A study explored the relationship between personal narratives and their contexts by developing an analytical framework and applying it to the personal narratives told by guests on "The Tonight Show" and "Late Night with David Letterman." Three episodes of each program, containing a total of 22 personal narratives, were…

A group of teachers and researchers organized the Written Literacy Forum (WLF) to investigate how research on writing instruction could be made more practical for educators. WLF examined common research assumptions and their effects on formal research presentations, highlighting the surprising lack of effort by researchers to talk with teachers…

A study explored literacy myths of the academic culture as expressed by college writing students, examining shared literacy myths about the acquisition and uses of literacy, how beliefs influence literacy acquisition, and how cultural roles determine literacy experiences. Students were asked to write autobiographical accounts of their literacy…

This study investigates contextualization processes in two psychiatric interviews. Specifically, it analyses how different analytical tools--frame and narrative--work to clarify contextual embeddings and story bits. Frame analysis provides a way of looking at local and larger social contexts in talk. Specifically it provides a way of understanding…

The reading clinic at the University of Virginia continues to refine its test battery every year: a new refinement involves collection of more naturalistic language samples and writing samples to add depth to the understanding of children's developing language structures. The "tell a story to get a story" protocol provides a method for new…

Provides a qualitative description of the narrated life experiences of 11 African American intellectual-activists with regard to the major vehicles of overt expression of blackness, hair, clothing, and names. Implications for the productive use of blackness and black self-concept, especially for children, are discussed. (SLD)

Investigates the reintroduction of referents in the "Frog Stories" told by Italian children, aged 4-10 (n=100). The study confirms that elementary school children are more competent than preschoolers in integrating the semantic content of the current utterance into the context generated by previous discourse.(Author/JL)

Interviewed young adults with Asperger Syndrome and their parents to examine the experience of growing up with the syndrome. Found that many were excluded educationally or socially, and although they "looked and talked normally," they never seemed to "fit in." Findings suggest need for greater knowledge of Asperger Syndrome among preschool…

Narratives used by parents in Mexican working-class families to motivate their children to study are examined for the advice offered and parental attitudes about the importance of school. The integration of contemporary pressures about the value of schooling is investigated, as well as the ways in which the value of schooling is being…

Five first-hand Web page accounts of unusual sensory perceptual experiences written by persons with high-functioning autism were selected for qualitative analysis. Four core categories emerged: turbulent sensory perceptual experiences; coping mechanisms; enjoyable sensory perceptual experiences; and awareness of being different, suggesting they…

Examined personal narratives of struggle with schooling from working class Latino parents whose children were in an experimental college access program at a diverse metropolitan high school. Three narrative types emerged: life stories of parents' own struggles as students; stories of bureaucratic rebuff in parents' encounters with staff in their…

A teacher remembers the Ohio State University Laboratory High School in the 1930s. Teachers were university faculty with at least a master's degree. Programs were experimental and interesting. Students and teachers were close. Students, realizing their unique schooling, published a book concerning their experiences, calling themselves the Guinea…

Investigated similarities and differences in modus operandi of female and male child sexual abusers by comparing victims of female and male perpetrators. Females were more often involved with males in co-offender situations and were more likely to exploit victims. Males were more sexually invasive and more likely to use bribes to obtain victim…

Narrative features of the life stories of child abuse survivors (n=23) and nonvictimized college student respondents (n=23) were compared. Narratives of survivors differed from the comparison group in both relative emphasis on the past versus present/future and on others rather than self. An emphasis on others by child abuse survivors emerged as…

Examined how events considered "normal" or "acceptable" by some people at one time are now recalled and reconstructed as "harassment." Analysis is presented of the stories of 21 women who experienced events that earlier were not called sexual harassment. It compares the experiences of "preverbal" children and adults who recall events as assaultive…