Centre for Discourse Studies PhD Workshop 23rd - 25th November 2005

 Discourse Analysis: Theory and Method

Location: Aalborg University, Kroghstræde 3

Workshop leader:

James Paul Gee is Professor in the Department of Educational Psychology at University of Madison-Wisconsin, USA.

Prof. Gee received his Ph.D in linguistics from Stanford University in 1975. He started his career in theoretical linguistics, working in syntactic and semantic theory, and taught initially in the School of Language and Communication at Hampshire College in Amherst Massachusetts. He went on to do research in psycholinguistics at Northeastern University in Boston and at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Holland. As his research focus began to switch to studies on discourse analysis, sociolinguistics, and applications of linguistics to literacy and education, he took a position in the School of Education at Boston University, where he was the chair of the Department of Developmental Studies and Counselling. From Boston University, he went on to serve as a professor of linguistics in the Linguistics Department at the University of Southern California and, later, served as the first Jacob Hiatt Professor of Education in the Hiatt Center for Urban Education at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. In 1998, he became the Tashia Morgridge Professor of Reading in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. From 1989-1992, Prof. Gee was a co-director of the Mellon Foundation funded Literacies Institute in Newton, Massachusetts, an organization that sponsored joint teacher and researcher research on language and literacy. From 1995-1998, he was co-director of a Spencer Foundation funded research project at Clark University that ran a community-based after-school science project for culturally diverse urban middle-school children. Prof. Gee’s work over the last decade has centred on the development of an integrated theory of language, literacy, and schooling, a theory that draws on work in socially situated cognition, sociocultural approaches to language and literacy, language development, discourse studies, critical theory, and applied linguistics.

Prof. Gee’s recent work has extended his ideas on language, literacy, and society to deal with the so-called “new capitalism" and its cognitive, social, and political implications for literacy and schooling. Yet more recently he has begun work on digital literacies and has published a new book on the theories of learning embedded in video and computer games. He has published widely in journals in linguistics, psychology, the social sciences, and education. In 1989, the Journal of Education, one of the longest running journals in education in the United States, published a special issue devoted to reprinting his early essays on literacy. His books include Social Linguistics and Literacies: Ideology in Discourses (1990, Second Edition 1996); The Social Mind (1992); Introduction to Human Language (1993); The New Work Order: Behind the Language of the New Capitalism (1996, with Glynda Hull and Colin Lankshear); What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy (2003); Situated Language And Learning: A Critique Of Traditional Schooling (2004), Why Video Games are Good for Your Soul (2005) and An Introduction to Discourse Analysis: Theory and Method (Second Edition 2005).

Workshop Description

The word "discourse" has a variety of different meanings.  Within linguistics it usually means language (oral or written) in use, as opposed to language as an abstract system.  The term also has less linguistic, more sociopolitically oriented meanings, for example, it is sometimes used to mean: what is (typically) "sayable" ("mean-able", "communicable") about one or more topics within the constraints of a given time, place, or social, cultural, or institutional setting (e.g., as in such phrases as: "17th century discourse about women", "the discourse of modern medicine", "Enlightenment discourse", or "the competing discourses of school reform emanating from business and educational research").  This course will be concerned with discourse in both its linguistic and sociopolitical senses (and with the connections between these two).

There are a great many approaches to discourse analysis, rooted in different disciplines.  This course will be concerned with a "family" of approaches to discourse analysis that, based on a close examination of language in use, seek to illuminate the significance and implications of social, cultural, and political practices.  In addition, a particular concern of this course will be the ways in which discourse functions within institutions, whether these be families, communities, schools, academic disciplines, businesses, governments, or the media. 

Discourse analysis is basically the analysis of "language in context".  But this simple statement begs two questions: What is "context"? and Why bother?  Let me speak to the first question first, since the answer to this question partly answers the second one, as well.

To understand a particular instance of language, we have to know what social identity the speaker (or writer) is adopting and what social activity the speaker (or writer) thinks he or she is accomplishing.  For example, the same words uttered by the same person will mean quite different things if taken to have been spoken in her role as a professor in a formal advising session as against her role as a friend in an informal chat before getting down to "business".  "Who" we are and "what" we are doing, where we are doing it, what has already been said and done, as well as the knowledge and assumptions that we assume we share with those with whom we are communicating, are all part of "context". 

Language in context has a quite "magical" property.  The words we utter (or write) simultaneously reflect (are shaped by, are determined by) the context within which we utter them and create (shape, determine) the context.  For example, elementary school teachers talk (and act) the way they do because they are in classrooms and they are teaching, but their classrooms count as classrooms and they as teachers teaching because they talk (and act) that way.  The "world" both pre-exists and shapes how we talk about it (and act in it) and it means what it means and has the shape it does because we talk about it (and act in an on it) as we do. 

