Discursive Practice is a theory of the linguistic and socio-cultural characteristics of recurring episodes of face-to-face interaction; episodes that have social and cultural significance to a community of speakers. This book examines the discursive practice approach to language-in-interaction, explicating the consequences of grounding language use and language learning in a view of social realities as discursively constructed, of meanings as negotiated through interaction, of the context-bound nature of discourse, and of discourse as social action. The book also addresses how participants’ abilities in a specific discursive practice may be learned, taught, and assessed.

Richard F. Young is Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he teaches courses in Sociolinguistics, English Syntax, Second Language Acquisition, and Research Methods. In his research, he investigates the relationship between the use of language and the social contexts that language reflects and creates. His books include Variation in Interlanguage Morphology (1991), Talking and Testing (1998), and Language and Interaction (2008). He has published over 50 articles in journals and anthologies and serves on the editorial boards of three major journals. He has served as President of the American Association for Applied Linguistics and Chair of the World Congress of Applied Linguistics.