This study reports on the types of academic talk that contribute to enhanced explanatory responses, reasoning, problem-solving and learning. The study involved 10 groups of 3-4 students who were provided with one of three linguistic tools (i.e. Cognitive Questioning, Philosophy for Children and Collaborative Strategic Reading (CSR)) to scaffold…

This study analyzed children's comprehension of teacher directives at three levels of clarity. A total of 64 subjects, ages 5 1/2, 7 1/2, 9 1/2 and 11 1/2, participated. Photographic slides of teacher-pupil directive interactions paired with tape recorded teacher directives were presented to subjects under one of four levels of verbal context:…

This study investigated why children reproduce and/or reconstruct text in a classroom. The focus was on social classroom variables. Results supported the prediction that students would recall text differentially according to the response interaction pattern maintained with teachers. (Author/DB)

Effects of structural and natural language use during direct instruction in teaching color and shape concepts to eight Turkish elementary children with moderate mental retardation were compared using an adapted alternating treatments design. Results indicated that natural language use was as effective or more effective than structural language…