A study of the language proficiency assessment practices of 859 school psychologists, when working with bilingual or limited English proficient students, found that 62 percent of school psychologists conducted their own assessments and most often used the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised or the Test de Vocabulario en Imagenes Peabody.…

Discusses the importance of using developmentally appropriate practices in early childhood classrooms, especially in teaching gifted students. Describes characteristics of young gifted children, emphasizing their advanced abilities in specific domains. Concludes that educators need to understand each child as a unique individual and should strive…

Discusses and appraises the work of Nobel Prize winning black author Toni Morrison. Locates thematic and stylistic antecedents in the works of Fyodor Dostoevsky and Ernest Hemingway. Compares and contrasts Morrison's work with Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man" and discusses the critical reception of black authors. (MJP)

Proposes that the development of content-based courses for overseas students is best achieved by an integrated English for Academic purposes/subject content course. The article describes the techniques used in integrating language and content and the usefulness of this approach academically and culturally. (one reference) (Author/CK)

Proposes an approach to teaching reasoning through classroom conversation that integrates group work around computers into curriculum-related activities. The article examines research on collaborative learning and describes a program in which the computer is used to direct children's explicit, joint reasoning in curriculum-related activities. (79…

Focuses on the need for appropriate materials to address the needs of native speakers of Spanish who study Spanish in American universities and high schools. The most important factors influencing the selection of readings should include the practical nature of themes for reading and vocabulary development, level of difficulty, and variety in…

This article describes the Advanced Language Structures program, a language program for students in grades K-12 who are gifted or gifted/at-risk or who have dyslexia/learning disabilities. The program emphasizes prefixes, suffixes, and Latin/Greek roots to provide students with strategies for reading and spelling higher-level words and developing…

Media education can be taught by analyzing the ways popular media represent the sexes. Discusses stereotyped gender images in popular culture and outlines classroom activities investigating modeling poses, images of ideal and successful males and females, gender sensitive language, sex role portrayal, and violence for a media literacy unit using…

Videotaped interactions of 98 mother-child dyads (40 with Down syndrome, 23 with neurological problems, and 35 with delays of unknown etiology) were examined for mothers' language facilitation strategies (modeling or eliciting) in two situations (play and teaching). Mothers emphasized modeling strategies more than eliciting techniques. This…

Analysis of survey responses of 57 teachers of the deaf (preschool-grade 4) concerning their practices of reading aloud to children found that teachers spent more time reading aloud for pleasure than for content and that they used such techniques as discussing characters, setting, and vocabulary to mediate the text for students before, during, and…

Examines the use of e-mail to facilitate second language acquisition in an immersion education setting, with particular focus on an e-mail exchange between college students of Japanese as a second language in Australia and native speakers in Japan. Suggests that e-mail is a potentially valuable medium in language learning and could be useful in…

Discusses how e-mail correspondence should be supported and integrated into the overall second language learning program. Reviews a telematics international e-mail exchange project, focusing on the documentation of integration of the project into the overall language program. Findings reveal that the strength of this work is in showing how its…

Explores issues involved in teaching literature that may use derogatory racial terms to a multicultural class. Ways to approach racially insensitive literature or language in worthwhile literature that may appear insensitive are discussed. Open discussion and respect for students' opinions are essential. (SLD)

Studies show a positive correlation between parental involvement and academic achievement, but the involvement of immigrant or poor parents is lower than that of native-born, middle-class parents. Reasons may include socioeconomic status, level of instruction, language fluency, status of immigrant community, years of residency, relations between…

This article introduces a forum that explores issues surrounding literacy in multicultural school-age populations. It discusses sociocultural factors that overshadow traditional literacy-learning objectives, the relationship between low socioeconomic status and low literacy, environmental influences that affect literacy, and culturally biased…