This text offers an innovative approach to understanding communication and its barriers in a variety of institutional contexts, such as the outpatient clinic, the courtroom or the school. The theory which the book presents is called discourse sociolinguistics by the author; it is not only explicitly dedicated to the study of text in context, but also places equal emphasis and importance on both factors.

School success in the 21st century requires proficiency with expository discourse -- the use and understanding of informative language in spoken and written modalities. This occurs, for example, when high school students read their textbooks and listen to their teachers' lectures, and later are asked to demonstrate their knowledge of this complex topic through oral reports and essay examinations. Although many students are proficient with the expository genre, others struggle to meet these expectations. This book is designed to provide information on the use and understanding of expository discourse in school-age children, adolescents, and young adults. Recently, researchers from around the world have been investigating the development of this genre in typical students and in those with language disorders. Although many books have addressed the development of conversational and narrative discourse, by comparison, books devoted to the topic of expository discourse are sparse. This crossdisciplinary volume fills that gap in the literature and makes a unique contribution to the study of language development and disorders. It will be of interest to a range of professionals, including speech-language pathologists, teachers, linguists, and psychologists who are concerned with language development and disorders.

Online support groups are considered highly valuable in addition to traditional health care services, but we know very little about how people actually join such a group. This book offers a microanalysis of an online support group on eating disorders, specifically the communication through textual messages between newcomers and regular members and members' nicknames. The study uses an ethnomethodological and conversation analytical approach to show that members of online support groups treat the group as a community in which their illness-identity is highly relevant. It appears that members invoke community norms regarding legitimacy for newcomers: Newcomers are expected to admit that they are ill, but this is a very difficult step for those who have not yet fully adopted the "sick role" (Parsons, 1951). In the field of eating disorders, it is particularly difficult for people that tend to pro-ana, i.e. the glamorization of eating disorders. The insecurity and anxiety that newcomers display as they enter the online group could probably be relieved when a special entry subforum would be installed in which they can take time and space to actually recognize that they are ill.

Discourse and Discrimination is a study of how racism, antisemitism and ethnicism are reflected in discourse. Drawing on a wide range of sources- Reisisl and Wodak question why even today, racism and antisemitism are still virulent.

This book provides speech-language pathology students (undergraduate and graduate) with an opportunity to apply their knowledge of childhood language disorders to assessment and intervention by analyzing language samples. The unique feature of this book is the inclusion of over 20 language samples that readers analyze in order to gain an understanding of the symptoms and clinical applications of childhood language disorders. Each chapter contains: an introduction to the section that describes a disorder or clinical issue, assessment and intervention guidelines for each issue, a language sample, and questions about each language samples. The following sections are included: identification of critical features of language behavior, symptomatology of language disorders, cultural and linguistic diversity, issues in the assessment of language impairments and intervention strategies. For speech-language pathology students and communication disorders students at the undergraduate or graduate level

Questions and exercises on the full range of pragmatic and discourse disorders allow readers to develop and test their understanding.

This present book explores recent advances in modeling discourse processes, in particular, new approaches aimed at understanding pathological language behavior specific to schizophrenia. The contributors examine the modeling paradigm of formal semantics, which falls within the scope of both linguistics and logic while providing overlapping links with other fields such as philosophy of language and cognitive psychology. This book is based on results presented during the series of workshops on (In)Coherence and Discourse organized by SLAM (Schizophrenia and Language: Analysis and Modeling), a project developed to systemize the study of pathological language processing by taking an overarching interdisciplinary approach combining psychology, linguistics, computer science and philosophy. The principle focus is on conversations produced by people with psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and autism. The contributions come from young and experienced researchers, and invited speakers. The book appeals to likeminded students and researchers.