Cazden reflects on theoretical and sociopolitical origins of Hymes's construct of communicative competence in events occurring just before and after 1960 in the U.S. She comments on Hymes's emphasis on competence not as abstract systemic potential of a language, but as capability located in individual persons; and she explores competence as both…

Two articles discuss recent trends in English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) research, focusing on the conflict between research that examines the social contexts in which English is used and micro-level ethnographic research, and research that more directly involves teachers and students in the study of classroom discourse. (contains 20 references)…

Notes that it is not surprising to find a time lag between the development of a field, in this case socio-linguistics, and the application of its concepts and methodologies to a specific setting, the classroom. (Author)

The language a child learns from and attends to is the speech of significant persons in his world, addressed to each other and to him. As the child gradually participates in this social interaction he learns communicative competence, i.e., the nonconscious, tacit knowledge that underlies speech behavior--knowledge of both the language and the…

The purpose of this project was to make a preliminary investigation of the processes of second language acquisition by children, adolescents and adults, and to develop a methodology appropriate to the study of second language learning. In the development of the methodology, applicable techniques from first language acquisition research were…

Differential treatment, unequal participation of children in classroom lessons, and research documenting differential treatment of first-year Maori students are discussed. A description is given of an in-service intervention with New Zealand teachers involving changes in the setting events in which teachers and students interact around beginning…

Reviews recent research on the nature of teachers' and students' talk in the classroom, specifically addressing the teachers' expectations of student talk and behavior. (SRT)

A discussion of language in preschool education reviews research findings on children's language acquisition and its relationship to their general development and examines issues to be considered in making decisions for each community and program. The first section summarizes basic knowledge about preschool language development, facilitating…