So, why do we bother doing discourse analysis?  Because "context" ultimately means the very shape, meaning, and effects of the social world--the various social roles people play, the socially and culturally situated identities they take on, the social and cultural activities they engage in, as well as the material, cognitive, social, cultural, and political effects of these.  If language both reflects and creates contexts (its "magical" property), then it is a unique window onto understanding (and, possibly, changing) the social world.  We can see, here, too, that discourse analysis is not just a way of analyzing language in context.  It is, in fact, a perspective on how to engage in the study of the social, the cultural, the institutional, and the political (i.e., social science).

Another way to look at the point being made here is this: Language mediates (stands between) the individual (the "mind") and the social ("society").  The individual mind is "furnished" (in part) through experiences in the physical and social world, but a large part of this process is mediated by language.  Language (as it is used in communication) simultaneously reflects the patterning (organization) of the physical and social world (which, of course, varies across cultures), helps create that patterning, and shapes how these patterns are "stored" in and used by the mind.  Thus, language-in-use is the point at which the mind and society come together.  As such, the study of language also allows us to develop perspectives on "cognition" (and how it is "social" and "cultural"), as well as on society (and how it is, in part, a product of the human mind and its functioning).

Part of the course will deal with the "tools" of discourse analysis.  Through a large number of examples, I will try to demonstrate how discourse-analytic tools can be connected up to claims about sociocultural meanings, social identities, and social activities, as well as how they can throw light on issues germane to institutions like schools.  The tools to be discussed are:

1. Tools based on the discourse functions of units (patterns) in the production of speech and writing: e.g., for speech: prosodic units, idea units, stanzas, and larger units made up of these.

2. Tools based on interactional units (patterns): e.g., turns, exchanges, repairs, overlaps, and larger units made up of these.

3. Tools based on grammatical forms and configurations of forms at different levels: phonological, graphemic, morphological, lexical, syntactic, and inter-sentential patterns across larger stretches of text (e.g., various cohesive and coherence devices).

4. Tools based on thematic (content-based, semantic) patterns within and across texts.

One key device that I will use to relate "formal" (linguistic) units to "context" (in terms of social practices and sociocultural variation) is John Gumperz's notion of "contextualization cues".   "Contextualization cues" are features of language (and how it is produced) that "cue" hearers (or readers) into what the speaker (or writer) takes the relevant context to be.  I will spell out the workings of contextualization cues, in part, through an elaboration of such notions as “situated meanings” and “social languages”.

Another key device will be the notion of "Discourse models".  A brief consideration of "politics" and discourse analysis, necessary in any case, will allow me to get to the notion of "Discourse models".  As I said above, language allows (and requires) people to be (for a time and place) socioculturally distinctive who's and to accomplish socioculturally distinctive what's.  These who's and what's are always defined, partially, in opposition to other sorts of who's and what's, and are always related to models of what count as "valuable" (and "normal") people, activities, and things.  Thus, social practices, are always inherently "political" in the general sense of "interactions where power, desire, and 'goods' are at stake". 

"Models of what count as valuable or normal" brings us to the "cultural models" literature, a branch of study that seeks to meld psychology and anthropology.  Cultural models are "theories"--really, patterns extracted from experience--that give us contextualized prototypes of types of people, things, events, and activities.  For example, the "prototype" of a "well behaved child" differs across different contexts and different social groups.  Cultural models are "simplified pictures of the world" in terms of which we carry out our interactions with others (all theories--even scientific ones--are "simplified").  Cultural models are both "stored" in the mind and enacted (instantiated) in social practices.  I will replace the notion of “cultural models” with the notion of “Discourse models” for reasons I will make clear in the course.

Cultural model theory/Discourse model theory is an attempt to develop a socially-situated version of schema (prototype, frame, scenario) theory in psychology.  If we see "meaning" in language as, in part, the models connected to words and phrases, then we have the beginnings of a way to connect language and society, as well as psychology and sociocultural studies.

Finally, since we will situate individual communication within social practices and the distinctive social and cultural identities they recruit, we will often leave the "level" of individuals and look at communication in a larger historical and institutional frame.  We will be concerned, as well, then with issues like what classrooms, governments, disciplines, human bodies, or various tools and technologies, have meant (and how they have changed meanings) across history and cultures.  We can do this because the contexts language simultaneously shapes and is shaped by "repeat" and "accumulate" across time and space creating the relative enduring shapes of history, institutions, and society. We will try to get at these issues through the notion of “Discourses” (“big D Discourse”).

A list of publications can be found at the end of this webpage.

