Suresh Canagarajah is Edwin Erle Sparks Professor and Director of the Migration Studies Project, Departments of Applied Linguistics and English, Pennsylvania State University, USA. Having a BA with a major in English from the University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, and a PhD in Applied Linguistics from the University of Texas at Austin, USA, Professor…

Anderson's central concern in his "ELT Journal" article (Vol. 69, No. 3, 2015) is to introduce several helpful changes teachers can make to a regular lesson plan pro forma due to a particular language learning environment and unpredictable events. In introducing these changes, Anderson discusses affordance, learning objectives, and…

This response to David Lewin states the purpose of my critique of some aspects of Liam Gearon's work. It clarifies my position on the aims of "inclusive" religious education, rejecting Gearon's view that REDCo researchers shared a common pluralistic theology, regarding religious education as having a single political aim. It reinforces…

In this article, we take up and expand upon a number of issues of linguistic theory raised in Ursula Ritzau's recent article "Learner language and polylanguaging: how language students' ideologies relate to their written language use" published in the "Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism". The present critique is…

The recent "TESOL Quarterly" article by Biber, Gray, and Poonpon (2011) raises important considerations with respect to the use of syntactic complexity (SC) measures in second language (L2) studies. The article draws the field's attention to one particular measure--complexity of noun phrases (NP) (i.e., noun phrases with modifiers, such as…

Sowden's article raises a number of questions concerning English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) and criticizes it as a simplified and culturally neutral means of communication. In this response, I address the issues concerning the conceptualization and use of ELF as well as the implications for ELT. I provide up-to-date evidence of ELF research and show…

The notion that language is not simply a politically neutral medium of communication, but a social practice that determines power relations and shapes subjectivity has become widely accepted in critical language and literacy studies. Within any socio-linguistic community, certain ways of using language are considered "proper,"…

Discusses examples in "Moby Dick" of Melvillean words symptomatic of the significance of Ishmael's rhetorical energy, in order to suggest that Ishmael's language reflects Melville's search for lexical and rhetorical forms that express the democratic impulse. (SRT)

Juliette Goldman and Christine Collier have recently proposed that the editor of "Sex Education" should adopt a policy of replacing the phrase "opposite sex" with "other sex" in all published articles, on the grounds that the word "opposite" has connotations of hostility or adversity. In this brief reply I…

Points out that the revolt by Wordsworth and Coleridge against neoclassic literary convention gave context to many of their ideas about discourse. Shows how their shift in attitude toward language may be the source of their greatest contribution to discourse theory. (EL)

As an initial step toward discovering whether a separate genre of women's rhetoric exists, this paper analyzes rhetorical forms used by Mary Daly in the book "Gyn/Ecology." The paper first outlines criteria for determining whether a form has rhetorical significance and traces the historical background of the contemporary feminist…

Reacts to Fischer et al's article concerning reconceptualizing multicultural counseling. Argues that the conditions identified are interesting, but other conditions exist, and that the suggestion of reconceptualization is not valid. Discusses the implications presented by the authors' choice of language. Proposes that knowledge of multicultural…

Discusses twentieth century literature and attempts to define modernism, concentrating on modernist literature's linguistic radicalism. (SRT)

This paper examines the Christian Identity artifact, "The Book of Adam," by Dan Gayman. Using narrative criticism, this artifact is shown to construct the white race as "progressing through time, as occupying sacred spatial locations, as essentially chosen by God, and as separate from other races." This narrative blurs the…

Examines Kenneth Burke's uses of the term "substance" as the key to his approach to language as symbolic action. Substance as consciousness achieved through verbalization is manifest in three behaviors: naming, forming, and structuring. (JMF)