The purpose of this study was to characterize and examine the social context of elementary students' interactions with science through their discourse. The influences of gender and culture on students' science conversations were studied in a semi-structured, student-run, whole class conversational format. Findings indicate that the discussion…

A writing instructor recalls that her own early literacy experiences were inextricably tied to particular times and places, and to the ideologies mediated by familiar institutions--schools, libraries, home. Students' literacy development is thus shaped by what some psychologists refer to as "developmental environments." In recent years,…

To avoid the Anglo-Saxon culture mode, which dominates the current study of human communication in all contexts, the concept of communication competence can be examined from the perspective of Chinese culture. The conceptualization and empirical indicators used for the measurement of communication competence strongly reflect a Western cultural…

A study invoked the uses and gratifications framework to look at a computerized bulletin board used largely by Indian students. Computer printouts of the first 15 messages entered into the bulletin board for each of 7 consecutive days (for a total of 105 messages) were classified by a human coder into categories of surveillance, diversionary,…

There are growing discernible differences between the status of Algerian girls and Algerian boys, as the onset of puberty approaches, in educational or literacy attainment or achievement. Around 19% of Algerian girls never attend school or drop out very early on. School is legally mandated through the age of 16, but many girls' families simply do…

As Martha Nussbaum argues, narratives, and especially novels, provide a way of reflecting on what it means to live well morally, and the emotional responses that stories evoke are crucial to the ability to formulate complex moral judgments. An important aspect of the moral nature of literature is the reader's "empathetic imagination," or…

A study investigated the way in which monolingual English-speaking college students developed new concepts for the linguistic structures and sociocultural symbolic meanings of gender that are unique to the Spanish language. Subjects were seven students of first-year intensive Spanish. They were asked to perform two problem-solving tasks: defining,…

This paper, part of a larger study of new television technologies, examines how preschool children integrate remote control devices (RCDs) into their television viewing behavior, preschoolers' competence with and knowledge of RCDs, and the role of the RCD in shaping family viewing styles. Subjects, 50 children aged 4 to 6 years attending 3…

Technologically the contemporary Japanese are among the most advanced people in the world. Initially, it was from the West that they acquired modern technology and science, but technology and science have not bridged the cultural gap that exists between Japanese and Americans. Both belong to democratic, capitalistic societies and they share many…

The single great value of composition theory is that it gives writing instructors ways to perceive and to talk (about)/write (about) and experience the language that they purport to teach. It is a vocabulary (or set of vocabularies) that, in its structures and definitions, (re-)structures and (re-)defines perceptions of language. If writing is a…

The administration and faculty of Carthage College (a four-year liberal arts college with a primarily white, middle class student body and faculty) instituted the Heritage Studies Program to promote multiculturalism through writing across the curriculum. The four-semester sequence required of all first- and second-year students was approved by the…

This annotated bibliography is designed to survey the field of women in communication. The bibliography is centered on a specific context: who are and who were the women who worked in the communication field, and specifically, what were their writings like? The 56 annotations date from 1949 through 1990 and deal mostly with books (especially…

"The English Common Reader" was the first comprehensive and systematic exploration of how the ordinary Englishman became a reader. A social history as well as a history of the English reading public, the book has become a classic. This updated edition has a new preface and an extensive new bibliography. The book is divided into two broad…

This paper traces the apparent disillusionment of current American society as attributed to alleged misguided values and the neglect of effective citizenship education. Acknowledging that the schools' attempts at values education have encountered problems, this is still a mission of social studies education. The paper examines the spirit of…

This paper presents nine sets of books which focus on specific contemporary international issues, and which have been used successfully with upper elementary grade students. The paper shows how the books (including picture books), which include subjects such as the preservation of the environment, world peace, endangered animals, and the coming of…