Provisional schedule

The provisional schedule is given below.

PhD students, faculty and other scholars are invited to participate in the seminar. It will be possible to present a limited number of PhD projects on the first day. If you wish to do so, please send a short description (no more than one page) of your PhD project or research topic and data to Paul McIlvenny.

Participation in the workshop will earn a student 5 ECTS points. 

The number of participants is limited to 25 on a first-come, first-served basis. Once the workshop is full, a waiting list will be kept. Please inform us as soon as possible if you have registered but cannot attend.

A fee will be charged for participation to cover administrative costs, tea/coffee/fruit and lunches during the three-day workshop. The fee for all participants is 1500 Danish kroner (dinner not included), 

Please register with Bente Vestergaard <bentev@hum.aau.dk>. After registering, you will immediately be sent an invoice with which you can pay the fee using your local banking system (IBAN number). Please note that your registration will only be officially confirmed when your fee has been paid. Payment of the fee should be received by 1st November at the latest, otherwise your registration will be cancelled.

Travel and accommodation are the responsibility of the participant. Location, travel and accommodation information is available on this web site.

For more information, contact:

               Paul McIlvenny.

A poster (PDF) for the workshop is available online (1.6 Mb).

TBA

Note: PDF files require Acrobat Reader.

Publications

DISSERTATION

Perception, Intentionality, and Naked Infinitives: A Study in Linguistics and Philosophy.  Stanford University, August, 1975 (University Microfilms, Ann Arbor, Michigan)

BOOKS

Protocols and conceptual analysis.  National Institute of Education and ERIC, 1974 (with David Berliner)

Social linguistics and literacies: Ideology in Discourses.  London: Falmer Press, 1990

The social mind: Language, ideology, and social practice.  New York: Bergin and Garvey, 1992

An introduction to human language: Fundamental concepts in linguistics.  Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1993

Sociolinguistics and literacies: Ideology in Discourses.  Second Edition.  London: Taylor & Francis, 1996

The new work order: Behind the language of the new capitalism.  Sydney: Allen Unwin; Boulder, Colorado: Westview/Harper Collins (with Glynda Hull and Colin Lankshear), 1996 [also, El nuevo orden laboral: Lo que se oculta tras el lenguaje del neocapitalismo.  Spain: Ediciones Pomares, 2002]

An introduction to discourse analysis: Theory and method.  London: Routledge, 1999 [also, Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, China, 2000]

What video games have to teach us about learning and literacy.  New York: Palgrave/Macmillan, 2003

Situated language and learning: A critique of traditional schooling.  London: Routledge, 2004

An Introduction to discourse analysis: Theory and method.  Second Edition.  London: Routledge, 2005.

Why video games are good for your soul: Pleasure and learning.  Melbourne, Common Ground, 2005.

JOURNALS

The mass-count distinction in English.  Stanford Occasional Papers in Linguistics #2, 1972

Jackendoff's thematic hierarchy condition and the passive construction.  Linguistic Inquiry 5.2 (304-308), 1974

Adjective preposing and there insertion: a point about syntactic rules and semantic processes.  Studies in Language 2.1 (103-111), 1978

Semantic perspicuity and the locative hypothesis: implications for acquisition. Journal of Education 164.2 (185-209), 1982 (with J. A. Kegl)

Anyone's any: a view of language and poetry.  Language and Style 16.2 (123-137), 1983

Orality and literacy: a response to Walter Ong.  Language and Style 16.2 (231-237), 1983

Performance structures: a psycholinguistic and linguistic appraisal.  Cognitive Psychology 15 (411-458), 1983 (with Francois Grosjean)

Pausing, narrative/story structure, and ASL.  Discourse Processes, 4 (243-258), 1983 (with J. A. Kegl)

Discourse studies in ASL, special issue of Discourse Processes, editor (with Robert Hoffmeister)

Empirical evidence for narrative structure.  Cognitive Science, 8 (59-85), 1984 (with Francois Grosjean)

The narrativization of experience in the oral style.  Journal of Education, 167.1 (9-35), 1985 [Reprinted in Candace Mitchell & Kathleen Weiler, Eds., Rewriting Literacy: Culture and the Discourse of the Other, New York: Bergin & Garvey, pp. 77-101]

The structure of perception in the poetry of William Carlos Williams.  Poetics Today, 6 (375-397), 1985

Nativization, linguistic theory, and deaf language acquisition.  Sign Language Studies, 49 (291-342), 1985 (with Wendy Goodhart)

Toward a realistic theory of language acquisition.  Harvard Educational Review, 56 (52-68), 1986 [Reprinted in Masahiko Minami & Bruce P. Kennedy, Eds., Language Issues in Literacy and Bilingual/Multicultural Education,  Reprint Series No. 22, Cambridge, Mass: Harvard Educational Review, 1991, pp. 98-116]

