Social network analysis (SNA) examines the relationships that an individual speaker creates and maintains with others in order to explain and predict language behavior. Over the past 20 years, SNA has been used by a growing number of researchers to better understand the language learner and the language learning process, especially in the context…

Behavioural and learning difficulties experienced by students from minoritised cultural groups often arise because their cultural beliefs, values and preferred practices differ markedly from those of their teachers and their school. Research in New Zealand has shown that if inclusive education is to have real meaning for these students and their…

Discussions of bullying generally ignore the fact that bullying may be a cover for racism. A three-stage process is suggested for development of antiracist practices in the context of bullying. The first step toward finding out what is happening in schools is to clarify the language used about it. (SLD)

This paper is based on a classroom experience that showed the need of teaching American culture before attempting to teach American literature meaningfully to foreigners. The students in this learning situation were the Middle-Eastern employees of an American organization in the school year 1966-67. The teachers found out the students interpreted…

Each culture has its own nonverbal as well as its verbal language. Movements, gestures and sounds have distinct and often conflicting interpretations in different countries. For Americans communicating with Japanese, misunderstandings are of two types: Japanese behavior which is completely new to the American, and Japanese behavior which is…

Principal factor analysis and promax rotations were performed on Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) scores of 2,339 clinically referred Dutch children. Dutch syndromes were very similar to the CBCL cross-informant syndromes derived by T. M. Aschenbach (1991), supporting the cross-cultural generalizability of the CBCL cross-informant syndromes. (SLD)

Examined the way in which some "awkward" cross cultural incidents between Southeast Asian students and staff at universities in Australia could be interpreted in terms of cultural and individual differences in social rules. Explores the cultural nature of socially acceptable behavior through focus group interviews with 36 students and 28…

To explore the complexities of communication with Asian and Pacific Islander (API) children and their families, this digest describes the overt and covert dimensions of the various API cultures, and discusses API's socioeconomic background and the life experiences that affect their communication behavior. The general ethnic groups in the API…

It has been found at the University of Oklahoma, where from 40 to 45 different native American tribal groups are represented, that even with considerable attention to the needs of such students they have poor chances of accomplishing their educational goals or of viewing as positive their university experience. The crosstribal value of…

The author feels that there is no reason to suppose that adults are less capable than children in learning a second language, given adequate opportunity and motivation. In terms of amount learned in comparable time, the adult is about five times as efficient as the child. This is what would be expected of any other kind of intellectual or rational…

The final report adresses the problems involved in identifying gifted minority children. Reviewed is the historical perspective of cross cultural assessment in behavioral research. Typical gross errors and misinterpretations of data in cross cultural assessment are pointed out. Among fundamental considerations listed include the use of items…

The first paper in this booklet summarizes the desegregation strategies that have been used either singly or in combination to ethnically balance schools. An overview of the services and resources available to school districts from the National Center for Research and Information for Equal Educational Opportunities is also presented. Some of the…

If students are to respect minority values, a multicultural philosophy must pervade every aspect of school life. Discussed are indicators which will show that minorities are not receiving equality of opportunity and the behavior patterns and learning styles of six ethnic groups--South Asian, Greek, Italian, Chinese, Vietnamese, and Portuguese. (RM)