academic majors and career goals. Through a discourse analytic study of conversational data among these activists, I demonstrate the validity of the relationality principle of identity in accounting for how identities are constructed as related to one another. Furthermore, I examine the relational process of authentication in epistemic stances to legitimate claims to knowledge regarding political and academic identities, as well as alignment of stances in building group solidarity and shared political identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]