Units in the production of narrative discourse.   Discourse Processes, 9 (391-422), 1986

Prosodic structure and spoken word recognition.  Cognition, 25 (135-155), 1987 [Reprinted in U. H. Frauenfelder and L. K. Tyler, Eds., Spoken Word Recognition, Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press., 1987, pp. 135-155] (with Francois Grosjean)

Orality and literacy: From The Savage Mind to Ways with Words.  TESOL Quarterly, 20 (719-746), 1986 [Reprinted in Janet Maybin, Ed., Language and Literacy in Social Practice. Clevedon, Philadelphia, Adelaide: Multilingual Matters/The Open University, pp. 168-192]

What is literacy?  Teaching and Learning, 2 (3-11), 1987, and Literacies Institute Technical Report, No. 2, 1989 [Reprinted in Candace Mitchell & Kathleen Weiler, Eds., Rewriting Literacy: Culture and the Discourse of the Other, New York: Begin & Garvey, 1992, pp. 3-11; and in Patrick Shannon, Ed., Becoming Political: Readings and Writings in the Politics of  Literacy Education, Portsmouth, N.H.: Heineman, 1992, pp. 21-28; and in L. M. Cleary & M. D. Linn, Eds., Linguistics for Teachers, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1993; Vivian Zamel & Ruth Spack, Eds., Negotiating Academic Literacies: Teaching and Learning across Languages and Cultures, Mahwah, N. J.: Erlbaum, 1998, pp. 51-59; Ellen Cushman, Eugene R. Kintgen, Barry M. Kroll, & Mike Rose, Eds., Literacy: A Critical Sourcebook, Boston, MA: Bedford/ St. Martin’s, 2001, pp. 537-544; Patrick Shannon, Ed., Becoming Political, Too: New Readings and Writings on the Politics of Literacy Education, Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2001, pp. 1-9]

Discourse systems and aspirin bottles: On literacy.  Journal of Education, 170 (27-40), 1988 [Reprinted in Candace Mitchell & Kathleen Weiler, Eds., Rewriting Literacy: Culture and the Discourse of the Other, New York: Bergin & Garvey, pp. 123-135]

Count Dracula, the Vampire Lestat, and TESOL.  TESOL Quarterly, 22 (201-225), 1988

Legacies of literacy: From Plato to Freire through Harvey Graff. Harvard Educational Review, 58 (195-212), 1988, and Journal of Education, 171 (147-165), 1989.  [Reprinted in Masahiko Minami & Bruce P. Kennedy, Eds., Language Issues in Literacy and Bilingual/Multicultural Education,  Reprint Series No. 22, Cambridge, Mass: Harvard Educational Review, 1991, pp. 266-285]

Two styles of narrative construction and their linguistic and educational implications.  Discourse Processes, 12 (287-307), 1989.  [Reprinted in Jenny Cheshire & Peter Trudgill, Eds., The Sociolinguistic Reader, Volume 2: Gender and Discourse.  London: Arnold, 1998, pp. 295-314]

Discourse styles: Variations across speakers, situations, and tasks. Introduction to special issue of Discourse Processes, 12 (263-265), 1989 (with Sarah Michaels)

Discourse styles: Variation across speakers, situations, and tasks.  Special issue of Discourse Processes, editor (with Sarah Michaels)

What do English teachers teach?  Journal of Education, 171 (135-146), 1989

Literacies and traditions.  Journal of Education, 171 (26-38), 1989

"Literariness," formalism, and sense making: The line and stanza structure of human thought.  Journal of Education, 171 (61-75), 1989

Literacy, discourse, and linguistics: An introduction.  Journal of Education, 171 (5-17), 1989 [reprinted in Ellen Cushman, Eugene R. Kintgen, Barry M. Kroll, & Mike Rose, Eds., Literacy: A Critical Sourcebook, Boston, MA: Bedford/ St. Martin’s, 2001, pp. 525-537]

Literacy, discourse, and linguistics: Essays by James Paul Gee, special issue of the Journal of Education, 171, 1989 (edited by Candace Mitchell)

Self, society, mushfake, and Vygotsky: Meditations on papers redefining the social in composition theory.  The Writing Instructor, 8.4 (177-183), 1989

A linguistic approach to narrative.  Journal of Narrative and Life History 1.1 (15-39), 1991

Socio-cultural approaches to literacy.  Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 12 (31-48), 1991

What is Reading?: Literacies, Discourses, and domination.  Journal of Urban and Cultural Studies, 2 (65-77), 1992

