Both Vygotsky, a psychologist, and Halliday, a social linguist, argue for the central role of language in human development. Language is the principal mode of meaning making; it mediates both the communication through which thinking with others is made possible and also the inner speech through which individual thinking is brought under conscious…

When introducing doublespeak in the classroom, there is a great temptation to pose as the good guy exposing the lying words of all the powerful bad guys. To a degree teachers should do this. But they cannot stop there, for it implies a posture of moral superiority. A solution to this problem is to focus on questions of choice and to be aware of…

The role of discourse in education, specifically in the science classroom, is discussed. The discussion is based on the idea that talk in the classroom is not an end in itself but a means for inquiry, exploration, even activity, and expression of concepts. A framework for analysis of classroom discourse is outlined. In this approach, discourse is…

One composition instructor's purpose is to address, or perhaps, re-dress, the balance of the relationship between teacher and student using a dialogic framework that provides for reciprocity. Her aim is to provoke, to seduce (persuade through passion), and to awaken their incipient sense of wonder at the world and the language that creates this…

A participant in a British teacher workshop that focused on student talk describes the progress of the group toward defining the types of language they wanted to focus on in the classroom and the group's publication of weekly progress reports. (HTH)

The study was conceptualized within the social critical perspective to investigate the effect of gender and socioeconomic background on the students' classroom communication and the hidden curriculum. Year 9 mathematics classrooms in two single-sex private schools were observed during the course of learning one chapter from the same textbook. One…

Second language teaching is viewed from the perspective that its core objective is to teach the cultural context of discourse in the target language, rather than to teach the traditional four language skills and culture as a fifth component. The discussion begins with an examination of the context of communication within the classroom, suggesting…

In a discussion of the role of language in education, education is viewed as a semiotic apprenticeship, or opportunity to gain the cultural tools and practices for meaning-making in construction of knowledge. This process occurs through guided participation in discipline-based forms of inquiry. In this enterprise, language is seen as having a…

To help immigrant children succeed academically, the teacher must seek to ease the pain of the uprooting experience and find ways to awaken the power within the children to help themselves. This paper describes teaching experiences that led one teacher to understand immigrant children's psychology and the interventions necessary for giving self…

Examines issues of linguistic diversity in the inclusive classroom, focusing on South Africa, including the history of linguistic diversity in that educational context, language as a transmitter of culture, and the relationship between culture and learning style. Suggestions are made for validating and affirming every learner's language and…

Classroom language and literacy practices need to be reconceptualized to account for the valuable role talk and interaction play in the process of learning to write. Teachers should construct learning environments within which interaction between students and teachers is the primary focus. The participation framework of kindergarten journal…

This paper argues that classroom discussions are important sites of investigation, not for the purpose of identifying and prescribing effective discussion strategies, but for understanding why particular discursive strategies tend to dominate classroom talk and what might be done to alter such practices. The paper is grounded in feminist…

Argues that, although it is worthwhile to teach literature in its original language, there is merit to teaching foreign language literature in translation. Most college-level language teachers have the language competence to teach literature in English, and if it's not taught in the language department, it may be taught in the English department,…

English instructors often find themselves in a position of upholding what they realize is an institutional form of racism and classism. Such "standards" presuppose a "correct" language form, one that is often stultifying and unchanging. In today's college classrooms, many English as a Second Language students appear whose…

The debate about the use of Black English has been raging for many years, with no real solutions and few practical suggestions to help teachers and African-American students handle the situation in the classroom. Tensions are often heightened by misconceptions about Standard English--that it is a White man's language and necessary for success and…