I have used Tannen in composition classes and students find her
"relevant" and accessible. If you google her, you can find short
articles on male/female uses of language and criticisms of our
"argument culture." I would also suggest Lakoff and Johnson, certainly
"Metaphors We Live By" as ways to talk about the relationship between
the way we use language and how we conceive the world and how that
affects our social interaction. In terms of how we see argument, this
overlaps with Tannen.
   I don't think you can go wrong with Grice's maxims, probably available
from a number of sources.
   They may find it interesting that many linguists see language as "a
complex adaptive system", using metaphors out of biology. Much of that
is happening at the scholarly level. Geoff Thompson has an
"Introduction to Functional Grammar" that is intended to be accessible,
as is David Lee's book on cognitive Linguistics. It seems to me that
prototype theory links cognition to language. I'm not sure what to
suggest for reading. Is it covered in contemporary psychology texts?
    I'm not sure if any of that is what they are looking for.

Craig>


My first impression is that they are doing discourse analysis of a sort.
> Perhaps they would benefit from a referral to the literature on speech
> acts?
> Or perhaps a general reference to the work of discourse analysts like
> Deborah Tannen would be helpful?
>
> I'll consider this more. I think providing direct help to school teachers
> is
> something this group should take as an important component of its mission!
>
> John Alexander
>
> On Thu, Feb 24, 2011 at 8:44 AM, Dick Veit <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>> I received the following request from a high school teacher. Can anyone
>> supply information she and her class would find useful?
>>
>> Hello, Professor Veit.
>>
>> I am teaching a unit on behavior in an IB Biology course. My students
>> want
>> to analyze and categorize topics of human conversation. Such as:
>> discussion
>> of subjective or objective ideas, discussion of others, relating stories
>> to
>> one's own experiences, etc.
>>
>> We are having difficulty finding literature sources. I am wondering if
>> you
>> know of any literature sources on this topic.
>>
>> Thanks for your time and consideration. Any help you could give would be
>> greatly appreciated.
>>
>> Stacey Skinner, Biology Teacher
>> St. Paul Central High School
>> [log in to unmask]
>>
>> Dick
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>>
>
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