Literacies: Tuning in to forms of life.  Education Australia, 19-20 (13-14), 1992-1993

Critical literacy/socially perceptive literacy: A study of language in action.  Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, 16 (333-355) 1993 [Reprinted in Heather Fehring & Pam Green, Eds., Critical Literacy: A Collection of Articles from the Australian Literacy Educators' Association.  Newark, DE: International Reading Association; Norwood, South Australia: Australian Literacy Educators' Association, 2001, pp. 15-39]

Quality, science, and the lifeworld: The Alignment of business and education. Critical Forum 2 (3-13) 1993; and Focus: Occasional Papers in Adult Basic Education, #4.  Leichardt, Australia: Adult Literacy and Basic Skills Action Coalition, Feb. 1994

Discourses: Reflections on M.A.K. Halliday's "Toward a language-based theory of learning," Linguistics and Education 6 (33-40) 1994

First language acquisition as a guide for theories of learning and pedagogy.  Linguistics and Education 6 (331-354) 1994

The new work order: Critical language awareness and "fast capitalist" texts, Discourse 16 (5-19) 1995 (with Colin Lankshear) [Reprinted in Colin Lankshear, Changing Literacies, Buckingham/Philadelphia: Open University Press, 1997, pp. 83-102]

Vygotsky: Dilemmas, Education Australia 30 (23-24) 1996

On mobots and classrooms: The converging languages of the new capitalism and schooling.  Organization 3 (385-407) 1996

Beyond culture: Communities of practice in the new capitalism.  Critical Forum 1&2 (70-82) 1997.

Thematized echoes, Journal of Narrative and Life History 7 (189-196) 1997

Discourse analysis, learning, and social practice: A methodological study.  Review of Research in Education 23 (119-69) 1998 (with Judith Green)

The future of the social turn: Social minds and the new capitalism, Research on Language and Social Interaction 32: 1-2 (61-68) 1999

Review of the "Learning Paradox" manuscript,  American Educational Research Journal 36.1 (87--95) 1999

Mind and society: A response to Derek Edwards' "Emotion Discourse", Culture and Psychology 5.3 (305-312) 1999

Reading and the New Literacy Studies: Reframing the National Academy of Sciences report on reading, Journal of Literacy Research 31.3 (355-374) 1999

Teenagers in new times: A new literacy studies perspective. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy  43.5 (412-420) 2000.

The limits of reframing: A response to Professor Snow.  Journal of Literacy Research, 32.1 (121-128), 2000

Communities of practice in the new capitalism.  The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 9.4: 515-523 (2000)

Reading as situated action: A sociocognitive perspective.  Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 44.8 (714-725) 2001.  [Reprinted in Robert B. Ruddell & Norman J. Unrau, Eds., Theoretical Models and Processes of Reading.  Fifth Edition.  Supplementary Articles.  Newark, DE: International Reading Association, 2004, pp. 116-132; and Preparing Reading Professionals: A Collection from the International Reading Association.   Newark, DE: International Reading Association , 2004, pp. 41-52]

Language, class, and identity: Teenagers fashioning themselves through language, Linguistics and Education.  12.2: (175-194) 2001 (with Anna-Ruth Allen & Katherine Clinton)

Identity as an analytic lens for research in education.  Review of Research in Education 25 (99-125) 2000-2001

Opportunity to learn: A language-based perspective on assessment.  Assessment in Education 10.1 (25-44) 2003

Learning by design: Games as learning machines.  Interactive Educational Multimedia 8: (15-23) 2005

Video games, mind, and learning.  The International Digital Media & Arts Association Journal 2 (37-42) 2005

Learning by design: Games as learning machines. Telemedium: The Journal of Media Literacy 52.1&2 (24-28), 2005.

It’s theories all the way down: A response to Scientific Research in Education.  Teachers College Record 107.1 (10-18) 2005

What would a state of the art instructional video game look like?  Innovate: Journal of Online Education, to appear.

BOOK CHAPTERS, HANDBOOKS, FORWARDS, ETC.

