An approach to English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) teaching that helps students prepare for intercultural communication is described, drawing on the literature of second language learning and intercultural communication. First, potential barriers to intercultural understanding are examined, including the culture-bound nature of communication,…

Explores perspectives and methodologies that sociolinguistics brings to ethnographic research in schools. The article identifies the methodological contributions arising from linguistics that interactional sociolinguistics and microethnograpy share, such as the use of naturally occurring language data, the consultation of native intuition, and…

Presents modules and learning activities taken from other learning areas useful in the Australian second-language classroom. Argues that general and specific subject areas can stimulate dialogue and interest as well as cultural and social awareness, provide new language structures, enrich vocabulary and extend the use of idiomatic expressions, and…

An ethnographic study was made of a student-led speech event in an ethnically mixed combined first- and second-grade classroom. In an activity called "Sharing Time," general rules governed appropriate ways of behaving, but no teacher rules governed ways of speaking, topic, or amount of time at talk. Collected over a 5-month period, data…

Presents research on the situational dimension of linguistic power in social context and the relevance of this research within culturally pluralistic educational contexts. Offers suggestions for class activities that can engage standard and nonstandard speakers of English as well as those who do not speak English. (SRT)