James Paul Gee’s Unified Discourse Analysis: Language, Reality, Virtual Worlds, and Video Games not only offers a comprehensive theoretical framework that can be used to analyze discourse, video games, and action, but also explores the underlying commonalities that unite these seemingly disparate domains. The root of Gee’s theory is that “conversations” are not limited to talk, but also include...

In Chapter 1 I introduced the principles of CA methodology in relation to ordinary conversation, whereas chapter 2 introduced an institutional discourse perspective. In this chapter I apply these principles and this perspective to the institutional setting of the L2 classroom and to the organisation of turn-taking and sequence in particular. The overall argument of this chapter is that there is...

The authors conducted ethnographic research to provide deep understanding of the learning environment of a selection of computer science classrooms at a large, research university in the United States. Categories emerging from data analysis included (1) impersonal environment and guarded behavior; and (2) the creation and maintenance of informal hierarchy resulting in competitive behaviors. Bot...

this paper, largely motivated by hoey (2001), revisits the issue of written discourse analysis and, in particular, the problem-solution pattern. much discussion embarrasses the way in which texts are pro-duced and understood. the different functional approaches include halliday and hasan’s approach, van dijk’s process-oriented approach, the procedural approach of de beaugrande and dressler, and...