Comments on the paper by Akmajian.  In P.W. Culicover, T. Wasow, & A. Akmajian, eds., Formal Syntax, New York: Academic Press, 1977

American Sign Language and the human biological capacity for language.  In M. Strong, ed., Language Learning and Deafness, Cambridge University Press, 1988, pp. 49-74 (with Wendy Goodhart)

Social variation, nativization, and language acquisition in Deaf children of Hearing parents, in Pat Siple and Susan Fisher, eds., Theoretical Approaches to ASL: Psychology.  Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991, pp. 65-83 (with Judy Mounty)

Memory and myth: A perspective on narrative.  Introduction to  Allyssa McCabe and Carole Peterson, eds., Developing Narrative Structure.  Hillsdale, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1991, pp. 1-25

Discourse analysis.  In Margaret D. LeCompte, Wendy Millroy, & Judith Preissle, eds., Handbook of Qualitative Research in Education.  New York: Academic Press 1992, pp. 227-291 (with Sarah Michaels & Cathy O'Connor)

Reflections on the nature of ASL and the development of ASL linguistics.  In Geoff Coulter, ed., Phonetics and Phonology, Volume 3: Current Issues in ASL Phonology.  New York: Academic Press, 1993, pp. 97-101

Postmodernism, Discourses, and linguistics.  In Colin Lankshear & Peter McLaren, eds., Critical Literacy: Radical and Postmodernist Perspectives.  Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, 1993, pp. 271-295

New alignments and old literacies: Critical literacy, postmodernism, and fast capitalism.  In P. O'Connor, ed., Thinking Work: Vol. 1: Theoretical Perspectives on Workers' Literacies.  Sydney, Aus.: ALBSAC, pp. 82-104, 1994

Vygotsky and current debates in education: Some dilemmas as afterthoughts to Discourse, Learning, and Schooling.  In Deborah Hicks, Ed., Discourse, Learning, and Schooling.  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996, pp. 269-282

Literacy and social minds.  In Geoff Bull & Michele Anstey, Eds., Literacy Lexicon.  Sydney, Australia: Prentice Hall, 1996, pp. 5-14

A spatial-poetic approach to narrative.  In C. Wahlin, Ed., Perspectives on Narratology: Papers from the Stockholm Symposium on Narratology.  Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 1996, pp. 23-64

Forward: A Discourse approach to language and literacy.  Forward to Colin Lankshear, Changing Literacies, Buckingham/Philadelphia: Open University Press, 1997

Dilemmas of literacy: Plato and Freire.  In P. Freire, with J. W. Fraser, D. Macedo, T. McKinnon, & W. T. Stokes, Eds., Mentoring the mentor: A Critical Dialogue with Paulo Freire.  New York: Peter Lang, 1997, pp. 229-241

Thinking, learning, and reading: The situated sociocultural mind.  In David Kirshner and James A. Whitson, Eds., Situated Cognition: Social, Semiotic, and Psychological Perspectives.  Norwood, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1997, pp. 235-259

Meaning in Discourses: Coordinating and being coordinated.  In Sandy Muspratt, Allan Luke, & Peter Freebody, Eds., Constructing Critical Literacy: Teaching and Learning Textual Practices.  Cresskill, N.J.: Hampton, 1997, pp. 273-302

Two kinds of teenagers: Language, identity, and social class.  In Donna Alverman, Kathleen Hinchman, David Moore, Stephen Phelps, & Diane Waff, Eds., Reconceptualizing the Literacies in Adolescents’ Lives.  Hillsdale, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1998, pp. 225-245 (with Valerie Crawford)

Forward to Lilla Bartolome, The Misteaching of Academic Discourses: The Politics of Language in the Classroom,  Boulder, CO: Westview, 1999

The New Literacy Studies: From "socially situated" to the work of the social.  In David Barton, Mary Hamilton, & Roz Ivanic, Eds., Situated Literacies: Reading and Writing in Context. London: Routledge, 1999, pp. 180-196

Reading versus reading something: A critique of the National Academy of Sciences' Report on Reading.  In Richard J. Telfer, Ed., Literacy conversations:  Family, school, community.  Yearbook of the American Reading Forum, XIX., 1999, pp 1-12

New people in new worlds: Networks, the new capitalism and schools.  In Bill Cope & Mary Kalantzis, Eds., Multiliteracies: Literacy learning and the design of social futures.  London: Routledge, 2000, pp. 43-68

An African-American child's science talk: Co-construction of meaning from the perspective of multiple Discourses.  In Margaret Gallego and Sandra Hollingsworth, Eds., Challenging a Single Standard: Multiple Perspectives on Literacy.  In Margaret A. Gallego & Sandra Hollingsworth, Eds., What Counts as Literacy: Challenging the School Standard.  New York: Teachers College Press (with Katherine Clinton), 2000, pp. 118-135.

Discourse and sociocultural studies in reading.  In Michael Kamil, Peter Mosenthal, P. David Pearson, and Rebecca Barr, Eds., Handbook of Reading Research, Volume III.  Mahwah, NJ, 2000, pp. 195-207 [Reprinted in Michael Kamil, Peter B. Mosenthal, P. David Pearson, and Rebecca Barr, Eds., Methods of Literacy Research, Mahwah, NJ, 2001, pp. 119-131]

Quality, science, and the lifeworld: The alignment of business and education.  In Peter Freebody, Sandy Muspratt, and Pam Dwyer, Eds., Difference, Silence, and Textual Practice.  Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press, 2001, pp. 359-382.

