This study examines current patterns of oral communication strategy (OCS) use, to what degree these strategies can be explicitly taught, and the extent to which strategy use can lead to improvements in oral communication ability. In a 12-week English as a Foreign Language (EFL) course based on a communicative approach, 62 female learners were…

In this article, the authors reflect upon their professional "journey through oracy" by offering a review of literature on "talk"--an exploration of the various ways in which "talk" has been explored by theorists and researchers in the last century. By interweaving into this review a collection of reflections on their own published work, the…

As a newly appointed joint hire in the College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Natural Sciences and the College of Education, Department of Middle/Secondary Education, my charge was to bridge the communication gap between these two departments and colleges. To meet this challenge, I developed four collaborative projects between the Natural…

In this book, Ann Browne draws on research findings and good practice to provide practical and guidance about working with young children aged 3-5 years in nursery and reception classes. The author covers all of the key theoretical issues, providing a wealth of classroom examples. Practical suggestions for activities and resources include ways of…

"Instructional Design: Case Studies in Communities of Practice" documents real-world experiences of instructional designers and staff developers who work in communities of practice. "Instructional Design: Case Studies in Communities of Practice" explains the strategies and heuristics used by instructional designers when working…

This article offers a brief outline of the background, origins and purposes of the European Charter for Media Literacy. The Charter constitutes a new approach to the formation of a network of media educators in Europe. Rather than proposing a bureaucratic organisation with formal membership, it offers a consensual definition of media literacy to…

This grounded theory study explores how middle school literacy teachers used dialogue journals and the processes by which they responded to their students' written responses. Literary conversation between teacher and student was conceptualized as an ongoing scaffolding process within dialogue journals. Teachers used "response facilitators"…

Objective: Students will identify several unique characteristics of verbal vs. visual messages, including the superior ability of language to communicate objective, factual, philosophical content in past, present, and future terms; and the superior ability of visual images to communicate social-emotional meaning and concrete information limited in…

A system for "anchored discussion" is compared with a system for traditional forum discussion (Blackboard), and their collaborative and communicative affordances for the collaborative processing of academic texts are investigated. Results show that discussion in the system for anchored discussion is more directed at processing the meaning of texts…

A study examined organizational culture change to determine the effectiveness of a communication based intervention program to increase productivity and motivation. The cultural change was measured through a triangulation approach combining questionnaires, interview data and direct observation. Pre- and post-intervention data were obtained in the…

The ideas and activities in this curriculum guide seek to develop students' communication skills through participation in real world activities as opposed to classroom simulation. The lessons were pilot tested on a fifth and sixth grade class, but can be adapted for use in grades four through eight. Following an introductory section, the course of…

The study examined the attitudes Mexican American parents had about the best and worst ways for school personnel to communicate with them about typical school situations. Bilingual interviewers questioned 130 Mexican American parents in the East Los Angeles area to gather data relating to 3 sets of variables which were then correlated and…

Facetious, yet honest, look at expressing oneself when angry or upset. Contains samples of letters one wishes one could write, along with the types of letters one actually should write. The central point: Write that scathing message to vent your frustrations, but don't deliver it. (WFA)

Education is complex, slow, and demands teamwork. This is what educators need to be able to explain and what the public needs to understand. This is not getting across in the headlines. It is the author's experience that we have at least three categories of wrong ideas and half truths circulating around education: assumptions that mislead,…

High school teacher and instructional coach Tony Winger laments how traditional classroom grading practices lead to grades becoming a distraction from learning--a commodity students feel they work the system to attain--rather than a clear message to students and parents. Teachers' passion for their subjects is too often met with students'…