Code Choice in the Language Classroom argues that the foreign language classroom is and should be regarded as a multilingual community of practice rather than as a perpetually deficient imitator of an exclusive second-language environment. From a sociocultural and ecological perspective, Levine guides the reader through a theoretical, empirical,…

Drawing data from audiotaped lessons with 10 native-speaker English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) teachers and 12 EFL learners of varied linguistic backgrounds, a study explored some of the ways in which classroom talk by learners is collaboratively built to repair errors, misunderstandings, and non-communication. Focus is on both explicit and…

Examination of the relationship between students' use of French and English in five classes at a bilingual university and their access to subject-matter knowledge and social networks found language brokerage to be an important process in two classes. The process of language brokerage, related research, and policy implications are discussed.…

With its focus on language teaching and learning processes, French immersion research of the 1900s deals with a number of issues of significance to teachers. These include the following: early development of strategic competence, the role of the first language, problematic language features, and learning needs. Field studies of classroom…

Current thinking about academic language and the variety of language appropriate to school and similar settings is discussed. Recent literature concerning academic language is explored, and common themes and significant observations that emerge when the concept is viewed from a sociological perspective are examined. The research reviewed includes…

Cross cultural research concerns nearly every teacher because of the proliferation of multicultural public schools and the fact that cultural differences cannot be ignored in the classroom. Communication in this situation requires a recognition of the cultural differences and in many cases the enhancement of these differences. To facilitate…

This pamphlet is the fifth in a series of ten stemming from the view that language is central to learning, that teachers can gain insights into their work and into learning by examining the language of the classroom, and that current language theory can be the means to such insights. The pamphlet reports on a case study involving a twelfth grade…

A study investigated gender-related patterns of student talk in teacher-directed and student-directed peer response groups in college writing classrooms. Females in both groups asked more questions, made more suggestions, and more often used gender-typical language. Although females and males in teacher-directed groups responded equally, females…

Education may be seen as a form of verbal communication. Opinions about the part language plays in pedagogical communication differ according to the emphasis placed on: (1) the teacher (i.e., language as a means of transferring knowledge, as in the traditional teacher-centered concept); (2) the students (or language as a means of learning); or (3)…

The purpose of this report is to explore academic language on a broader discourse-level of analysis. Examining three linguistic exchanges from a bilingual elementary school, the report discusses how academic tasks influence academic language discourse styles (registers) in fifth-grade class lessons. Two dominant theories are drawn from the…

This study compared communication and interaction patterns in a college class in Dutch as a second language. Subjects were 16 native-English-speaking students. Two lessons, one taught using cooperative learning (CL) and one using teacher-centered instruction (TC), were videotaped and analyzed. The CL lesson consisted of a group reading game. The…

Data from a larger ethnolinguistic study are presented to demonstrate patterns of pupil-teachers exchanges between bilingual children and monolingual teachers in an urban nursery school in England. Children were aged 3-4 years. Naturally-occurring discourse data were audiotaped and substantial contextual data was gathered. Analysis of patterns in…

The use of language in education is examined, and the ways in which recent research helps in the understanding of classroom language are explored. The relevance of such research to practicing teachers as well as to sociologists is also discussed. The volume is divided into nine chapters: (1) "Why Is Language Important in Education?"; (2)…

Essays on language contact and the image of language, entirely in French, include: "Representations 'du' contexte et representations 'en' contexte? Eleves et enseignants face a l'apprentissage de la langue" ("Representations 'of' Context or Representations 'in' Context? Students and Teachers Facing Language Learning" (Laurent…

An analysis of classroom discourse proposes four frames, modeled as concentric circles. The inner most circle is the lesson frame, removed or sheltered from outside influences and most likely, in a language class, to maintain second-language usage. The next frame from the center is the lesson-support frame, an intermediate layer of classroom…