This book presents essays that reflect the dialogue and the spirit of conversation of the 1990 International Federation for the Teaching of English (IFTE) Conference in Auckland, New Zealand. The book begins with some of the impressions of the IFTE conference held by the classroom teachers, school administrators, writers, and scholars who attended…

In studying the lyrics of popular music, and particularly aspects of violent attitudes toward women, teachers discover what language represents to students and what students experience through the songs. The texts created about artifacts like song lyrics suggest more about the students as knowers than about the objects being studied. Exploring…

Current theory posits that comprehension and meaning involve not only text but also what the reader brings to the text and the contextual elements of the reading. A study investigated how eight students in grade 9 read and created meaning from short story assignments in their English classrooms. Concurrent think-aloud protocols from four short…

The language of Black America is rich and diverse in its utterance, whether through music (Jazz, Blues, Soul, Gospel, and Rap), through street corner "shuckin''n jivin'," or through writing. This language is used as a means of survival, of getting from one day to the next. Blacks have developed a system of taking the fewest words and…

The textbook for a social studies course on citizenship rights and responsibilities in the United States, presented entirely in French, consists of eight chapters. Each contains a preview of vocabularly and key ideas; a brief introductory text on the chapter topic; and a series of more specific texts, with illustrations, a list of questions for…

Adult literacy is more than a condition of acquiring a set number of linguistic skills. Persons may know phonics and be able to decode simple readings perfectly; they may even know the meaning of many vocabulary words, but they still may be culturally illiterate. Cultural literacy demands more than mere linguistic skills; it demands participation…

This paper presents a comprehensive three-dimensional view of counseling which incorporates nonformal and informal counseling modes. Several specific issues in cross-cultural counseling are cited and the distinction between the process of counseling and its functions is discussed. Case examples of the use of nonformal and informal counseling modes…

To explore racial attitudes from the colonial period of the United States, a study examined advertising practices regarding announcements dealing with black slaves in colonial newspapers in Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and South Carolina. Careful scrutiny revealed no relationship between the editorial stance of a…

This document offers a detailed description of the dynamics involved in the choice of an independent neighborhood school. These primarily urban schools are an expression of cultural power and identity among minority groups who wish to ensure access to opportunities for academic achievement for their children and also to control the content and…

Using electronic mail (E-mail), the instructor of a master's level drama class at a Finnish university and an introductory literature instructor at Indiana University-Perdue University at Indianapolis communicated between themselves and served as intermediaries for communication between two groups of their students. While instructional levels and…

This paper proposes examining cooperative learning from an anthropological perspective and presents a theoretical framework for doing so. The paper first briefly reviews the psychological theory and research underlying cooperative learning. The paper uses data from a pilot ethnographic study of cooperative learning in a fourth-grade classroom to…

As a model for long-range planning and problem-solving, the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska is responsive to the needs of the tribal community as well as to Indian traditional values. The tribe has grown from a $6,000 budget in 1965 to todays' multimillion dollar enterprise. In 1980 the Tribe implemented a plan for socioeconomic self-sufficiency to…

In a politically changing world, "languages in contact" must be redefined as "speakers of different languages in contact," and the implications for language learning and teaching must be recognized. Phenomena occurring beyond the languages themselves should be addressed in both language instruction and the construction of…

This paper describes an ethnographic study of four intern pairs in a specific local setting to explore the effects of specific mandates of the New York State Mentor Teacher Internship Project (MTIP). Guidelines and regulations designed to be supportive of both mentors and beginning teachers were in conflict with local cultural norms and resources.…

Examining the one-child-per-family movement (OCFM) in China using Lloyd Bitzer's "Functional Communication: A Situational Perspective," this essay provides insight into how rhetoric has functioned and is functioning in this difficult situation. A brief geographic review provides a basis for understanding the complex set of problems…