Describes an INSET course and the participating teachers' reactions one year later. Few of the ideas presented during the course were taken up as anticipated by the tutors because of the mediating effects of the participants' beliefs about teaching and learning. A course given to effect lasting change in teachers' practice must deal with these…

Discusses the nature of good writing strategies, illustrates principles of correction and evaluation, and describes the elements of a writing curriculum for college students of Italian. The author suggests a series of writing activities and evaluation criteria to assess writing proficiency at beginning and intermediate levels. (26 references) (CK)

Discusses the integration of the Internet at Eagan High School (Minnesota). Highlights include the Internet for Minnesota's Schools (InforMNs) Project; connectivity; and using the Internet in specific disciplines, including English (and history, politics, etc.), work experience, foreign language, and business law and science. A sidebar discusses…

Examined whether at-risk preschoolers would show gains in expressive and receptive language after using selected computer-based activities in a teacher-directed, small group situation using direct-instruction techniques. Results indicated improvement in varying degrees, suggesting wider use of computers combined with direct instruction for…

Examined a kindergarten teacher's implementation of a whole-language program and her students' responses to questions about reading, such as, Can you read? What can you read? What is reading? and When did you learn to read? Seventy-five percent of the children indicated that they had learned to read during kindergarten or when they were…

Reports on a study of the relationship of both phonemic and musical sound discrimination to reading ability among 18 British first graders. Finds that discrimination of musical sounds is related to music performance but that the influential factor is a specific awareness of pitch changes. (CFR)

Reports five experiments; the first two assessed the effect of the selectional restriction requirements of verbs and the animacy of nouns on sentence comprehension, the third determined the cause of the interaction found in the first set of studies, and the fourth and fifth were self-paced reading experiments. (52 references) (Author/CK)

A group of six articles describes activities for art, music, reading/language arts, science, and social studies. Each article includes library media skills objectives, curriculum objectives, grade levels, resources, instructional roles, activity and procedures for completion, evaluation, and follow-up. (AEF)

Issues affecting measures that are translated or adapted from an initial language or culture to a new one are described. Notions of test validation, fairness, and norms are addressed, and it is argued that such adaptations may be necessary when assessing members of subpopulations of the U.S. culture. (SLD)

Evaluation of a pilot attempt to introduce records of achievement in adult language courses received 96 replies from students, many of whom did not see their relevance to their own objectives. Most hostile were students in advanced conversational courses. Tutor enthusiasm diminished due to student resistance. (SK)

Responds to criticism of a method for analyzing genuine and simulated suicide notes. Claims that the critique is based on an inflexible and unnecessarily limited model of scientific psychology as a purely theory-driven enterprise. Discusses problems associated with such a limited view and addresses methodological and logical criticisms. (RJM)

Presents a case study of an avid middle-grade reader who a had poor self-concept and who did not connect her school reading to anything in her life. Discusses how free-writing and language experience approaches helped her present detailed, thoughtful responses to text. (RS)

Incarcerated adolescent males (n=62) with high and low depression scores were assigned to a positive or neutral affect induction condition. Following affect induction, subjects participated in tasks involving learning to read Hindi words. Results showed a main effect for self-induced positive affect on learning but no main effect for depression…

This paper describes components of the Nucleus 22 Channel Cochlear Implant System used with deaf children and adults. It discusses speech coding strategies, programming concepts, programming the device for children, trouble-shooting, and fitting an FM system to a speech processor. It reports data showing improved ability to use auditory…

Reports in detail the results of a 1994 telephone survey conducted by the Modern Language Association (MLA) of a sample of English and foreign language departments. The survey was designed to ascertain changes in department size, faculty vacancies, student enrollment and majors, staffing, and course offerings over the 1980-94 period. (three…