There is a wonderful text by my colleague, Eleanor Kutz, entitled "Exploring
Literacy" which does exactly what you're suggesting.  It invites learners to
investigate different discourse communities, compare, and research academic
literacies as well.  The publisher is Longman.  Here's a blurb:

Book Description
Rhetoric with readings explores the literacy practices of various
communities and helps students develop strategies for writing, reading, and
research in academic settings. Exploring Literacy presents a model of
literacy situated in communities and the experiences of readers and writers
within them. Students are invited to explore their own experiences in these
communities while adopting the reading and writing practices of the academic
communities they are entering. Combining the elements of a reader, a
rhetoric, research guide, and handbook, it offers an introduction to the
sustained inquiry that underlies most academic work. Each chapter focuses on
one primary reading selection and demonstrates a process that builds
critical response skills. Students are taught effective ways of engaging
with different kinds of texts-memoirs, short fiction, ethnographic writings,
academic essays-and offered extensive instruction on how to use writing to
enrich their involvement with texts. Individuals interested in developing
their writing skills.




On 9/26/06 2:59 PM, "Kevin Jepson" <kevin.jepson at sbcglobal.net> wrote:


> Possibly ... however, even if we agree that news broadcasts are homogeneous,

> how many of us or our students would want to emulate broadcast speech and

> communicate as broadcasters do? As a former news broadcaster and a current

> news writer, I know how different the genre is from the other speech

> patterns I use in the other parts of my life.

> 

> I recommend collecting, analyzing, and reflecting on the language that the

> students want to emulate, whether it be the English used at the grocery

> store, at a community meeting, or in the workplace.

> 

> Kevin Jepson

> 

> -----Original Message-----

> From: englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov

> [mailto:englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Tom Zurinskas

> Sent: Tuesday, September 26, 2006 9:03 AM

> To: englishlanguage at nifl.gov

> Subject: [EnglishLanguage 698] standard American English

> 

>> From: "Kevin Jepson" <kevin.jepson at sbcglobal.net>

>> How do you plan to define "standard" "American" English? I've never come

>> across it.

>> Kevin Jepson

> 

> 

> Try the national evening news broadcasts.  I find them quite homogeneous.

> M-w.com gives a good spoken account, except for the word "awe", which is

> pronounced more like "ah" by the lady speaker who makes quite a few of those

> 

> switches.

> 

> Tom Zurinskas

> 

> 

> 

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