Educational linguistics.  In Mark Aronoff & Janie-Rees-Miller, Eds., Handbook of Linguistics.  Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 2001, pp. 647-663

Forward to Tomas Mario Kalmar, Illegal Alphabets and Adult Biliteracy: Latino Migrants Crossing the Linguistic Border.  Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 2001

Progressivism, critique, and socially situated minds.  In Curt Dudley-Marling & Carole Edelsky, Eds., The Fate of Progressive Language Policies and Practices.  Urbana, IL: NCTE, 2001, pp. 31-58

A sociocultural perspective on early literacy development.  In Susan B. Neuman & David K. Dickinson, Eds., Handbook on Research in Early Literacy.  New York: The Guilford Press, 2001, pp. 30-42

Literacies, schools, and kinds of people in the new capitalism.  In Mary Kalantzis & Bill Cope, Eds., Transformations in Language and Learning: Perspectives on Multiliteracies.  Melbourne, Australia: Common Ground, 2001, pp. 81-98

Reading, language abilities, and semiotic resources: Beyond limited perspectives on reading.  In Joanne Larson, Ed., Literacy as Snake Oil: Beyond the Quick Fix.  New York: Lang, 2001, pp. 7-23

Forward to Cynthia Lewis, Literacy Practices as Social Acts: Power, Status, and Cultural Norms in the Classroom.  Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 2001, pp. xv-xix

Discourses at school.   In David Li, Ed., Discourses in Search of Members: In Honor of Ron Scollon.  Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2002, pp. 79-101

Literacies, identities, and Discourses, In Mary Schleppegrel & M. Cecilia Colombi, Eds., Developing Advanced Literacy in First and Second Languages: Meaning with Power, Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 2002, pp. 159-175

Millennials and Bobos, Blue’s Clues and Sesame Street: A story for our times.  In Donna E. Alvermann, Ed., Adolescents and Literacies in a Digital World.  New York: Peter Lang, 2002, pp. 51-67

Learning in semiotic domains: A social and situated account.  In D. Schalert, C. Fairbanks, J. Worthy, B. Maloch, & J. Hoffman, Eds., The 51^st yearbook of the National Reading Conference.  Oak Creek, WI: NRC, 2002, pp. 23-32

Literacy, schools, and kinds of people in the new capitalism.  In Teresa  McCarty, Ed., Language, Literacy, and Power in Schooling.  Albany, NY: SUNY Press, to appear, 2002

.Sociolinguistics and literacy, In Barbara Guzzetti, Ed., Literacy in America: An Encyclopedia of History, Theory, and Practice, New York: ABC Press, 2002, pp. 599-603

Discursive theory, In Barbara Guzzetti, Ed., Literacy in America: An Encyclopedia of History, Theory, and Practice, New York: ABC Press, 2002, pp. 140-142

Forward to Rebecca Rogers, A Critical Discourse Analsysis of Family Literacy Practices: Power In and Out of Print, Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum, 2003, pp. ix-xi

Literacy and social minds.  In Geoff Bull & Michele Anstey, Eds., Literacy Lexicon, Second Edition.  Sydney, Australia: Prentice Hall, 2003, pp. 3-14.

Discourse analysis: What makes it critical?  In Rebecca Rogers, Ed., An Introduction to Critical Discourse Analysis in Education.  Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 2003, pp. 19-50.

New times and new literacies: Themes for a changing world.  In Arnetha F. Ball and Sarah Warshauer Freedman, Eds., Bakhtinian Perspectives on Language, Literacy, and Learning.  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004, pp. 279-306.

Learning language as a matter of learning social languages within Discourses.  In Margaret R. Hawkins, Ed., Language Learning and Teacher Education: A Sociocultural Approach.  Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters, 2004, pp. 13-31.

Language in the science classroom: Academic social languages as the heart of school-based literacy.  In E. Wendy Saul, Ed., Crossing Borders in Literacy and Science Instruction: Perspectives on Theory and Practice.  Newark, DE: International Reading Association; Arlington, VA: NSTA [National Science Teachers Association] Press, 2004, pp. 13-32 and In Randy K. Yerrick & Wolff-Michael Roth, Eds., Establishing Scientific Classroom Discourse Communities: Multiple Voices of Teaching and Learning Research.  Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 2005 pp. 19-37

Situating identity and science discourse.  In Randy K. Yerrick & Wolff-Michael Roth, Eds., Establishing Scientific Classroom Discourse Communities: Multiple Voices of Teaching and Learning Research.  Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 2005, pp. 39-44 (with Gregory J. Kelly, Wolff-Michael Roth, & Randy Yerrick).

