This instructional paper examines the lack of L2 English skills demonstrated by Chinese post-secondary education students and the results of empiric testing to determine what key language functions were missing from a student's tool box when exiting their primary education phase.The identification of these skills and ability gaps allowed for…

Discussion of ethical quandaries in academe focuses on the ethics of book reviewing. Topics include difficulties in getting published; exploitation of examination copies; reviewing books to get free copies; using book reviews as personal pulpits; inadequate rewards for reviewing books; and qualifications for reviewers. (LRW)

Composition pedagogy that challenges students to reflect on their participation in discourse communities reveals an attempt by teachers to balance disciplinary concerns with the realities of students' worlds. Such a pedagogy consists of students repositioning themselves in relation to the various discourses which comprise their own ways of…

The major problem in history education at the precollegiate level is that the history that is typically taught is based on an impoverished idea--or model--that history is recollected facts. There is an enormous discrepancy between "school history" as represented in textbooks and its use in classrooms, and "academic history" as…

Reviews eight reading-across-the-curriculum textbooks, showing that four treat academic discourse only in its generic form, while four go beyond that level to look at the audience, purpose, and genre specific to particular disciplines. (RBW)

Examines hedging in textbooks by focusing on the coverage of lexical items as markers of uncertainty and tentativeness. Tentative language continues to be a source of pragmatic failure in the writing of second-language science students. Hence, it is suggested that pedagogic writing materials would benefit from revisions based on authentic data.…

Using a sample issue of the "Journal of Communication" as a point of comparison, a study examined the content of 10 introductory textbooks for the field of communication. Results indicated that textbooks scarcely ever acknowledge methodological pluralism, and when they do, they simply cite it as an existing factor in the field of communication and…