Critical discourse analysis.  In Richard Beach, Judith Green, Michael Kamil, and Tim Shanahan, Eds., Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Literacy Research, 2^nd Edition.  Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press, 2005, pp. 293-318.

Literacies, schools, and kinds of peoiple in the new capitalism.  In Teresa L. McCarty, Ed., Language, Literacy, and Power in Schooling.  Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, pp. 2005, 223-239.

REVIEWS

Literate America on illiterate America: Jonathan Kozol's Illiterate America.  Journal of Education, 168.1 (126-140), 1986

Review of With literacy and justice for all: Rethinking the social in language and education, by Carole Edelsky.  Language in Society 21 (697-701), 1992

Review of Discourse analysis for teachers, by Michael McCarthy.  Studies in Second Language Acquisition 1993

Review of Agendas for Second Language Literacy, by Sandra Lee McKay.  Studies in Second Language Acquisition 17 (103-118) 1995

Review of Relating Events in Narrative: A Crosslinguistic Developmental Study, by Ruth A. Berman & Dan Issac Slobin.  TESL-EJ 1995

Review of Literacy, Emotion, and Authority: Reading and Writing on a Polynesian Atoll, by Niko Besnier. Anthropology and Education Quarterly  1996

Review of Sociocultural Approaches to Language and Literacy: An Interactionist Perspective, Edited by Vera John-Steiner, Carolyn P. Panofsky, & Larry Smith, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.  Language in Society 25 (294-297) 1996

Signifying and schooling: A review of Carol D. Lee, Signifying as a scaffold for literary interpretation: The pedagogical implications of an African American discourse genre.  Linguistics and Education 8 (327-334) 1996

Review of Protean literacy: Extending the discourse on empowerment, by Concha Delgado-Gaitan.  Studies in Second Language Acquisition 20 (441) 1998

Review of Ethnography, linguistics, narrative inequality: Toward an understanding of voice, by Dell Hymes.  Language in Society 27 (247-250) 1998

Review of  Successful Failure: The School America Builds, Ray McDermott and Herve Varenne.  Anthropology and Educationa Quarterly 31:1, 2000 [http://www.aaanet.org/cae/aeq/br/varenne.htm]

OTHER

Get passive: on some constructions with "get".  Indiana University Linguistics Club, 1974

An epistemically-based theory of referential distinctions.  In M.J. Stein, ed., NELS VIII.  Amherst, Mass.: University of Massachusetts, 1977

Semantic perspicuity and the locative hypothesis.  Proceedings of the Eighth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistic Society, 1982 (with J. A. Kegl)

The Literacies Institute.  Literacies Institute Technical Report, No. 1, 1989 (with Sarah Michaels and Chip Bruce)

Response, Proceedings of the Brookline teacher/researchers' session, Conference on Ethnography in Education, University of Pennsylvania, Feb. 1992.  Newton, Mass.: The Literacies Institute, 1992

New alignments and old literacies: From fast capitalism to the canon.  In Bruce Shortland-Jones, Barbara Bosich, & Judith Rivalland, eds., Conference Papers, 1994 Australian Reading Association Twentieth National Conference.  Carlton South, Victoria: Australian Reading Association, pp. 1-35

Discourse and sociocultural studies in reading, In Reading Online, http://www.readingonline.org/articles/art_index.asp?HREF=handbook/index.html

A social, cultural, and political approch to literacy: A conversation on the New Literacy Studies with James Paul Gee.  Issues in Writing, 10.2: 104-134, 2000

New times and new literacies: Themes for a changing world.  In Bill Cope and Mary Kalantzis, Eds., Learning for the Future: Proceedings of the Learning Conference 2001.  Melbourne, Australia: Common Ground, 2001,  pp. 3-36.  [Paper and electronic, http://www.C-2-CSystem.com]

It goes without saying: From the National Reading Panel to ownership in literacy. The Newsletter of the Comprehensive Center-Region VI, 7.1: 20-23, 2002

Games, not school, are teaching kids to think. Wired, May 2003, pp. 091-092

Video games, learning about learning. Chronicle of Higher Education, 6/20/2003

Joystick engineers, Interview. Reason | 8.03, Vol. 35, No. 4, 2003, pg. 15

Games as learning machines. Game Developer, Sept. 2003, pp. 55-56 

Practice, participation, and tools: An alternative starting point, Measurement: Interdisciplinary Research and Perspectives, on line commentary, 2003

Learning by design: Games as learning machines. Proceedings of the Game Developers Conference, San Jose, CA: GDC, 2004.